Announcer:

The following program is part of our “Here & Now” 2018 Wisconsin Vote election coverage.

Frederica Freyberg:

I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” Marquette Law School pollster Charles Franklin, analysis of the Trump-Putin developments and candidate for governor Kathleen Vinehout. It’s “Here & Now” for July 20.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

Frederica Freyberg:

Primary election day is less than a month away. We begin tonight with a new poll. Numbers in a crowded democratic race for governor as well as other results with Marquette Law School poll director Charles Franklin. Thanks for being here.

Charles Franklin:

Good to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So talking first about that dem primary and the candidates for governor. It’s still single digits for most of them. Does this surprise you?

Charles Franklin:

A little bit. You might have thought that somebody would break out of the pack. Tony Evers has had an advantage all along in the three polls we’ve done, but he’s also increased that advantage. He’s gone from an 18 point to 25 point to now 31 points in this latest poll. While the seven remaining candidates are all in single digits. So we haven’t seen any of the other seven start to really break out, but, and this is really important, 38% say they haven’t decided how they’ll vote in that race. While Evers is clearly the front runner at this point, the fact that so many are undecided and the field as a whole is as unknown as it is, there is still time in this four week period for something to change and perhaps change dramatically if that one candidate could break out of the pack.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you feel like a last minute flurry of campaign commercials could do that?

Charles Franklin:

The ads alone usually don’t. It’s because one candidate gets a moment that lets them stand out with a message that really resonates with the voters who haven’t made up their minds. And that’s the– historically, that’s the way somebody breaks out of the pack. The ads are important and they helpful but it’s the key event or moment that helps.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now this is your last poll before the primary. Why no head-to-head match ups like in the last poll?

Charles Franklin:

Sure. What we did November hypothetical match up in the June poll and basically they were all, for the governor’s race, between two and four or six point margins. Repeating that seems kind of pointless with eight match ups. We’ll know who the nominee is in August, but I think the real thing is, it simply shows that a well-known incumbent paired against a challenger, you’re going to mostly get a partisan split between those two and same thing applies to the senate race.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of the senate race, the republican primary in that contest, is Leah Vukmir up two points over Kevin Nicholson. How has that polling trended?

Charles Franklin:

Well that one has tightened and is now, I think, a clear toss-up. Vukmir is ahead by two, 34-32, but there’s a seven point margin of error, so that’s not a lead. That is a real toss up race. But it has narrowed. Nicholson led by nine in March and five in June. So now we’ve seen it move to truly a toss-up at this point. 30% undecided, I should add there too. So again, there’s lots of people to make up their mind.

Frederica Freyberg:

So election night is going to be a fun night for all of us to be watching these results come in. As for Tammy Baldwin, she’s right side up on her favorables according to your poll. What does the 18% “don’t know” say?

Charles Franklin:

That actually is down a bit for her. Both of our senators have typically had “don’t know” rates in the 20s somewhere. And then as we come into an election season, the “don’t know” rate comes down a bit. That’s where it is for Baldwin. It’s much lower, it’s only 6% for Scott Walker. That’s the difference between the governor that everybody has an opinion about, and the senators who are not necessarily in the news every single day.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of Scott Walker, you have his approval rating. What’s the trend for him?

Charles Franklin:

He has actually held the same two-point net approval, this time it’s 47-45. A month ago, it was 49-47. So both numbers came down just a shade. Those are small net positives after a period of dead-even evaluations in 2017 and early ’18 and having been under water in all of 2015 and most of 2016.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Donald Trump’s approval rating, that’s remained fairly consistent.

Charles Franklin:

Again, pretty consistent. He’s dipped down just a couple of points in approval since last month, but when we look at him over the time he’s been in office, his approval number has moved just a couple, three points up or down. His disapproval has hovered at about 50% for quite a while now.

Frederica Freyberg:

Partisan, very partisan split there.

Charles Franklin:

It is.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you also asked people what they thought about their roads in the state of Wisconsin. Respondents seem to think that they’re pretty bad. But it varies depending where you are.

Charles Franklin:

Well we did. We asked, “Are your roads excellent, good, fair or poor?” Excellent or good was 40%. Fair or poor was 59%. Interestingly 0% said they didn’t have an opinion about roads. In contrast to the 18% without an opinion about Senator Baldwin. This is something that’s salient to people. There’s a divide. And when you look at, the northern part of the state, 66% say their roads are in poor or fair shape. In the south and southeast, it’s 52% that say they are. So there is a noticeable, negative view in the northern part of the state.

Frederica Freyberg:

Charles Franklin, thanks very much.

Charles Franklin:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

At the same time that Donald Trump was meeting with Vladimir Putin, federal prosecutors in the U.S. arrested a Russian woman charging her with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation within the United States. Charging papers alleged she was a spy posing as a gun rights advocate want to bring Russian and American ties by working inside republican circles in the U.S., most notably the NRA. The Russian agent, Maria Butina, posed for a photo with Governor Scott Walker at a National Rifle Association meeting in Tennessee in 2015, just before he launched his presidential bid. Walker says it was nothing more than a photo op. There was no meeting with Butina.

In tonight’s inside look, an alternative model to primary healthcare that costs patients less than $80 a month. As healthcare costs rise, many patients are looking for other ways to pay for their routine medical needs. Marisa Wojcik reports.

David Usher:

Big breath, in and out.

Marisa Wojcik:

What if your primary medical care was delivered with like a gym membership? You pay a monthly fee for an expected set of unlimited services and leave insurance out of the equation. It’s called Direct Primary Care. Steve Heintz of Eau Claire can go see his primary care physician, Dr. David Usher, however many times he wants at no extra cost beyond the monthly fee.

Steve Heintz:

He said come in and just sit next to meet and we can just sit and talk. I spend quite a bit of time right here because of the health problems.

Marisa Wojcik:

Heintz does have health insurance through his employer but it covers specialty and catastrophic medical services. Proponents say that cutting out the insurance middle man for primary care means cutting overhead and administrative costs.

David Usher:

So in the standard world where you have to bill insurance on a fee-for-service basis, there’s always an incentive to see one more person. Why? Because that’s the only way you get paid.

Marisa Wojcik:

Dr. Usher and others say that patient numbers can be cut in half. They can spend more time with each patient and see them sooner so they can avoid visits to urgent care and emergency rooms.

Louwanda Heath:

It’s great. I mean really because it’s better than urgent care. I mean the cost and everything, you come in and you know you’re going to get treated. And you know you are not going to be in debt when you leave.

Marisa Wojcik:

There is another benefit that’s often over looked. Primary care is less attractive as a career path as physicians deal with large loads of patients for less money than specialty care.

David Usher:

Because primary care providers have been basically bought up by big systems, it’s hard sometimes for primary care providers to control that, the pace. That leads to a lot of burnout.

Marisa Wojcik:

Detailed recordkeeping required by health insurance companies also contributes to primary care physician’s exhausting workloads. But Donna Friedsam of the UW Population Health Institute says there’s a reason why these requirements exist.

Donna Friedsam:

Direct primary care providers, if they’re operating independent of any kind of integrated delivery systems, not billing insurance and not billing payors for their services, would not be submitting that kind of data and there’s some question about whether there would be monitoring of the quality and process for their services.

Marisa Wojcik:

The direct primary care model or DPC as it’s commonly referred to, is not insurance. Wisconsin legislation introduced last session would have specified that DPC providers are not regulated by the state insurance commissioner.

Donna Friedsam:

Insurance commissioner actually regulates health plans and managed care plans and insurance to make sure that whatever the product being provided, the insurance provider of managed care plan has the ability to provide those services.

Marisa Wojcik:

Regulation would also ensure patients could not be cherry-picked because they’re healthy or denied based on pre-existing conditions. The Eau Claire clinic does not discriminate what patients it accepts. Representative Melissa Sergeant wants to make sure consumer protections are built into the legislation. And the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans said the proposal could have unintended consequences on health insurance markets. The bill got put on the back burner. Starting next week, the legislative council will begin a study committee to research direct primary care.

David Usher:

Ok.

Frederica Freyberg:

Looking ahead to the August 14th primary election and another in our one-on-one interviews with candidates running for governor. Tonight we talk with Democrat Kathleen Vinehout who is serving her third term in the state senate. She represents the 31st district in west central Wisconsin. She came into politics after over two decades of dairy farming in Buffalo County. Vinehout also holds graduate degrees in health services and has taught at the university level. And Kathleen Vinehout joins us now. Thank you for doing so.

Kathleen Vinehout:

My pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So of all the democrats running in the primary for governor, why should you be the voter’s choice?

Kathleen Vinehout:

I have a very different set of life experiences. I spent ten years full-time dairy farming. I know what it’s like to get my hands dirty or get up at 4 a.m. and get slapped across the face with that nasty tail from an unhappy cow. I live in beautiful Buffalo County, a part of the state where democrats need to win if they’re going to win. I know what it’s like to have to find a cell signal. I’ve been working in the senate for 12 years. I know where the bones are buried. I have experience on the Audit Committee, understanding what programs are working, what the governor’s done. The recommendations that he should have taken and he never took.

Frederica Freyberg:

As you well know, the Marquette Poll came out this week and it has you in single digits. But even so, why do you believe that you in particular can beat Scott Walker with his incumbency and his war chest?

Kathleen Vinehout:

Well we need people to be part of this election and I have, back in 2006 when I ran, I ran by getting more people to the polls, by engaging people that generally don’t vote. I’ve been running a very people-focused campaign, a grassroots campaign. But democrats are never going to win if they think they’re going to beat the money that the governor has. We have to be the party of the people and that means engaging people all over the state. We have 50 action teams all over the state. We’re getting the word out in a very different way.

Frederica Freyberg:

On the issues, what do you believe is the most important thing that Wisconsin needs to do on the economy?

Kathleen Vinehout:

We need to raise wages. Wisconsin is 18th worst in United States in wages. Worse than Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee. We need to make– open wide the doors of higher education which is why I so believe in free tuition for two-year and tech colleges. It’s a bill that I’ve written that I fully funded. It’s actually taken after the governor of Tennessee who looked at his people and said, “Our people don’t have the education that they need and they don’t have the wages.” And we can change that in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

More on education, what else do you think Wisconsin needs to do for the entire gamut?

Kathleen Vinehout:

I serve on the legislature’s Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding Reform. We need to change the way we fund schools. We need to get rid of the antiquated notion of funding on property taxes and instead focus on children’s needs and fund based on children’s needs. That includes things like recognizing that poverty has doubled over a ten-year period. Many more students have problems with mental health. They’re facing trauma. All of these factors need to be a part of the way we fund schools.

Frederica Freyberg:

How do you fund schools with straight state aid?

Kathleen Vinehout:

It’s a mix of property tax and state aid, but the state hasn’t been keeping up its end of the bargain. So when we look at the national figures, we’re just a little over half, of Wisconsin, spending on state aid. That needs to change.

Frederica Freyberg:

On healthcare, what would be your plan for that that is different from how things are run in Wisconsin now?

Kathleen Vinehout:

We need to accept the Medicaid money. Use the money that’s freed up to invest in a system of mental health and addiction recovery all over the state. It’s one of the reasons that we have so many people incarcerated when you compare us to Minnesota. We need to create our own exchange, our own marketplace. Offer a public option like BadgerCare on that marketplace, and bring as many people as we can into healthcare.

Frederica Freyberg:

How do you open a marketplace in Wisconsin as the feds are chipping away at the Affordable Care Act?

Kathleen Vinehout:

It’s really important that we do it because it provides stability to the health plans that are in the marketplace. I introduced a bill back in 2010, in 2011, every session since then, I’ve carefully crafted the bill to provide for quality of care and affordability. It’s something that other states like Minnesota have done. They’ve done it years ago. They’ve showed how to lower costs. It’s about time Wisconsin did that.

Frederica Freyberg:

On Foxconn, virtually every of the democratic candidates is opposed to the Foxconn deal. Why are you?

Kathleen Vinehout:

Well there aren’t the environmental protections. There’s a whole new set of rules that this company is following that other companies have to follow. The jobs that are being promised are nowhere in the contract and nowhere in the bill. There’s no guarantee that any jobs are going to be created. Plus the agency that’s overseeing it, has a terrible track record of verifying jobs. The contract is written in a lot of weasel words. Words like the company shall to the best of its ability. But that’s not a standard.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Kathleen Vinehout, we leave it there. Thank you.

Kathleen Vinehout:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

We now continue to follow up on statements made on our program by the candidates for governor.

Marisa Wojcik:

Many of the democratic candidates for governor are proposing ways to reduce Wisconsin’s high prison population. Indeed at the current 23,440, it’s more than twice that of Minnesota’s. Mike McCabe recently told us how he would chip away at that number.

Mike McCabe:

We’ve simply got to stop using prison as a punishment for nonviolent offenses. So yes, I’ve come out in favor of full legalization of marijuana. What that would do is get us to that goal of cutting our prison population in half.

Marisa Wojcik:

For 2017, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections reports that 67% of the state’s inmates are made up of violent offenders, but 11% are made up of drug-related offenders. It’s not known how many were convicted strictly on marijuana offenses. California recently legalized marijuana. People who were convicted of a marijuana-related offense under the old law could seek to have their charge reduced or reversed based on the new law. Arrests for marijuana possession in Wisconsin have been on the rise. There were a total of 17,022 arrests related to possession in 2017, the highest the state has seen in the last five years. While an arrest related to marijuana doesn’t also mean a conviction or incarceration, having it on your record can make it difficult to get a job, find housing or anything related to a simple background check. Over all, Wisconsin falls in the middle of the pack compared to other states for the number of people in prisons. For these and other fast facts, visit wpt.org.

Frederica Freyberg:

That was Marisa Wojcik reporting. We end the program on a down note with news today from the Fox Cities and passing of veteran State Senator Michael Ellis. Ellis served in the legislature for 44 years including terms as senate president, minority leader and majority leader. While Ellis was a republican, he was as much of a political maverick as the state has seen. A horse farmer in his private life, Ellis was a self-described policy wonk at the state capital. His chalk talks where he scribbled his state budget plans on an old school blackboard in his office are legendary. Former State Senator Mike Ellis of Neenah died today. He was 77. That’s all for our program tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a great weekend.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

For more information on “Here & Now’s” 2018 election coverage, go to WisconsinVote.org.