The elections this year — both the primary and the general — are matters of some urgency. In fact, we should be hearing alarm bells! Two really vital matters will be on the primary ballot: a slate of four candidates for Supreme Court justice and, for those living in Wisconsin Senate District 8, a special election to fill the vacancy created when Alberta Darling retired from her seat. And assuming at least one of the Supreme Court candidates who share our views wins enough votes to appear on the April 4 ballot, we need to pull out all the stops to get that person elected. If we manage to elect Jodi Habush Sinykin to the state Senate, we will prevent the GOP from having a supermajority with the ability to impeach and convict any state officer they choose. And if we can elect a progressive to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, we can change the direction of the state!

As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, Grassroots North Shore is presenting A Supreme Opportunity, an online program featuring renowned election law expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos — you can read about his work here — and the two progressive candidates on the primary ballot for the Wisconsin Supreme Court nomination. This is your opportunity to hear from these great candidates — Judge Everett Mitchell and Judge Janet Protasiewicz (pronounced “pro-tuh-SAY-witz”). Both graduated from highly reputable law schools (unlike their MAGA opponents) and both have considerable judicial experience. Judge Protasiewicz received her law degree from Marquette University and presides over a branch of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Judge Mitchell presides over the Juvenile Division in Branch Four in Dane County. He received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He has also earned a degree form the Princeton Theological Seminary.

Please sign up to attend this webinar and to donate online or by check (Grassroots North Shore, PO Box 170684, Milwaukee, WI 53217-8056 — Please write "fundraiser" on the memo line). We're suggesting donations of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, and $1000 but a donation of any amount will be gratefully received. The funds we raise will allow us to continue or work through the 2024 elections (all FOUR of them). As you know Grassroots North Shore is an all-volunteer organization. But even though we don't pay any staff, we do have expenses: for our website, for our communications, and especially for our work on elections (postcards and postage, phone lists, flyers, and posters all cost money to print). [Please note that contributions to Grassroots North Shore are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.]

The Supreme Court seat primary will be on the ballot everywhere in the state. It is, as Politico deemed it, "The most important election nobody's ever heard of." As the Politico article points out, "Voters must first navigate an unusual primary before choosing the new justice. There are four judges running for the position, which is technically nonpartisan, with two on either side of the ideological divide." In other words four candidates are running in the February 21 primary for the two available slots on the April 4 ballot. The first and second place finishers in the primary will go on to the April 4 election. So it is certainly possible that we could face — not a choice between a judge who shares our values and a judge who does not — but a "choice" between two judges who definitely do not share our values. An article in the Isthmus explains how this horrendous outcome could happen.

As the Politico article points out, "Control of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court is on the ballot this spring, and the contest could decide the fate of abortion rights, redistricting and more in the critical swing state." A loss would cement conservative control, and the fate of our freedoms and futures, for many years to come. Alarm bells are truly ringing. So we must do our darndest to get people to vote in both elections for this seat this year.

Republicans are hoping to stimulate greater turnout than these off-year, nonpartisan elections usually generate. In addition to the dark money pouring in, the egregiously gerrymandered legislature plans to put four referendums to amend the state constitution on the April ballot. These measures have already been passed by two different sessions of the legislature. So the referendums on the April 4 ballot will determine whether the constitution will be amended. The League of Women Voters of Dane County held a terrific forum on these proposed amendments and has also posted a great resource explaining what each proposed amendment would actually do. You can read the Resource Guide here. Let's make sure that the Republican attempt to juice its base turnout for the April election backfires and revs up turnout on our side instead!

I'll cover the specifics of these issues in a future newsletter. But right now, the important thing is making a plan to vote, both in the February 21 primary (so that we don't end up with a choice between two unacceptable judges for our Supreme Court) and in the April 4 election. There are three ways to vote in Wisconsin elections: with an absentee ballot, during early in-person absentee voting, and on election day.

1. Request absentee ballots online at MyVote.WI.gov.
   • An absentee ballot will be mailed to the address you specify during the request process about 21 days ahead of the election. So if you are going somewhere warm and sunny for the February primary and/or the April general election, be sure you request that your ballot be sent to where you're going to be.
   • Be sure to leave plenty of time for the US Postal Service to get your completed ballot back to your municipal clerk before 8pm on election day! (You cannot use a drop box to return a ballot in these elections!) We recommend mailing it back to your municipality by February 14 if possible.
   • Also be sure you have an eligible Wisconsin elector witness your ballot envelope. He or she or they do not have to be registered to vote but does have to be eligible to vote in Wisconsin. Also, the witness does have to fill out a complete address (no abbreviations): street number, unit number (if applicable), municipality, state and zip code.
2. Vote early in-person at your municipal clerk's office on weekdays from February 7 to February 17 for the primary and March 21 to March 31 for the general election.
   • Our website has early voting details for almost every municipality in the North Shore suburbs of Milwaukee and in Ozaukee County. The information includes a phone number for the clerk's office. You should plan to check the policies around in-person early voting with that office before you go.
   • You can register to vote online or by mail until February 1. After that you can register when you vote early in-person or at the polls on election day.
3. Vote on election day: February 21 for the primary and April 4 for the general election. Check your polling place and review a sample ballot for your area at MyVote.WI.gov.

PLAN AHEAD!!

In addition to making your own plan to vote, you can help register voters with Supermarket Legends at two DMV locations. You will be working in a warm inside office environs at the N. Teutonia Avenue or 74th and Mill Road DMV locations. Sign up for a 2 hour shift whenever you are free and any time six days a week. All training and materials are provided. Contact James Balk.

And now for some news. In case you missed it, last Sunday was the annual Women's March. Although there were marches in dozens of cities, this year the main event for the National Women's March took place in Madison to focus national attention on the upcoming Supreme Court race here. More than 1000 people marched to the state capitol and into the rotunda. See the coverage in the New York Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Cheryl Maranto, co-chair of Grassroots North Shore, organized a delegation of our supporters and produced signs for them to carry during the program. We're proud to have been represented at the event and to show our support for women's rights.

In insurrection news, "Bigo" Barnett was convicted on all eight counts, four felonies and four misdemeanors in all. He's the guy made famous in a photo of him with his feet on a desk in then Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. The jury took only two hours to reach these verdicts, so open-and-shut was the case against him. His lawyer wants to appeal on the grounds that the jury members weren't really his peers — apparently because they didn't come from Arkansas. He will be sentenced in May. You can read more details in a post on Daily Kos.

In even more important insurrection news, four more Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy, among other charges, bringing the total to six convicted on this most serious charge. A number of Proud Boys are currently on trial for seditious conspiracy also. But so far at least, none of the Very Important People who instigated and financed the insurrection have been held accountable or even indicted.

Finally, in the Dominion defamation suit against Fox News, NPR reports that "Fox News' defense in defamation suit invokes debunked election-fraud claims." The defense of Fox News seems to depend on something the lawyers call "'omitted context' for the seemingly incendiary remarks by such hosts as Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, as well as their featured guests, including Trump and his former campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell." The context is relevant because, they argue, the debunked statements were newsworthy and therefore "an appropriate journalistic response to stark claims about the functioning of American democracy." In short, the argument goes, the organization can repeat and amplify any ridiculous, and dangerous, nonsense it likes as long as it's also being spouted by so-called Respectable and Important People who the organization can contend are newsworthy. Let's hope this kind of argument does not hold up in court.

EVENTS

Tuesday, January 24

Saturday, January 28

Thursday, February 2

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