Frederica Freyberg:

Wild twists and turns in this primary and now on to the general. We’re betting our political panel has some takes on all of this. We turn to Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Thanks for being here.

Bill McCoshen:

Thanks for having us.

Scot Ross:

Good to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your take, Bill, on the establishment Rebecca Kleefisch losing to Trump-endorsed Tim Michels?

Bill McCoshen:

I think there were a couple things involved in that. Number one, Donald Trump’s endorsement, no question that was a major factor in Tim Michel’s victory on Tuesday, but I think the other part was his outsider status. This is a guy who’s never held public office before. Yes, he ran for United States Senate in 2004 but the fact is he has never held a public office and that was really appealing, and I think the third piece, truthfully, were the resources, right? He had the right amount of resources to get his message out there and he had a message that resonated. There will be lots and lots of people who will say, well he won because he spent $13 million or whatever the final number is. If money was the deciding factor, then Alex Lasry would be the nominee for the Democrats for the United States Senate. Wasn’t just money.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, what’s your take?

Scot Ross:

Oh, I’d say this. Tim Michels flew in on his private jet from Connecticut and bought the election. If you want to talk about a fractured party, the fact Rebecca Kleefisch has been the standard bearer under Walker for the last ten years, doing all the rubber chicken circuit, going out and making all the attacks on Democrats, raising money for Republicans and then she loses this to a guy who came in and basically took Trump’s endorsement and ran with it? I mean, I think the Republican Party is going to have to do a lot of healing. Might need to — they might finally ask for the Medicaid money so that they can get healthcare access to heal these wounds.

Frederica Freyberg:

And Bill, does this mean that Scott Walker is no longer the standard bearer for the Wisconsin GOP?

Bill McCoshen:

Listen, Scott Walker will always have a place in history. He’s the only governor in American history who survived a recall. So, he was a two-term governor here. He did a lot of major reforms. His brand was clearly not as strong as Donald Trump and Tommy Thompson. Don’t forget Tim Michels was also endorsed by Tommy Thompson. His brand was not as strong as theirs was, and at the end of the day, he’s 54 years old. Is he done in politics? I highly doubt it. I think we will probably see Scott Walker back at some point, but you know, he was not able to pull Rebecca over the finish line.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot?

Scot Ross:

It is almost unprecedented. Have you ever seen anywhere, not just in Wisconsin but anywhere around the country where a former governor gets into a gubernatorial primary to attack, you know, other candidates and that’s exactly what Scott Walker did. I think the guy’s ego — he’s just lost it in terms of that, and it is all about him and it was to the detriment of Rebecca Kleefisch. He should have not been in the ads. We saw in 2018 when people were sick of him, he kept being in ad after ad after ad. Scott Walker, I know you don’t ususally take advice from me, but get away from the parking lot. You’ve graduated from high school. Move on to your next place.

Bill McCoshen:

Scot and I actually agree on that, Fred. I mean, I think they used, overused Scott Walker and underused Rebecca Kleefisch. Outside of Tommy Thompson, she’s the most hard-working, statewide candidate I’ve ever seen on the Republican side. She’s smart. She’s telegenic and they didn’t use enough of her. I think she got some bad advice down the stretch and it ultimately worked against her.

Frederica Freyberg:

Bill, are Republicans at all skittish about riding the coat tails of Donald Trump especially with what he’s going through right now?

Bill McCoshen:

Well, Tim Michels ran ads with Trump’s picture in it. In the primary, he had Trump come a week ago Friday to Waukesha. I don’t know if he will be back in the general or not. If he does, it would be for Ron Johnson and Tim Michels most likely. If he does come back, I would suspect that would be probably in the Wausau or Green Bay area where his support is enormous. But I don’t think you are going to see him highlighted in the general election. Tim Michels is going to focus on the contrast between him and Tony Evers and that’s what is going to get him elected.

Scot Ross:

I mean Frederica, the day after Tim Michels won the endorsement, he literally — won the primary election, he took the endorsement from Donald Trump off of his website and then after a reporter found that out, he put it back up. Donald Trump is toxic to swing voters and toxic to independent voters and toxic to Democratic voters. Every woman in the state of Wisconsin had her status made second class by the Donald Trump Supreme Court.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Scot, President Joe Biden’s polling numbers are in the tank. How much does he hold back candidates in his party?

Scot Ross:

I don’t really think he holds them back because his — you know, he is a making of what the circumstances are right now. Inflation is tough, and Democrats are taking steps to solve that problem. But the challenge is that he’s in charge so he gets hit with that. I don’t think the toxicity that Donald Trump has compares in the solar system to Joe Biden. Joe Biden, you look at him, you know he’s out there trying to help you.

Bill McCoshen:

I disagree. I think he’s going to be a major drag on Democrats, both Tony Evers and on Mandela Barnes but it’s not just that. I mean his numbers, the president’s numbers are ok here. I think he’s at 42%, not great. He’s underwater for sure. They are in the 30s nationally but the other thing working against Democrats is the right direction, wrong track number, which in many surveys nationally is now 80% of the people think the country is on the wrong track. That ultimately says change. So candidates — incumbent Democrats running this year are in a tough, tough environment because of that. And the last thing is history. Tony Evers — there’s only one governor in the state of Wisconsin incumbent that’s ever been re-elected when his party controlled the White House, and that was my old boss, Tommy Thompson in 1990.

Frederica Freyberg:

Can Tony Evers hold off Tim Michels, Scot?

Scot Ross:

Absolutely. Tony Evers has united the Democratic Party and the thing is is that Tim Michels has been in Connecticut. What Tony Evers has been doing is what Wisconsinites need him to do. He has been getting the money to make sure small businesses, local taverns, your local communities are not losing all their business by getting money from Washington, D.C. during this global pandemic that has gone on for years. If the Republicans were in charge, we would not have that money. You’d have businesses all over the place closed down. Thank goodness Tony Evers is in there and if you talk to voters out there and they say is Tony Evers on my side? They answer absolutely he is. I might not agree with him on everything but he’s on my side.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about in the Johnson v. Mandela Barnes race. Ron Johson’s base is all in on the senator but Bill, is he at all vulnerable?

Bill McCoshen:

I think he’s in better shape today than he was a year ago. And don’t forget, you got very smart viewers for your show. There are a lot of people who think he helped get Donald Trump over the finish line here in 2016. When Trump won here in ’16, it was the first time a Republican presidential candidate had won since 1984. Johnson got more votes than Trump in 2016. He is a popular, popular political figure within the base and he does pretty well with independents and the reason for that is he’s just a straight shooter. He tells it like it is. Ultimately, I think that race is really a fundamental question. If you like the direction of the country or if you like the leadership of Joe Biden, then Mandela Barnes is your guy. If you want a different take, then it’s Ron Johnson.

Scot Ross:

Listen, Ron Johnson, his approval is 36%. That is awful, that is terrible. He, you know — he hasn’t really been all that visible until the last couple years and it’s all been negative. Ron Johnson wants to get rid of Social Security and Medicare, put it on the chopping block every single year for a partisan Congress. Think about if you are a senior out in rural Wisconsin, or you’re a senior anywhere, hospitals would be shut down all across Wisconsin if we lose Medicare. Restaurants, grocery stores, they are gone if Ron Johnson gets his way on Social Security and Medicare and Democrats are going to hang that around his neck and they should because he’s wrong on it.

Frederica Freyberg:

There’s so much more to talk about here but I want to get to this, how Robin Vos just barely snuck out a win over a Trump-endorsed unknown candidate and then his own election investigator, Michael Gableman, turned on him endorsing the other guy. Now, Vos then called Gabelman an embarrassment and just today, he fired him. Your reaction Bill?

Bill McCoshen:

I’m glad. I think it’s long overdue. I think the Gableman investigation had run its course. We have two better, more credible investigations from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and the Legislative Audit Bureau. They gave the legislature a clear road map on things that need to get done. The legislature has tried to address those things twice and Governor Evers has vetoed it. Bye, bye, Mike Gableman.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, your reaction to Robin Vos firing Michael Gableman?

Scot Ross:

Listen, this whole investigation has been corrupt, circus, that is an afront to democracy. Republicans want to attack your right to vote, prevent you from going out to vote. Democrats are emboldened by this. They are going to make sure everybody who wants to go out and vote and who has the right to be able to go out and vote, gets out and votes. I think it’s going to be a good election night for Democrats.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot Ross, Bill McCoshen, thanks very much.

McCoshen and Ross:

Thanks.