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The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Frederica Freyberg:

President Joe Biden signs monumental legislation into law. The primaries are over, and candidates are out of the gates on the campaign trail to November. And classrooms could be short-handed in the fall with school districts struggling with staffing shortages.

I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” Charles Franklin shares his latest Marquette Law School poll. ABC for Health details the significance of the health provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. A superintendent from Arcadia on the crisis level teacher shortage and our first interview with the candidates for secretary of state. It’s “Here & Now” for August 19.

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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Fresh off the primary election, voters are turning their attention toward the candidates and issues that will motivate them to get to the polls in November. Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School poll, joins us now with his latest results and thanks for being here, Charles.

Charles Franklin:

Thanks, thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Starting with the race for governor, incumbent Democrat Tony Evers has a two-point lead on Republican Tim Michels, with the independent candidate scoring 7% of respondents’ favor. But now Tim Michels is refuting your numbers and is quoted today as saying he believes he’s actually up 5 to 10 points on Evers. What is your response to that?

Charles Franklin:

Well, I stand behind our poll. First of all, we are transparent all of our questions, all of our results, all of our methodology are online. Anyone is welcome to look at it and believe it or not, believe it or refute it. But campaigns are absolutely free to say whatever they want about the polling results. So I welcome Mr. Michels’ comments as I welcome the comments of any candidate, but I do my business and I’m transparent about it and upfront about it.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. By your polling, it is pretty tight. How does the independent vote factor in this race?

Charles Franklin:

Well, in the governor’s race, independents are leaning just a little bit to Tony Evers. Partisans are very strongly aligned with both party candidates so that has not changed. It’s interesting that Tim Michels seems to have gotten about a five-point bounce up after the primary. It was a seven-point Evers’ lead in June and now it’s only a two-point lead. So Michels has benefitted by five points on that margin from June ’til now. It’s a good example of how even a hard-fought primary can actually help a candidate.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah. How might Donald Trump’s endorsement of Michels help or hurt him, do you think?

Charles Franklin:

Well, that’s hard to say. Within the Republican Party, 77% have a favorable view of Donald Trump. So it’s certainly an asset within the party. But two-thirds majority, more or less, have an unfavorable view of Trump in the public at large. So shifting from a very positive effect in the primary to a potentially negative effect in the general is an interesting problem and tradeoff for Trump-supported candidates.

Frederica Freyberg:

And there is a lot going on right now in regard to the former president, so that could shape things, I would imagine, going forward as well. Or maybe not. But in the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Mandela Barnes is up seven points on incumbent Republican Ron Johnson. But as you know, Johnson has weathered this kind of polling before and then won. What about that?

Charles Franklin:

Absolutely. Also, let me point out that Barnes was leading by two before and now by seven. He also got a five-point bounce from the primary, so both the Republican and the Democratic primary winners benefitted, I think, from their primaries. As for Senator Johnson, yes, he was behind in 2016, but his campaign steadily improved over the spring and then closed the gap with Feingold throughout the fall so that’s a great example of effective campaign that accomplished its goals. Now the question is, can he do it again?

Frederica Freyberg:

Anything else stand out about this race and these poll numbers?

Charles Franklin:

Here again, the partisans are just super strongly aligned but Barnes is very positive with independents, getting a bigger share of the vote with independents than Evers is in the governor’s race. So, the difference between Barnes’ seven-point lead and Evers’ two, is coming primarily from those independents that are more pro Barnes. The trouble for Barnes is 41% don’t know much about him. 34% don’t know much about Michels. Both of those candidates still have to introduce themselves to a fair chunk of the voters.

Frederica Freyberg:

Johnson’s favorables are really upside down. Barnes polls much more favorable than unfavorable. Is this any kind of an indicator at this point?

Charles Franklin:

I think it’s an important indicator in that Senator Johnson has been underwater, more unfavorable than favorable, for many months now, over a year, more than that. And has not seen much upward movement. Also, only 15% say they lack an opinion of Johnson, so it’s a smaller pool of voters for him to move. It’s a much bigger pool for Barnes to move but that’s a double-edged sword. He could move them in his favor or have them moved against him by the Johnson campaign, so stay tuned for that action.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you’ve said one of the more striking results in your poll is how Democrats and Republicans assign very different priorities to issues. Take, for example, on the issue of climate change. It’s Democrats’ top issue and Republicans least important issue. Does this again show the entrenched partisan polarization?

Charles Franklin:

It absolutely does and it’s the very different emphasis that’s being given. Climate change stands out because it really was the number one issue for Democrats and the dead last of nine among Republicans so there is a huge difference in emphasis on that. But there are others where there is a substantial difference as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, on the issue of overturning Roe, for example, it stands out to me that 28% of Republicans oppose that and 62% of independents oppose it? How does that play in eventual votes for candidates?

Charles Franklin:

I think on the abortion issue, you see a solid majority in the state that wishes the court had not overturned Roe. You also see this near mirror image between Republicans and independents. 62% of Republicans favor the overturning, 62% of independents oppose that overturning. Democrats are nearly unanimous on the issue in opposition.

Frederica Freyberg:

So inflation touches everyone, but it’s important to 91% of Republicans and just 42% of Democrats. Is this because it’s the number one campaign issue hitting Joe Biden?

Charles Franklin:

I think it’s the number one issue. It’s an issue tailor made to attacking any incumbent president, blame them for inflation no matter what the party is. Democrats seem to discount inflation as an issue as you can see while Republicans emphasize it and independents end up somewhere in the middle. It’s been the number one issue in every poll we have done since last August.

Frederica Freyberg:

It’s pretty easy to understand and globally experienced, I guess. On parental leave, it’s also surprising to me that 65% of Republicans favor it. What do you surmise that’s about?

Charles Franklin:

I was surprised by this. In the Republican gubernatorial debate, all three candidates seemed to endorse the idea of parental leave though not in specific detail. So I thought it was important for us to ask about it because this is an issue where Republicans generally have opposed requiring businesses to offer paid parental leave. But as you can see, solid majorities of every partisan group are in favor this time. I hope we’ll see that talked more about in the campaign and see how people feel after it’s debated.

Frederica Freyberg:

Back to the candidates and their campaigns, how rough and tumble are these two statewide races going to be, do you think?

Charles Franklin:

Oh, I think extremely so. Both the size of the people that don’t know either Tim Michels or Mandela Barnes is an invitation for the other campaign to try to paint a negative picture. And a struggle for the candidate to make themselves look positive while also criticizing the incumbent that they are running against. Negative campaigning is hardly anything new, but I think we are looking at two hard-fought battles on both sides, both campaigns

Frederica Freyberg:

Here it comes. Charles Franklin, thank you very much.

Charles Franklin:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Democrats hail the Inflation Reduction Act as life changing legislation. Congressional Republicans all voted against it calling it reckless spending. But it’s now law and the healthcare previsions will cap prescription drug costs for nearly 900,000 people on Medicare in Wisconsin as well as extend pandemic assistance subsidies for more than 200,000 people in the state on marketplace health plans. Bobby Peterson is executive director of ABC for Health, a non-profit public interest law firm that helps healthcare consumers navigate the programs. And Bobby, thanks very much for being here.

Bobby Peterson:

Glad to be here, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, specific to people on Medicare, the law caps prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year. It also caps insulin at $35 a month for nearly 60,000 on Medicare in Wisconsin who use that drug. How big of a change is this?

Bobby Peterson:

It’s a big change. I think it helps to reduce some of the costs people are facing. I think it’s important to remember, though, that nothing in healthcare is simple, and nothing in the Inflation Reduction Act with healthcare is simple either. So it’s important that we distinguish that this is primarily going to be helping people that have Medicare Part D coverage. So that’s a subset of Medicare folks. It’s going to be old folks getting Medicare Part D, and a lot of these changes don’t unfold for a couple of years or so. The $2,000 cap does not start until 2025.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right, so don’t expect that kind of relief really any time soon. But prior to this taking effect over the next few years, how are older people on a fixed income even able to afford the out-of-pocket costs of prescriptions?

Bobby Peterson:

Well, it’s always a struggle and it’s always, you know, family meetings with, you know, kids, parents, grandparents, trying to figure out how can we make this work. This is going to make the process a little bit easier, but it’s still complex. There will still be those family meetings trying to understand the changes that are coming. The opportunities to get some additional assistance I think is really important. I would encourage families, you know, working together to work with your local aging and disability resource center because they can, you know, it’s different — there are so many nuances, it’s good to have that local level of assistance and the aging and disability resource centers in the county can help you. You also might want to get some help from the Part D help line, which is a statewide 800 number run by the folks over at Disability Rights Wisconsin. That number is 800-926-4862. And they also can help you with some of the questions that emerge, because it’s going to be a little bit different for all the folks out there. We didn’t get a chance to talk about the insulin, which is a big deal, because that was a huge price gouging — another example of free market healthcare where it’s not free market if there are just three people controlling the process and raising prices because people need it to live. So, that’s a big deal for people that are insulin-dependent on Medicare Part D again. That’s going to be important. That one starts right away in 2023, so that’s important for people that need insulin because it was really getting bad.

Frederica Freyberg:

Another prong of the law would allow the feds to negotiate drug prices. Is that meaningful?

Bobby Peterson:

Absolutely. I think when you think about folks that advocate for free market healthcare, you know, negotiation and opportunities to leverage pricing is always a part of that, and forever the federal government has had their hands tied behind their back in terms of negotiating prices with the pharmaceutical industry. This lets the government use its size to an advantage to say we are going to be negotiating these prices and trying to get the best deal for our Medicare recipients. After all, these costs are sometimes borne by the recipients or it’s out of the trust fund so it’s important to make sure we get the best deal and allowing with the federal government to negotiate is really an important feature of the bill. Again, it not going to happen right away. This is a slow unwinding of this process. Nothing is going to happen for several years before the federal government starts a slow process of negotiating with ten drugs and it ramps up through 2030.

Frederica Freyberg:

So aside from folks on Medicare, the law extends expanded premium tax credits for people on Affordable Care Act marketplace plans. There were extra subsidies that were supposed to go away after 2022. Break that down for us. What will that extension mean?

Bobby Peterson:

Yeah, that’s going to be a really big deal for middle income folks that were facing a potential benefits cliff who were not going to be eligible for advanced premium tax credits anymore after the open enrollment and now that’s extended. That’s really great news. One of the remarkable things that’s happened is we have lowered the overall rate of people that lack health insurance in this country to 8%. It’s never been that low. So this model of getting as many people covered as possible is really important because that benefits us all. The tax subsidies are going to extend coverage to more people, more benefits, and it will encourage people to maintain their health insurance coverage, which is really a good thing so that we are all covered and we are getting the services we need and deserve.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Bobby Peterson, thank you. Thank you for your work.

Bobby Peterson:

Thank you. Glad to help.

Frederica Freyberg:

Even with the start of school right around the corner, a check of hiring portals shows districts across the state are still hundreds of teachers short and the need for support staff is even higher. Nearly 70% of school districts in Wisconsin are considered rural and the need can be especially acute in those schools. Our next guest is the Arcadia school district administrator. Lance Bagstad knows the struggle to find staff firsthand and thanks very much for being here.

Lance Bagstad:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, what are the numbers right now in your district for how short you still are for teachers and staff?

Lance Bagstad:

Yeah, actually we are — we have our classrooms filled but we do not have them all filled with teachers certified in some of the areas. We have had to fill some of our classrooms, at least temporarily, with long-term subs. All across the district, so we’ve got elementary positions that we are still looking for certified staff. We have middle school positions and we have high school positions. So pretty common across rural schools, across Wisconsin right now, only a few weeks away from the start of school that classrooms are not fully staffed yet.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, what do you say to families with students in the district about that, and whether or not the classroom instruction will be good this year?

Lance Bagstad:

Yeah, certainly that’s something we have had to discuss administratively across our district. The positive we have for us is we do have three instructional coaches across the district that actually work with teachers on coaching cycles, whether that’s an elementary teacher, middle school teacher or high school teacher on best practices, and we are also a professional learning community school district so our teachers have an opportunity to get together with either similar subject areas or grade level teachers to work on assessments, on common standards, and best practices in the classroom. So with those teachers that may not be, or may be long-term subs, we are able to surround them with a lot of good people to assist with their instruction as well as their practices.

Frederica Freyberg:

In terms of the staff shortages, have you ever seen it like this before coming into this school year?

Lance Bagstad:

Not anything close to this. I’ve been a district administrator now in my fifth year. I was a principal for 12 years prior to that. I have never seen shortages like this. You know, there’s always been certain areas where there’s been shortages. For example, special education, career and technical education areas, world languages, but we are now seeing those same shortages hit us at the elementary level as well as those areas I just mentioned. For example, we had 3 or 4 openings at our elementary this year. We had less than 15 applicants for positions. We had a 4K position open, we only had two applicants for that position. That’s really unusual. In the past, elementary positions, you would get 40, 50, 60, even sometimes 100 applicants. They are just not out there at this time.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why isn’t Arcadia or other small rural districts able to attract teachers?

Lance Bagstad:

You know, I think part of it is the ruralness of our districts. You know, I’ve often said in conversations with others that a lot of our young people that are in preservice teacher programs at colleges and universities get used to the amenities that a larger city offers, you know. Things that are available in a large city that may not be as accessible in rural Wisconsin. But I would also argue that the teacher shortage, while it’s impacting rural Wisconsin pretty greatly, it’s also impacting even our urban districts are struggling to have a lot of candidates applying for jobs.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you do to try to compete with the geographical location that you hold?

Lance Bagstad:

Yeah, you know, for us it is a little difficult. We are basically located halfway between the city of La Crosse and the city of Eau Claire, and about 35 minutes from Winona, Minnesota, which obviously are larger cities than we are. We are looking at having to change our pay scale, increase pay, try to find ways to offer other benefits to teachers. We have done some things in our district, especially in high need areas by offering incentives to help with tuition and tuition reimbursement in some areas, especially special education, when that’s been the case. So we are really looking at a number of different things that we are able to do. The other thing we are able to do in our area, the school districts of Arcadia, Independence, Blair-Taylor and Whitehall, we have a four-school co-op known as the Trempealeau Valley Cooperative, and we are actually in constant discussion about how we can share staff, how we can incentivize some of our teachers by — for teaching remotely to our four districts as well as potentially incentivizing teachers with additional pay if they are willing to travel from district to district to help with the shortages.

Frederica Freyberg:

Wow, a lot of work. Lance Bagstad, thanks very much and good luck with the new school year.

Lance Bagstad:

Absolutely. Appreciate the time.

Frederica Freyberg:

Tonight we bring you the first of two interviews with the general election candidates for the Wisconsin secretary of state. First incumbent Secretary Democrat Doug La Follette. He’s held the office for more than four decades and also served briefly in the state Senate. La Follette won last Tuesday’s primary election and now faces Republican challenger Representative Amy Loudenbeck in the general. The duties of the secretary of state include affixing the state seal to acts of the governor and preservation of municipal records, Blue Books and state statutes. Secretary of state is also a member of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. Doug La Follette joins us now. Thanks very much for being here.

Doug La Follette:

Yes, good evening, wonderful to be on TV and talk to everybody in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’ve held this office for a long time. Why should you keep it?

Doug La Follette:

Well, at the moment there is a special reason and that’s because the Trumpite Republicans across the country are trying to take control of secretary of state offices so they can maybe fiddle with the election in 2024, if their hero runs again. And in Wisconsin we have the same situation. My opponent’s main reason for running is to be able to move the election function from an independent commission to her in the secretary of state’s office.

Frederica Freyberg:

And what do you think about moving the administration of elections and oversight of elections to the secretary of state’s office as opposed to where it currently resides?

Doug La Follette:

I think it’s a horrible idea. More than 50 years ago we decided to take politics out of the election process and we created an election board of, I believe, five retired judges, and they did a good job for many years. Then the Republicans got upset during the Walker recall and they abolished the board and set up a commission, which has been ok. But certainly better than having an elected politician. Now she wants to be able to take control of the election process as an elected partisan politician. That’s a bad idea. We need independence to protect the integrity of the votes in our state.

Frederica Freyberg:

In terms of your tenure as secretary of state over the years, what would you describe as your best results in office?

Doug La Follette:

Well, I have to say that the worst thing is what happened to the office because of Republicans. Two Republican governors decided they wanted more control and more power so they took many important duties away from the office and put them under the control of the governor. All across the country, secretary of states do certain important, basically business-related functions, corporations and trademarks, so forth. Those should be put back in the office. I’ve tried several times to do that. Governor Evers, to his credit, tried to restore some of them. But the Republicans sliced it from the budget. So it’s time for them to wise up and make Wisconsin like the rest of the country so we can compete fairly and have the same system for secretary of state’s office.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’ve stated that you want to highlight your bully pulpit role. How so?

Doug La Follette:

Well, it’s important for people to know what is going on in terms of the effort to manipulate the election process, not only in Wisconsin but across the country, and I’ll talk about it whenever I have an opportunity. They are making progress in Arizona, in Michigan, the governor of Pennsylvania is working on it, so they will be able to actually overturn the votes in their states if they choose to. That is a horrible idea and Wisconsin needs to keep the independent nature of our election administration.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why do you believe you can beat your Republican challenger?

Doug La Follette:

Well, because I’m going to campaign and I’ve been elected many times. I think people trust me. I’ve been around a while. They know me and they trust me and this becomes particularly important in this election because as I’ve said, it’s all about the integrity of the election process and when I say what I’ve said this evening about the importance of keeping partisan politics out of the election process, they will listen. They will believe Doug La Follette. There are a lot of lies. There’s a lot of, you know, fake facts going on now the last few years in politics. But people, I think, trust Doug La Follette to be a straight shooter and tell it like it is. That’s what I’m going to do.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Secretary Doug La Follette, thanks very much for joining us.

Doug La Follette:

It’s been a great pleasure. I wish you a good evening.

Frederica Freyberg:

Next week we hear from La Follette’s challenger, Republican Amy Loudenbeck.

For more of our coverage on issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website, at PBSwisconsin.org, and then click on the news tab. That’s our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

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Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.