Let me start by thanking every one of our supporters who DID SOMETHING to try to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: writing postcards, making phone calls, canvassing, handing out informational flyers on campuses, giving generously to candidates, putting out yard signs, even just urging like-minded family and friends to vote. Nationally, we fell well short of the goal; among the other battleground states we fell short, too. But Wisconsin came the closest of all the battleground states: Harris/Walz lost by a mere 1.5%. And while almost every county in the US shifted toward Republicans, our so-called WOW counties all shifted LEFT! Together we did vital work. So take some time to refresh and renew. We will need to go back to work in a big way after the New Year to elect Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, thus preserving the liberal majority.

There's of course plenty to say about the national political scene. Every day, the news is full of Trump's activities. And his nominations for key government positions — like Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, and Secretary of Health and Human Services — are abominations. Amid questions about whether any House Republicans on the Ethics Committee will vote to release the Matt Gaetz report to the Senate Judiciary Committee or to the public, the New York Times and the Washington Post provide endless coverage of the president-elect's picks with scant critique. Left-leaning cable news hosts wring their hands. Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traipse down to Mar-a-Lago to make nice and make up to Trump. I could spend the entire newsletter lamenting these events. But I won't.

It's just my view, but watching as each individual car is added to the train whose wreck we can easily foresee is mostly pointless and a waste of our collective breaths. Instead, I want to focus on the election results in Wisconsin where, in fact, the outcomes were fantastic. You already know that Democrats flipped 10 Assembly seats and four key state Senate seats, including the seat now to be held by Jodi Habush Sinykin. And Tammy Baldwin won re-election even if her opponent remains petulant and obstinent. What I have to add to the story is evidence that the work Grassroots North Shore (and the Democratic Party) collectively did has a visible outcome once you look at the data. A subset of the data is available on our website. (You can download the full spreadsheet here. )

Ninety-two percent of all US continues shifted red — toward Republicans. Although Harris lost Ozaukee County by about 10.40%, the "blue shift" in county was about 1.1%. Here's Ben Wikler's take:

Harris WON Cedarburg with 50% of the vote to Trump's 48% (the remaining 2% having gone to third party candidates or write-ins). She also won Thiensville, 50.21% to 49.79%. Tammy Baldwin lost Cedarburg by a mere 92 votes and Jodi Habush Sinykin by only 49 votes. In Mequon, Harris lost the city by 92 votes out of 17,268 ballots cast for the major party candidates for president. Hovde squeaked by Baldwin in Mequon by 1233 out of 16,675 votes for US Senator and Stroebel beat Habush Sinykin by just 341 votes out of 17,191 cast.

Democratic candidates — Kamala Harris, Tammy Baldwin, and Jodi Habush Sinykin — won big in all seven North Shore communities. Harris's margins ranged from a low of 57.60% in River Hills to a high of 84.15% in Shorewood. The same is true for Baldwin and Habush Sinykin. The numbers Habush Sinykin garnered from North Shore communities propelled her win. Turnout in these seven municipalities equalled or topped 90%!

The ballot question (Constitutional amendment) won with 70% of the vote statewide, but not in the North Shore. I want to dwell on this fact because the activities Grassroots North Shore was able to undertake focused on defeating that ballot question even though none of the Democratic literature our canvassers were distributing even mentioned the matter. The almost 9,000 phone calls we made to follow up on the postcards we had previously sent delivered strong messaging about the ballot question. Most impactful, several of the canvass staging locations in the North Shore provided volunteers with talking points and a bookmark-style handout for their routes. The result of these efforts is visible in the voting patterns. In the six communities where we delivered the VOTE NO bookmarks, four voted to defeat the ballot question: 53% to 47% in Bayside; 54% to 46% in Fox Point; 69% to 31% in Shorewood; and 55% to 45% in Whitefish Bay.

Glendale (49% NO and 51% YES) and River Hills (41% NO and 59% YES) bucked the trend. But even in these two communities, the percent of NO votes was much higher than the percent of NO votes state wide (30% NO and 70% YES).

We did not win Wisconsin this time. But our dedicated work was decidedly not in vain. Our North Shore communities' vote for Democrats by widening numbers. And the work Grassroots North Shore and the Democratic Party of Ozaukee County are doing in those communities is clearly paying off and building for greater impact in the future.

And let us not underestimate the new distribution of power in the legislature. The gerrymandered maps under which we labored for 14 years have given way to fair maps that reinstate many truly competitive districts, giving both parties opportunities to form a majority. Not only is that a fitting outcome for a state as purple as ours, it means that whichever party temporarily holds the gavel will increasingly have to work with the other party to move Wisconsin forward. BUT fair maps for the future are far from guaranteed!

We will need the legislature to pass and the governor to sign a law that protects the state from future gerrymanders, by either party. And ultimately Wisconsin will need to pass a constitutional amendment to ensure fair maps going forward.

Meanwhile there is more work to be done. And SOON. The technically non-partisan race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat is already in full swing. Susan Crawford, a former prosecutor and current Circuit Court judge, is already running hard for the seat. She has been endorsed by the Democratic Party. More importantly, she has been endorsed by all four liberal justices: Ann Walsh Bradley (who is retiring and whose seat Susan Crawford is seeking), Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, and Janet Protaseiwicz. Electing her is a short-term guarantee of fair maps in 2026 and 2028.

Many of you gave your all in 2024. Take time to take care of yourselves, to support fellow progressives, to enjoy the company of friends and family through the holidays coming up. We may not be able to combat every pernicious policy the Trump administration pursues, but it's clear we can impact the lives of Wisconsinites in the communities where we live. So join us as we gear up to fight the next battle here in Wisconsin. What we can lose: the right to bodily autonomy, fair maps, protection from the devastations of climate change and a host of other critical issues. What we can gain: a fairer and less doctrinaire high court.

I apologize for failing to produce a newsletter last week — I was really busy trying to find and analyze the election data relevant to the work of Grassroots North Shore. And I plan to take Thanksgiving week off too. So expect the next newsletter as we begin December. Let the holidays commence!

I hardly know how to begin this belated newsletter. I apologize for failing to write it yesterday. The outcome of the election nationally was just too painful to confront. Today, though, I am picking myself up and finding the determination to plan for the future we did not want and to which we will not surrender. I am joining a Zoom call tonight, organized by MoveOn.org and 200 other progressive organizations, “to lay out concrete actions people can take this week, and share thoughts on the path forward.” I hope you will join me. The Post-Election Mass Call will begin at 7pm CST.

On that same note but closer to home, North Shore Fair Maps is holding its next meeting at 7 PM CT Monday, November 11, when we will hear from Edgar Lin (Protect Democracy), who will discuss the decline of democracy in the US and abroad, as well as the authoritarian playbook. We will delve into what the journey from Election Day to Inauguration might look like, and give participants actions they can take right now. Register.

Democratic governments all over the world are under stress and have been since at least the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently (I have not verified this), governing parties in developed countries who were facing elections this year all lost vote share. They were not all defeated but even when they were re-elected their share of the vote declined. We are not alone. And Wisconsin nearly escaped the trend. Read on.

I have not yet looked at the election data for the North Shore and Ozaukee Counties. But Ben Wikler has. And there are some bright spots for Wisconsin. On an X post, he writes, "The red wave hit this year: a ~6% national swing to Trump, from 2020 margins. In Wisconsin, thousands of heroes pulled the swing down to 1.5%. More D votes statewide & in 46 counties. Tammy Baldwin won. Huge wins in the state legislature." Later in the thread, he notes that "Kamala Harris won more votes than any other presidential candidate in Wisconsin history, with two exceptions: Barack Obama in 2008 (who won 9,221 more votes while winning a 14-point landslide), and Donald Trump in 2024." The margin of victory in the presidential race in Wisconsin was a tiny 0.87%. Wikler says it was the closest of any state in the nation and I believe him.

Fair(er) maps, and the hard work so many volunteers did, brought us a reformed legislature. The Democratic Party targeted four state senate seats and won them all, including of course our own Senate District 8 candidate, Jodi Habush Sinykin! We also flipped 10 Assembly districts from Red to Blue. In short, the down ballot races won, indicating to me that there must have been significant ticket-splitting. We can look forward to a legislature that more closely resembles the voters of Wisconsin. While Democrats did not win majorities in either house, the stranglehold Republicans have enjoyed for 14 years has been broken. Perhaps we can look forward to some bipartisanship on issues that we care about: Medicaid expansion, money for rural hospitals, PFA mitigation efforts, funding for public schools. I can dream!

In more grim news, Milwaukee Alderman Jonathan Brostoff took his own life on Monday. It seems he walked into a gun shop in West Allis, purchased one, and then shot himself in a Milwaukee park. A funeral service for him will take place at the Zelazo Center tomorrow from 9 to 11 AM. If only we had red flag laws, waiting periods for gun purchases, better mental health support. Maybe he would still be among us, making Milwaukee a better place to work, to play, and to live.

Finally, I want to provide a link to Vice President Harris's concession speech, in case you did not watch it. It's all of 15 minutes long, including energetic applause as she began. Although she concedes the race, she does not concede the fight for freedom. "The light of America's promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting."

As Kamala Harris entreats us, "Do not despair. This not a time to throw up our hands. This is the time to roll up our sleeves." Keep the faith, friends. Keep the faith.

other important links

Become a Member of Grassroots North Shore	Milwaukee County Democratic Party
Support Grassroots North Shore	Ozaukee County Democratic Party

A mere six days to go. If you have not yet seen Vice President Harris give her speech on the Elipse last night, you really should take half an hour out of your day to watch it. The speech manages to go hard after TFG while at the same time providing a warm and welcoming face with an insistance in every move that Kamala Harris is in this race, not for herself, but for us. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the video.

The last Marquette Law School Poll of this election is out today. It streamed live at 12:15pm and will be up on its website sometime this afternoon. You MAY be able to watch Charles Franklin's presentation for yourself, even though the live stream is over. (If it's not available, watch the latest Randy Rainbow song MAGADU instead.)

The poll's sample is 5% more Republican than it had been earlier in the year. (Ugh!) Franklin defends the ratio by saying that's he's just reporting what the polled sample of random registered voters is telling us. The margin of error is 4.4%. Harris has a small 1% lead in the head-to-head match-up and 2% when 3rd party candidates are included. Franklin says that the winner of the state is anyone's guess. The senate race is also quite tight.

Other reputable polls show a wider win for Harris: the Cooperative Election Study shows Harris with a 50% - 46% lead over Trump (sample size 1542 in Wisconsin); the CNN/SRSS poll shows Harris with 51% to 45% for Trump. In both of these polls, our wonder woman is over 50%! Which is why it's better to be us than them. Franklin cautions that polls don't predict and don't vote. As always, we are within the margin of effort.

So DO AT LEAST ONE THING in the remaining six days. Please get in touch with family and friends TODAY to make sure they have a plan to vote, early if possible. Early voting continues in most places until close-of-business on Friday, November 1. In Milwaukee, early voting continues on Saturday, November 2. You can find precise information for North Shore suburbs and many communities in Ozaukee County on our website. Information about early voting locations in Milwaukee is here.

Predicting electoral outcomes is a tricky business, apparently. (As if we didn't already know that.) Allan Lichtman, who does not poll but who uses a schema of 13 "keys" to analyze elections and who has correctly predicted every election save one since 1982, calls it for Harris. Dana Taylor, on The Excerpt podcast, asks Professor Lichtman "Who do you think will win in November?" Lichtman answers: "It's not who I think. It's who my system, the 13 keys to the White House, predicts, and according to the keys to the White House, we are going to have a new and pathbreaking American president. Kamala Harris will become the first woman President of the United States, at least cracking, if not shattering the glass ceiling, and she'll become the first American president of mixed African and East Asian descent, foreshadowing where our country is going. We are rapidly becoming a majority-minority country. Old white guys like me are on the decline."

But many people, my husband included, experience high levels of anxiety about what comes after a close election that Harris and Walz win. As a result, the procedures for counting and certifying the votes become very important. They came close to failing us in 2020. So I want to use most of the rest of this newsletter to provide a detailed account of the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) of 2022. According to Cass Sunstein in the Wall Street Journal (unfortunately behind a paywall), "The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, which amended the Electoral Count Act of 1887, greatly reduces the risk of uncertainty and chaos after Americans vote." You can read an excerpt of Sunstein's article on the Election Law Blog.

Here's the detailed account that should lower anxiety about what those who would overthrow legitimate election results will face this time around. In 2020, we know that the Trump camp engaged in several attempts to subvert the election of President Biden and Vice President Harris. The efforts included law suits (still available to aggrieved parties in 2024); failed attempts not to certify election results at both local and state levels; failed attempts to persuade legislatures to certify a "corrected set of facts;" sending the votes of fraudulent electors to Congress; enlisting representatives and senators to object to the certified election results of several states; and of course an insurrection when the other efforts all failed. Many of those avenues have been closed by the ECRA. Here are some of its key provisions:

Of course, the ECRA cannot foreclose another attack at the US Capitol. But Trump is no longer president and lacks the power to summon a mob to DC without those who are in charge of security for January 6, 2025, as well as the period between that day and the inauguration, taking the proper precautions. President Biden will be in charge and we can count of him and his team to make sure that Congress is secure.

We are in the final days of this election. So I have added a special section on signing up to canvass in various area. The walk lists now contain the people we need to turn out to vote. The reports about conversations at the doors since the WisDems started the GOTV period have been pleasant and then some. Participating in the ground game is now the most important action you can take. And if you can't canvass yourself, recruit a friend who can and drive them through their list. Every one of us must dig deep and do the utmost that we can. I'm closing with an uplifting video from Amplify to spur you on.

Key to Winning: Get Out the Vote

Canvassing

North Shore
    • Brown Deer
    • Fox Point
    • Glendale
    • Shorewood
    • Whitefish Bay
Ozaukee County
    • Grafton & Cedarburg
    • Mequon
    • Port Washington
Washington & Waukesha Counties
    • Germantown
    • Menomonee Falls

Canvassing on weekdays
    • Glendale, 2:00pm and 4:00pm
    • Whitefish Bay, 4:30pm

Phonebanking
    • Fox Point, Thursday October 31, 7:00 - 8:30pm.
    • Wauwatosa, Thursday October 31, 4:30 - 7:00pm.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has proposed generating trillions of dollars for the US treasury by imposing 60% tariffs on   imports from China and 20% tariffs on all other imports.   His understanding -- or at least his sales pitch to the voters -- is that the tariff is free money paid by the exporting countries for the privilege of selling goods in the US.   In his imagining, the US income tax and corporate taxes can be reduced by the amount of revenue generated by these tariffs. He entertains the notion that he alone has discovered this free money mechanism that has been overlooked by the experts.    

Unfortunately, the import tariff is actually paid by consumers who buy the imported products.   For example, if a consumer buys a Chinese-manufactured washing machine at her local Home Depot, the purchase price she pays must cover all of the costs incurred to produce and transport the washer from its point of manufacture in China to the point of sale here.   

This economic principle is counterintuitive for many people, apparently including Mr. Trump. But, before election day, voters should understand this better than Mr. Trump!

Perhaps an example would help; let's follow the money -- and the washing machines. Imagine a container ship carrying fifty thousand containers, each of standard size:  40 feet long by 8 feet wide by 8.5 feet high.  One of those containers is sitting in the port of Shanghai loaded with 30 washing machines purchased by Home Depot. Each machine has a bar code, and, after the container is loaded, sealed and locked, the container itself is also assigned a bar code.  US Customs officials scan the codes, transmitting the record of the transaction to Home Depot, the US Government Customs Office, and the Chinese state-owned enterprise that built the washing machine. Next a  gigantic claw picks up the entire container and gently places it in the hold of the container ship bound for the port of Long Beach, California.   

US Customs Officials in Long Beach know the contents of the container and their wholesale price. Before Home Depot can take delivery of the container, it must pay the Trump 60% import tariff to the US Customs Office.   After that money transfer to the US Treasury is completed, another gigantic claw picks up the container and puts it on ground transportation, either a flatbed truck or freight rail car to be shipped to a terminal facility in a major city such as Chicago or St. Louis or Kansas City where Home Depot will take delivery of the washing machines and distribute them to their "big box" retail stores.  From there consumers can buy the washing machines.

Every step in this process costs money:  from production back in China; the  shipping costs to move the container from Shanghai across the Pacific Ocean to Long Beach; the costs of transferring the container from ship to ground transportation to the Home Depot stores where the buyer must pay a price sufficient to covers all costs.

The import tariff is simply one of the many costs of doing business paid for by the consumer. The cost to the average American consumer of Trump's proposed import tariff is estimated to be $4,000 per year.

Hurry up, please. It's time. We are within the penumbra of Election Day — really the final day of the election since all over the country millions of people have already cast their ballots. Including me. Early in person voting began yesterday in Wisconsin. If you need to know the schedule for your North Shore community, visit our early voting information page. For the city of Milwaukee, go here. So here's what you need to be doing to close strong.

First, VOTE EARLY. There was a report yesterday on Daily Kos that "so many people have shown up that the state system [in Wisconsin] has crashed." This is NOT A BAD THING! It just means that clerks' offices were unable to access the state system to record who had voted. But the votes themselves are securely in the hands of the clerks. "The system will record you as having voted early/absentee once the election workers can get in the system to update it."

Second, MULTIPLY YOUR VOTE by making sure family members and friends have made a specific plan to vote. Urge them to vote early too. Early voting has several advantages: 1) it removes the voter's name from the phone and canvass contact lists so that the Democrats can focus on less reliable voters; 2) it's more convenient for many people; 3) usually lines are shorter and therefore wait times are shorter; and 4) you never know what will happen on Election Day. A sudden illness, a family emergency, an accident: don't let those kinds of things derail you. VOTE EARLY.

Third, CANVASS. I know, I know: it's outside your comfort zone. Or you can no longer do that much walking or climbing steps to front doors. The solutions are to find someone to go with and either share the walk or drive someone through their list. Sure you're likely to talk to relatively few people. But remember, a winning number comes from an extra 3 or 4 votes in each ward. So be one of the people who can make that difference. To help you sign up, here is a list of events.

Get Out The Vote, generally 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm

North Shore
    • Brown Deer
    • Fox Point
    • Glendale
    • Shorewood
    • Whitefish Bay
Ozaukee County
    • Grafton & Cedarburg
    • Mequon
    • Port Washington
Washington & Waukesha Counties
    • Germantown
    • Menomonee Falls

New this week: opportunities to canvass on weekdays. 
    • Glendale, 2:00pm and 4:00pm
    • Whitefish Bay, 4:30pm

Phonebanking
    • Fox Point, Thursday October 24, and Thursday October 31, 7:00 - 8:30pm.
    • Wauwatosa, Thursday, October 24, 6:30 - 9:00pm, and Thursday October 31, 4:30 - 7:00pm.

YARD SIGNS: We have some Harris/Walz signs you can pick up from Cheryl Maranto (Glendale), Norma Gilson (Shorewood), Nancy Kaplan (Glendale), Andy Berger (Fox Point and Bayside), and Shirley Horowitz (Whitefish Bay). Please email them to make arrangements and get their addresses.

Now for some newsier news. Former Dolt 45's longest serving chief of staff, John Kelly calls Trumpelthinskin a fascist (New York Times, October 22, 2024, gift link). In three interviews with Michael Schmidt, "Mr. Kelly expanded on his previously expressed concerns and stressed that voters, in his view, should consider fitness and character when selecting a president, even more than a candidate’s stances on the issues." Robert Paxton, a leading historian of mid-20th century Europe, thought the label was overused. But now, apparently, he's rethought his views. Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind (New York Times, October 23, 2024, gift link). It's not clear that any of this will matter. But at least Bret Stephens, opinion writer for the NY Times, admitted on Monday that he's going to vote for Harris. Small victories.

I am often asked how I'm feeling about the Wisconsin election outcome or the national election outcome. Like Simon Rosenberg, in his substack Hopium Chronicles always says, I'd rather be us than them. (Yesterday's Hopium headline "VP Harris Leads By 3 and 4 In New Polls.") But I don't have a crystal ball and no one I know does either. We are always within the margin of effort. Still, having said all those cautionary things, I have a view: we are winning and will win if we do the work in front of us.

EVENTS

Wednesday, October 23

Thursday, October 24

Friday, October 25

Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27; Saturday and Sunday, November 2 and 3; Monday, November 4; Tuesday, November 5

Get Out The Vote, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm

SAVE THE DATE

Monday, November 11

other important links

The end of election season — what we call Election Day — is a mere three weeks away. To make your effort to be an informed voter a bit easier, Grassroots North Shore has much of the information you need on our Elections 2024 pages:

• Presidential Election: side by side comparison of issue postions;
• Ballot Question (Constitutional Amendment);
• Project 2025;
• Early in-person voting for the North Shore and Ozaukee County;
• Drop box locations and early in-person voting for the City of Milwaukee.

As part of our ongoing efforts to find our voters and turn them out, we are beginning our outreach to students on campuses in the area. Volunteers are needed at UWM and MIAD (and maybe MSOE) to encourage students to vote during early in-person voting (Oct. 22-Nov. 1). Volunteers will be on the campuses these days with handouts that focus on the freedom messaging, a comparison and contrast between Harris and Trump, registration information and information about voting NO on the constitutional amendment. Shifts are 11-1 or 1-3. at UWM and 11-1 at MIAD, but you are welcome to go at other times that are more convenient for you. We identify high traffic locations around the perimeter of the campus and on Spaights Plaza to catch students as they dash by. Volunteers will definitely get lots of their steps in while trying to catch the students for a minute of conversation! Contact Norma Gilson if you are able to volunteer.

On the legal fronts — and there are many, there's big news out of Georgia where a rogue State Election Board has been fomenting chaos by changing voting rules and trying to make certification of elections at the county level less certain and more time-consuming. Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney ruled that "election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results" by the statutory deadline: November 12.

The same judge blocked an election rule "that would require a hand count of ballots on election night," writing that the State Election Board rule will not take effect before November’s contest. The hand-count rule would have gone into effect on October 22. In his opinion delivered on October 15, Judge McBurney said that "his decision was not final and would be further detailed at a later date, but not until after the election" (The Hill, October 15, 2024).

Both decisions thwarted MAGA cultists from carrying out their plans to delay and to cause sufficient upheaval to allow the campaign of Benedict DonOld to challenge the election results.

Meanwhile, in the Insurrection Case in D.C., Judge Chutkan ruled on October 10 that the appendix to Special Counsel Jack Smith's brief can be released in redacted form but stayed the ruling for seven days to give The Big Lie-bowski and his team time to consider how to respond. Time's up tomorrow!

The brief itself has already been released (you can read it here). In it, Jack Smith outlines why the actions Cheeto Benito took to overturn the election — the false electors plot, the attempted corruption of state officials, the effort to persuade Mike Pence in his capacity as President of the Senate to count the "alternate electors" or to send the "disputed" outcomes back to the states, and finally the creation of a mob to overrun the Capitol in hopes of disrupting the count of Electoral College votes — were the actions of a candidate (office seeker) and not those of a president (office holder) acting in his official capacity.

Boss Tweet and his lawyers continue to argue that Chutkan's recent judicial rulings amount to election interference. Judge Chutkan is not buying it, again. Assuming the defendant pursues an appeal to the Circuit Court, his lawyers can request a longer stay so that the matter can be heard. If the panel of the Circuit Court agrees, the parts of the four exhibits in Jack Smith's appendix to his filing will not be released until after then election. This case, often short-handed as the Jan. 6 case, grinds on, albeit slowly.

In the case of the purloined classified documents that Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed an appeal in late August to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Dolt 45's team had 30 days to reply to the special counsel's brief. So far, crickets.

Now to the election at hand: DO NOT WATCH THE POLLS! They cannot tell you anything about the outcome of the election. You might as well be reading palms or tea leaves. The election is going to be close, in this state and in all the battleground states. If you're eaten up with anxiety, try watching some of Randy Rainbow's hilarious takes on the election. Two in particular have tickled my funny bone: The Lawyer or the Conman and Blank Space (Donald's Version). And if, after chuckling, you can't give up biting your nails, try reading Josh Marshal's TPM post, Some Deep Thoughts On Why Dems Are So Prone to Recurrent Freak Outs. Marshall may be able to talk you off the ledge.

The name of the game: the Ground Game is here in full force. There are lots of questions about the MAGA campaign apparatus and their Get Out the Vote effort. For a sense of where they are, have a look at the PBS News piece from September 23: Republican activists say little sign of door-knocking for Trump in swing states. On the other hand, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has been in the field for months and months, building its capacity to knock on doors. Now it is holding a big Weekend of Action on Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20. I've listed a lot of the canvassing opportunities in the events list but it's so important, I'm going to include them here also. Some of us can no longer canvass, but most of us can drive, right? So if that describes you, sign up for a canvass and then take a canvasser in your car to make the work of knocking doors consume less time and energy. Here's a list:

So, as Rabbi Hillel the Elder is said to written, "If not now, when?"

PS: about yard signs: We have some you can pick up from Cheryl Maranto (Glendale), Norma Gilson (Shorewood), Nancy Kaplan (Glendale), Andy Berger (Fox Point and Bayside), and Shirley Horowitz (Whitefish Bay). Please email them to make arrangements and get their addresses.

Last week Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a brief in Judge Chutkin's court, laying out in greater detail the case against Benedict Donald and his plots to overturn the 2020 presidential election, using four distinct approaches: 1) the fraudulent electors scheme, 2) the pressure on state legislators, 3) the pressure on VP Pence, and 4) the insurrection. There was substantial media coverage of the 165+ pages, mostly teasing out nuggets of new information. For example, the New York Times introduced its post of the full brief with the headline Read the Special Counsel’s Newly Unsealed Evidence Against Trump. In their analysis, Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage focus on the new evidence even while acknowledging that the purpose of the filing is to argue that Dolt 45 is not immune from prosecution for these acts. The Washington Post also focused on the new evidence in the brief:

More interesting, to me at least, is an analysis by Stanford criminal law expert David Sklansky:

Sklansky gets right to the core of the matter. The new evidence in the filing "would be shocking and explosive," except that we already knew so much similar evidence that the new pieces don't really illuminate additional legal angles. The filing is significant, he says, because of what it reveals about the special counsel's approach. Sklansky argues that the case Smith is bringing is all about fraud. "It doesn’t charge Trump with insurrection, or with instigating the assault on the Capitol. Trump is charged with trying to take advantage of the January 6 riot, but not with provoking it. But the prosecutors’ filing makes clear that they intend to prove at trial that Trump did intentionally egg on the rioters."

Legal eagles will note that a fraud case depends heavily on the prosecutor's case that the fraudster knew what he was claiming — that he won the 2020 election — was false. Hence the avalanche of evidence in the brief. Sklansky considers "the evidence of Trump’s fraudulent intent — the evidence that he knew he was lying — is vastly stronger than in most [other fraud] cases. Fraud cases usually proceed, and often are successful, with significantly less evidence of fraudulent intent than Smith and his team have outlined in this case."

The Cowardly Lyin’ and his lawyers have until November 7 to respond to this brief and to try to claim that the acts Don the Con undertook and the evidence that he knew he was lying are all protected with the ersatz immunity the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) gifted to him. It will undoubtedly be a very long time before this case makes it into a courtroom, since whatever Judge Chutkin rules on the immunity question will be appealed, perhaps more than once, to SCOTUS. Also, of course, if Adolf Twitler is elected again, the case goes away forever.

Turning now to the election here, there is some confusion about the availability of drop boxes for those of us who vote by absentee ballot. While the Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated municipalities' ability to use them for elections, the court left it to the clerks (some 1800 of them in Wisconsin) to decide whether they would be available. Some clerks have in fact chosen not to use one. So it's best if you call your municipal clerk to ask. Note: Absentee voters in the City of Milwaukee — Drop boxes will be operational by 10:30am on Monday, October 14, 2024 through Election Day, Tuesday November 5, 2024 until 6:00pm. You'll find a list of drop box locations and early voting places and schedules on our site.

Your Do Something List

Jodi Habush Sinykin: More Postcard Bags available for pickup!!!!!!
We have 60 more postcards bags for pickup... first come first served! The bags will live on my front doorstep in cardboard box... please stop by whenever suits you from now (Tuesday, Oct 8th), through this weekend (Sunday, October 13th). Address is 400 E Daphne Road, Fox Point WI, 53217. Limit of 2 bags per person. Please text or call 414-795-1433 with any questions. If you take a bag of postcards, PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING UP FOR A CANVASSING SHIFT AS WELL!

Supermarket Legends
Help register students at UWM during a two-hour shift. We will have a table in the library on Tuesday, October 15, and Wednesday, October 16. Indicate whether you are available in the morning or afternoon. Contact Sue Schneidler to volunteer.

WisDems
WisDems have opened an office on the corner of E. North and Vel Phillips Ave. where they are preparing for a big push in the final weeks leading up to Election Day. This will be the staging area for canvassing and other activities. I am among volunteers supporting their work, and we are looking for help. Can you help support the cause? Here is what we need.
    • Bottled water for canvassers
    • Grab-and-go snacks for volunteers, including healthy options
    • Ready-to-eat meals for staff members, either purchased (e.g., sandwiches) or homemade (e.g., crock-pot chili or soup)
    • Coffee and tea supplies
We are looking to fill specific slots of time. We're still verifying the schedule, but we know for sure we'd need items on these days:
    • Sat. Oct. 19, Sun. Oct. 20, Sat. Oct. 26, Sun. Oct. 27
    • Sat. Nov. 2, Sun. Nov. 3, Mon. Nov. 4, Tues. Nov. 5
We will ask that items be both dropped off and, if needed, picked up (such as a crock pot or chafing dish). To volunteer to help, email Diane Bacha.

WisDems Voter Protection

1. Be a WisDems Poll Observer this November!
   Want to be an incredible in-person resource for Wisconsin voters on Election Day? Join our team as a poll observer! Poll observers are the eyes and ears of our team on Election Day and are stationed at polling locations across the state, ready to help voters with any issues they might face when casting their ballot. Without observers, we simply cannot protect the ballot on Election Day. You can sign up to be an observer with our team this November 5th by filling out this form: wisdems.org/novemberpollobserver. Additionally, feel free to share that link with friends or family that you think would be interested in joining our program! Sign up to be a poll observer now!
   
   
2. UPCOMING: Help recruit Poll Observers to defend democracy!
   Our team has phonebanks four times a week through mid October to recruit volunteer poll observers for the upcoming election. These calls are fun, easy, and incredibly rewarding – as you know, every poll observer we recruit is an additional resource to voters across the state. Poll observers are our biggest asset to protect the vote! Join a Recruitment Phonebank!
   
   
3. UPCOMING: Distributed Ballot Cure Trainings!
   Join the Cure team to directly help voters get their votes counted! In ballot cure calls, we call voters whose absentee ballots are in danger of rejection, and walk them through the steps to remedy it. It’s the most tangible way to defend democracy from the comfort of your own home. Once you’re trained, you can make calls on your own time. Sign up below! Sign up for a Distributed Cure Training!

One last thing before you hit the events list with its extensive opportunities to help the campaigns. Our founding father, Keith Schmitz, has posted an article — Happy Days Are Here Again — It’s Just That the GOP Is Refusing to Tell You That — on the Grassroots North Shore site. In it, he lays out solid evidence that, unlike Orange Julius, President Biden "strategically allocated funds to improve infrastructure, nurture a burgeoning green energy sector that promotes genuine energy independence, bring manufacturing back to the U.S., and fund research into technologies that will drive future innovation, along with job training to ensure the workforce can come along for the ride with these advancements." It's worth a read to shore up your own ability to explain why Bidenomics is, in fact, working.

So there was a debate between the candidates for Vice President. Who "won"? Does it matter? These are the questions foremost on the minds of political nerds. CNN ran an instant poll. The upshot: "No clear winner in VP debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance." Here's Politico's snap poll of likely voters: Dead even: POLITICO snap poll shows stark division on debate. "There was no decisive winner in the first-and-only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election."

There was a little bit of "fact-checking" by the moderators but the structure of many questions was already predicated on facts. Both the Washington Post and NPR have undertaken more comprehensive truth-telling investigations.The Washington Post checked 21 statements, 2/3rds of which were Vance's assertions, judged to be false or disingenuous or wrong or "a whitewash of Trump’s actions." Only three of the Walz statements were ruled "false." Two were said to be exaggerated. One was judged "true."

I counted 11 fact-checked statements in the NPR analysis. Ten were statements from JD Vance. Only one, the Tiananmen Square "issue" from 1989, was about Walz. That's a reach into the distant past: Vance was a young child then! Walz of course said he misspoke about being in China in June 1989. (He was there, but not until August that year.) And he was self-deprecating about it: "I've not been perfect, and I'm a knucklehead at times ... I got there that summer and misspoke on this." Surely that's enough said on what is after all a pretty trivial example of resumé fluffing.

In breaking news, the special counsel's last filing in the January 6 case is a "bombshell," according to abcNEWS.com. The New York Times article is a bit more restrained but the headline announces a key fact: "Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump." The filing was originally sealed. Judge Chutkin herself made its contents public. In response to the US Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for "official acts," the special counsel argues that the acts included in the superseding indictment were "examples of Mr. Trump pursuing electioneering activity in his private role as a candidate for office, not as protected acts taken in his official capacity as president."

To poll junkies, I want to say "just don't!" But since they're going to seek out polls every day regardless, everyone ought to know that the Marquette Law School poll, overseen by Charles Franklin, was published today. The headline tells the top-line story: Presidential choices in Wisconsin hold steady in new Marquette Law School Poll results, with Harris at 52% and Trump at 48%. The 4-point margin is the same whether the responses are from registered voters or likely voters and also whether the test is head-to-head or includes third-party candidates. The margin of error is 4.4% for both registered and likely voters. So the news for Harris is pretty good in this state, but we're always within the "margin of effort.""

The poll also looked at the race for the Senate and found Baldwin besting Hovde 53% to 46% both among registered voters and among likely voters. Notably, "enthusiasm among Democrats is slightly higher than among Republicans in this poll, with 71% of Democrats saying they are very enthusiastic and 67% of Republicans also very enthusiastic." But the spread is wider if we consider the sum of those who are very and somewhat enthusiastic about the November election: 91% for Democrats and 84% for Republicans.

The final nuggets from the Marquette poll: of the 10 presidential candidates who will be listed on the Wisconsin ballot, only Tim Walz is viewed favorably! Harris is -3, Trump -11, Vance -13. Of the also-rans, Jill Stein comes in at -17 with RFK Jr a close -15. The preponderance of Wisconsin voters — 34% — consider themselves "moderate." Of those voters, 61% intend to vote for Harris! Voters for Trump include 94% of Republicans, 39% Independents, and 1% of Democrats (really?). But 99% of registered voters who consider themselves Democrats and 61% of those who consider themselves Independent say they are voting for Harris. As Simon Rosenberg (Hopium Chronicles) says, "I'd rather be us than them."

Voting everywhere, it seems, is more complicated than it needs to be. And Wisconsin seems to rate high on the list of places where it is often confusing. We do our best to bring you accurate and timely information about aspects of Wisconsin voting rules. Absentee voting is underway. You can request an absentee ballot at MyVote.WI.gov until October 16. In some places you can use a drop box to return the voted ballot. But in other places, like Glendale, you either have to put the certification envelope with your ballot inside into the US Mails or you have to return it in person to the clerk's office in your municipality. The same site can confirm your registration status, help you re-register if necessary, tell you how to contact your municipal clerk, and give you the location of your polling place.

Early in-person voting begins on Tuesday, October 22, and in most places ends on Friday, November 1. Visit our early voting page for specific information for your municipality. The City of Milwaukee has different locations, days and times for early voting. You'll find that information here.

The rest of the Elections 2024 pages provide some fabulous ads and other video content for the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign. We also have a Side-by-Side Comparison of Key Campaign Issues. There's a little information about Project 2025 for you to read. (I plan to augment the page in the next week.) Perhaps the most important information for this election, though, is the Constitutional amendment on the November 5 ballot. Here's our page explaining what it is, why it's wrong for Wisconsin, and why you need to vote no. Once you've looked at it, please spread the word to family, friends and colleagues.

Here are some of the THINGS TO DO.

• North Shore Fair Maps, Monday October 4, 7:00pm (CT): "We'll Be Ready!"
  This virtual meeting will feature Alice Herman (The Guardian), Scott Thompson (Law Forward) and Alex Dubinsky (WisDems Voter Protection). The best way to prepare for the 2024 election season is to understand it. At our final pre-election meeting we go behind the curtain to see the Trump/MAGA and Democrat ground game (what Alice Herman sees and hears from voters); learn what lawyers are doing to be ready for controversy (Law Forward is gearing up); hear how voter protection experts will insure a free and fair election (the WisDems VoPro team is hard at work); and find out what WE can to do to help. We will also get a Fair Maps update from our own Carlene Bechen. SPECIAL NOTES: THIS MEETING IS CLOSED TO THE PRESS: NO RECORDING OF THIS MEETING WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE. Register.
• Souls to the Polls.
  Souls To The Polls (STP) is planning to drop flyers at homes in the neighborhoods surrounding several early vote sites. We really need volunteers to help in this important effort. The Early vote begins Tuesday October 22 and ends Sunday November 3rd. We have set two dates for door hanging the Souls to the Polls flyers. We plan to meet at the parking lot in front of the Police Station at 2333 N 49th St Milwaukee, WI 53210 on Saturday Oct. 19th at 10 am and Sunday Oct. 20th at 1 pm. We will get the flyers and maps to the volunteers and go over the details to get people started with the distribution in that neighborhood. The flyers include a phone number to call Souls to the Polls if someone needs a ride to go vote and information about early voting. This will be putting lit in doors. No door knocking. If you can volunteer, please e-mail Leanne Wied or call her at 262-366-5356.
• Republicans for Harris/Walz Weekly Phone Banks, Every Wednesday at 6:00pm Online.
  This election is about ensuring a better future for our country. We all know what's at stake, and your voice can help elect Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump in November. By connecting with Republican and Independent voters, we can build bridges and bring more people into this movement for change. Whether you've volunteered before or are new to phone banking, we welcome everyone. Your participation is crucial in reaching out to voters, having meaningful conversations, and getting them ready to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris. Sign up.

The events listed below are full of canvassing opportunities. If you can canvass, please sign up for at least one shift. We're in the penumbra of the election. Some of us have already voted! And there's no time to lose. If you can't canvass, please sign up with me (Nancy Kaplan) to phone likely Democratic women who recently received a post card encouraging them to vote for Democratic candidates. These follow-up phone calls focus on the Constitutional amendment almost no one seems to know about. They also encourage people to vote early if at all possible. It's important that we beat the MAGA Republicans. But it is also important that we defeat the proposed amendment.

We are also preparing handouts for students on the UWM and MIAD campuses. We could use more volunteers to help talk to students about voting. On UWM's campas, the Zelazo Center will be open for early in-person voting. And the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center will be a polling place for people in wards 123 and 126 in Milwaukee. If you'd like to sign up to hand out flyers, contact Norma Gilson.

YARD SIGNS! While they last, of course. You can pick one up at Cheryl Maranto's: email or text (414-429-1583 ) her to make arrangements. Mark Gennis has some as well. Again, contact him by email .

Before we get to the all important opportunities for you to DO SOMETHING to elect Democrats to all the offices on your November 5 ballot, I want to start with a recently passed national election law that could mitigate the effects of, for example, the dozens of changes the Georgia Election Board has just made to election procedures, most of which are designed to gum up the works. Other states are also rushing to make changes even as the election draws near and early voting has already begun in many states. (Note: absentee ballots have already started to be mailed in Wisconsin. I voted and returned mine yesterday! You can still request yours online until October 16.) The media have been covering these new election rules with a slightly breathless and panicky air. But help is at hand.

So, a lot of pixels and ink have been devoted to divining the state of the presidential race. Poll after poll after poll keeps telling us that it's going to be a nail biter. Yet almost no reporting has looked at what happens between the day all the votes have been cast and the certification of the election on January 6, 2025. That period between early November and January 6, 2021, is where the Barbecued Brutus campaign did most of its consequential mischief after all. It is really worth our while, then, to learn about the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA). Knowing how much ECRA has clarified and changed the numerous activities that take place once the polls close might lower your anxiety level about what destructive activities the MAGAs could try. So here is the Campaign Legal Center's explanation of the law.

Watch the program.

Especially important, it seems to me, is the provision that any state failing to certify its results by the specified deadline will simply be subtracted from the total electoral votes cast. So, for example, if Georgia misses the deadline for certifying because, say, some county officials refuse to certify the vote in their jurisdictions, the total number of electoral votes cast will be reduced by 16, the number of electoral votes allocated to that state. As a result, the new majority number needed to win will also be reduced, from 270 to 262.

Equally important, before ECRA, challenges to Electoral College votes needed just one representative and one senator to send the House and the Senate to their respective chambers to debate the objection. ECRA now requires that challenges to Electoral College votes come from 20% of EACH house of Congress. The threshold is not, of course, insurmountable but it is much more difficult to achieve.

An article in the September 24 issue of Urban Milwaukee — Can Wisconsin Handle Election Deniers This Time? — provides a good look at the myriad conspiracy theories in Wisconsin after the 2020 election and then notes that "despite the hold that election conspiracy theories have on a subset of Wisconsin Republicans, elections experts say the state is prepared for 2024 and unlikely to see a repeat of the 2020 effort to overturn results."

So ECRA and the preventive plans already laid in place might calm some fears, but the issues in this election definitely amp them up. On September 8, Grassroots North Shore held a program to elucidate what future the MAGAites have planned for us and what we have done and can do to defeat it. In the spirit of forewarned is forearmed, you should see it: the video. Attorney General Josh Kaul, the lead-off speaker (beginning at about 6 minutes and 25), reminds us of how much Democrats and progressives have won in Wisconsin over the last seven years. He's followed by Kathleen Schluter, who lays out what White Christian nationalists are trying to achieve. The final speaker, Joe Zepecki, a seasoned political manager, pumped us all up. Please, share it widely. Also have a look at the video, Once Democracy is Gone on YouTube.

As we rush headlong into getting all of our supporters to vote, you should be aware that there is more on the ballot than the candidates. We face yet another ballot question that directly addresses our voting rights. The League of Women Voters has been a leader on the Vote No campaign to defeat the ballot question/constitutional amendment: make sure you read the Vote No November landing page and watch a recording of their recent webinar on the topic. And then talk to your family, friends, and neighbors about voting NO on this ballot question.

As a key part of Grassroots North Shore's efforts to inform voters and to get like-minded people to the polls, we are beginning to phone the women in the North Shore and in the entire 8th Senate District to whom we sent post cards. While the cards promoted voting for key candidates, the calls focus on the ballot question and on absentee and early voting. It's quite a large number for us to try to accomplish. Some of you have already volunteered to make these calls, but we need many more. If you can take a call list, please contact Nancy Kaplan, [email protected].

Now here are some of the things you could and should be doing (in addition to all the canvassing opportunities you will find in the events listing):

Coming right up: the VEEP debate on Tuesday, October 1. You won't want to miss the chance to watch seasoned Governor Tim Walz waltz all over the least popular VP pick in forever. He's no hillbilly. More like a starched shirt: wrinkle free but really unpleasant to wear. The festivities are being held at the Bavarian Bierhaus, 700 W Lexington Blvd, Glendale, from 6:30 - 10:00pm. The show is free! So Sign up.

The events list includes numerous campaign opportunities, especially canvassing, the gold standard for turnout elections like this one. Although it's happening nearly every day from now until November 5, the listings focus on weekend canvassing. I cannot stress enough how important it is to help. A lot of us, myself included, cannot manage the physical stamina it takes to walk a turf. If that describes you, then sign up to make calls instead, even if you have to move outside your comfort zone. Do not leave this work to others. It will take all of us to win.

Another election — another constitutional amendment ballot question. Unlike the two ballot questions we defeated in August, this one undermines our right to vote. On the surface it seems unusually meaningless. The current language reads: "Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district who may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum." The text of the ballot question reads: "Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?" In other words, the amendment would change "every United States citizen" to "only a United States citizen." See Ballotpedia for the full text.

So why is this change so pernicious? For one thing, it's unnecessary. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. For another thing, it's vanishingly rare for someone who is not eligible to try to vote. Since 2019, only three people who were not eligible nevertheless tried to vote in Wisconsin! For a third thing, the amendment process circumvents the governor. The legislature originally passed this language as a bill but Governor Evers vetoed it.The GOP-gerrymandered legislature could not muster the votes to override the veto and so is trying to amend the constitution instead because the Governor cannot veto a proposed constitutional amendment.

More importantly, the change opens the door to unwarranted challenges to voter registration and participation by allowing election officials, poll observers, and others to challenge voters to prove their citizenship with a birth certificate, naturalization papers, or a passport, documents to which as many as one in 10 Americans lack easy access. So we urge you to VOTE NO and to encourage your family and friends to so the same. In the section of the newsletter with details about how you can DO SOMETHING, you can sign up to write postcards about this amendment to other Wisconsin voters.

On the state of the presidential race since the debate, Simon Rosenberg has some cheery news for us in yesterday's Hopium Chronicles. All the polls cited can be found on 538. Here's a sampling:

• Harris 51-43 (+8) Big Village (new this am, +4 pts from before debate)
• Harris 51-45 (+6) Morning Consult (new this am, +3 since last Monday)
• Harris 52-46 (+6) Ipsos/ABC
• Harris 49-44 (+5) Monmouth
• Harris 47-42 (+5) Ipsos/Reuters
• Harris 51-47 (+4) RMG
• Harris 50-46 (+4) Data For Progress

The latest Marquette Law School Poll, in the field before the debate but after the Democratic National Convention, showed that Harris has a 4 point lead over the Butternut Berlusconi, still within the 4.6 margin of error but 3 points better than the previous poll. You can find a discussion of the results on Marquette University Law School website. The poll includes results for the US Senate race between Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde. It is also the subject of WisEye's Rewind. The conversation is full of caveats. And I'll add mine: polls have not been our best friends in the last two presidential elections. Best not to put too much weight on them. Instead, remember that we are always inside the margin of effort.

In RFK Jr news, a district court has ruled that his name must remain on the Wisconsin ballot. For a nerdy legal treat, you can view Judge Ehlke eviscerating Kennedy's case. Kennedy has now appealed. Whether his name remains on the ballot matters because in the latest Marquette poll, he stands at 6%. If he were pulling more votes away from the Harris/Walz ticket, he would want to remain on the ballot. The fact that he is trying so hard to be removed speaks volumes about who his campaign (or Adolf Twitler's) thinks voters for him would be harming.

In fact, ballots have already been sent to Americans abroad and will soon be mailed to those who have already requested absentee ballots. In its filing for the 2nd District Court of Appeals, the Wisconsin Department of Justice writes that "what Petitioner cannot do is require his name to be removed from the ballot: Wis. Stat. § 8.35(1) prohibits candidates from withdrawing once they have qualified." The brief goes on to note that at this late date, removing Kennedy's name from the ballot would force "county and municipal elections officials to miss state and federal deadlines for providing ballots to absentee voters, including military and overseas voters. The timing barrier here is just as acute as in Hawkins, where the Wisconsin Supreme Court held it was too late for a change to the general election ballot. That harm far outweighs Petitioner’s desire to convey to voters his support for another candidate through his absence from Wisconsin ballots."

As part of his argument for removing his name from the ballot, Kennedy's lawyers apparently proposed placing a sticker on every one of the millions of ballots needed for the presidential election. The task would be "herculean." Plus, stickers might actually gum up the works. "The voting equipment to be used for the upcoming election has not been tested with stickers applied to ballots. The stickers could peel off, get jammed or stuck in the voting tabulator, or stick to and rip other ballots, to name a few possible likelihoods." Anyway, the filing states, "placing stickers on ballots is not legal."

This drama serves to remind us of just how harmful third party candidates can be in elections that are as close as those in Wisconsin have typically been. The Marquette poll cited above has the total of all third party votes at 10% of likely voters. Emilee Fannon on Rewind reports that Charles Franklin, the director of the poll, apparently expects the third party vote to dwindle by Election Day. It was about 3% in the 2020 election. But even that smaller proportion of the votes could affect the outcome here.

In a brief discussion, JR Ross, editor of Rewind, drills down on the race between Baldwin and Hovde to note that a major Republican super pac is not buying ad time in Wisconsin, possibly because Hovde is so wealthy that he may not need their funds but also possibly because Baldwin has just been so strong, winning by nearly 11% when she was last re-elected in 2018. Also notable is that the poll finds her with 52% of the vote. For those of us who are math-challenged that means more than half the respondents chose Baldwin in the most recent poll.

Before I turn you loose on the things you can be doing in the next couple of weeks, I want to make a case for voting early, either by absentee ballot or in-person. Voting early "banks" your vote, leaving you free on Election Day to do good work by driving people to the polls (sign up with Souls to the Polls), by doing some last minute canvassing to turn out the last votes, by being a poll observer (volunteer with the Wisconsin Democratic Party), or even by volunteering with your local municipal clerk to be an election inspector (i.e., a poll worker). Elections run on the labor of ordinary citizens as well as with paid election administrators. So working to make our elections free and fair is a wonderful way to be a proud participant on Election Day. Also, as Yogi Berra once said, “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” You never know when you will be ill or called out of town or have a car accident that prevents you from voting on November 5!

Absentee ballots are a little fiddly — because the certification envelope needs the signature and address of a witness — but they are secure and not, as some would have it, rife with corruption. They can now be returned three ways: in the US Mail, in a drop box, or in your municipal clerk's office. The ballots already requested will start to be mailed to you tomorrow. So you'll have plenty of time to look up key positions of the candidates: you can start by visiting our web page for the November 5 election. And you can have your ballot right next to the device you're using to do your research! You can get a sample of the ballot for your area at MyVote.WI.gov and you can also use that site to request an absentee ballot.

Voting early in person is actually just a different method for voting with an absentee ballot. The main difference is that you do it live and in person, typically in your municipal clerk's office. You can find out when and where to use this method on our Early Voting Information page for the North Shore and Ozaukee communities and on our page for the City of Milwaukee. Of course, you won't have the convenience of leisurely research as you would with an absentee ballot. So you'll need to use a smart phone to look up information about candidates as you vote in person. As you will, of course, if you vote on Election Day.

Now here are some SOMETHINGS you can DO:

• Write postcards for Jodi Habush Sinykin. The Jodi team has been assembling postcard bags — each bag has 60 postcards, 60 stamps, 60 addresses, and a Directions Sheet. The campaign has 100 bags ready to go. You can pick up a Postcard Baggie on Sunday, September 22, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm at 400 E Daphne Road, Milwaukee, WI 53217. Call or text Talia at 414-795-1433 with any questions.
  
  
• Write postcards for the VOTE NO campaign to defeat the Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment on the November 5 ballot. Part of the message reads: "This amendment addresses a problem that doesn't exist and lays the groundwork to assault the voting rights of eligible voters (e.g., elderly, students, women) who might have trouble proving citizenship at the voting booth." You can request the postcards in lots of 50.

I trust everyone watched the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and that shambolic former president last night. If you didn't here's a spoiler alert: she crushed, humiliated, and shamed him all night long. It's not just me saying it. Here's Steve Schmidt, former Republican operative: "Trump looked like a schlub for most of the debate. His shoulders were crumpled into a position of loserdom and weakness. His eyes were lowered and his head down because that is the position of subordination, defeat and humiliation. He was disemboweled by Kamala Harris, who destroyed him by becoming the first American in a decade to stand toe-to-toe with him, and call him out with eloquence, precision and devastating examples. [She] did what none of the men Trump rolled over could do. She emasculated him, shamed him, humiliated him, held him to account, expressed contempt, dismay and wonderment, while dismissing him with a look that was worth ten million words."

I could round up dozens of similar takes, but I don't have to because a diarist at Daily Kos has already done the work. He cites a wide variety of media outlets with links. So give yourself a little treat and cruise through the list. Of course if you have the time, you might want to watch the whole thing. Maybe even again! It was that thrilling. If you have less time, you might want to watch the Washington Post's ‘I’m talking now’: Most memorable lines from the Trump-Harris debate (about 10 minutes).

The New York Times has published a long article — 2024 Presidential Election Calendar — that details the dates for absentee balloting and early in person voting in pretty much every state. Though, oddly, Wisconsin does not make the list of states with voting by mail options, it does list October 31 for the last date to request an absentee ballot. If you want to vote by mail in this state, you should know that absentee ballots begin to be mailed on September 19. And you probably should request one at My Vote now. The article is a reminder that Election Day starts NOW and ENDS on November 5!

The Brennan Center has a great piece on How Voting Laws Have Changed in Battleground States Since 2020, including in Wisconsin. Here's their account: "Lawmakers in Wisconsin have made multiple attempts over the past few years to enact restrictive legislation. They would have succeeded but for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who vetoed at least seven restrictive bills that the Republican-controlled legislature passed. Four would have restricted the mail voting process, making it harder to apply for, or have a mail ballot counted. The fifth would have made it more difficult to join and remain on the state’s permanent mail voting list. The sixth and seventh would have mandated the Wisconsin Elections Commission to verify with the Division of Motor Vehicles that registered voters are citizens. Motor vehicle data is often outdated, meaning that people who have become naturalized citizens may be wrongfully purged."

One of those last two, verifying the citizenship of voters, is going to appear on your November 5 ballot as a potential Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote and the instances of such voting are vanishingly rare. So from the jump, the amendment is unnecessary. If passed, it would change the current language — "Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district" is a qualified voter — to say "Only a United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district is a qualified voter." The League of Women Voters explains why this apparently meaningless change is nevertheless "harmful and can diminish our voting rights." The League will hold a webinar on the topic on Tuesday, September 17 at 7pm Central Time. You can register here.

Also the League has now published its Voter Guide — VOTE411.org — with essential information for Wisconsin voters ahead of the November 5 election. It has also published a podcast — This is What Democracy Sounds Like — with Carlene Bechen discussing the new maps.

The Milwaukee Chapter of the League is providing Voter Registration Training on Thursday, September 12, from 3:00 - 4:00pm at No Studios, 1037 W McKinley Ave. You will learn how to register people to vote using MyVote.WI.gov, including what is acceptable photo ID. Registration is required. You can also use the online tutorial, both in a text version and in a video version.

Three additional ways to DO SOMETHING have come to my attention this week:

1. The Jodi Habush Sinykin campaign is seeking places to put large Jodi signs. So, do you have a high-visibility yard, or a friend who does? We want to put the 8' x 4' and 4' x 4' signs all over the district!! Please reach out to [email protected] for sign requests.
   
   
2. Become part of the DPW Voter Protection program. It's critical, and there are many opportunities to help, including observing, manning phones, etc. Sign up for training. The highest priority for the VoPro team is recruiting poll observers. They are the eyes and ears around the state. Sign up to be a poll observer. And here is a document with all their volunteer opportunities.
   
   
3. Apartment and condo buildings are hard to reach when canvassing. We are looking to have a Democrat in every building in Shorewood to be the point of contact. You will be a given a list of building tenants and a script to reach the Democrats in these residences and invite them to be a part of this innovative program. To be a recruiter, contact Keith Schmitz.

And as usual, there's a copious list of events you can participate in over the next few weeks.

Help protect Democracy with WisDems Voter Protection team!

The WisDems Voter Protection team is looking for volunteers to help voters vote and be sure that their votes count. The Voter Protection team runs a variety of programs that ensure ballot access is preserved, election laws are followed, and democracy is protected. 

On November 5, we have the opportunity to elect VP Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz and reelect Senator Tammy Baldwin while sending historic numbers of Democrats to the State Legislature after over a decade of Republican gerrymandering in Wisconsin. The work of our Voter Protection team is critical to protecting democracy and electing Democrats. In 2020, Joe Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes, which comes down to only 3 votes per ward. Read on to find out how you can volunteer and protect those 3 voters we need to win! 

In State Opportunities

HIGHEST PRIORITY: Become a Poll Observer: wisdems.org/novemberpollobserver

Poll observers are our eyes and ears at polling places on Election Day. Observers will be the last line of defense against any problems voters might face in trying to cast their ballot, which makes poll observing the single most important thing you can do other than cast a ballot yourself to ensure a strong, healthy democracy. Become a poll observer for the November 5th election and help support your community on Election Day! The last day to sign up to be a WisDems poll observer for the November General Election is October 22nd, the day of our final training. 

Learn What it means to be a Poll Observer:  wisdems.org/pollobserverinfo

Are you interested in protecting Wisconsin voters this year? Join our 30 minute Poll Observer Info Session to learn more about how you can be a crucial resource to voters. Poll Observers are the eyes and the ears of our team on the ground on Election Day and are the last line of defense against instances of voter suppression and a crucial resource for voters. At our Poll Observer Info Sessions, we'll cover the basics of being a Poll Observer and walk you through the steps to get involved.

Remote Opportunities

Join a Phonebank for Wisconsin Poll Observers: wisdems.org/voprophonebank

Come make calls to Wisconsinites and get more people involved in the fight for voting rights! Training is offered at every event, and no need to prepare anything in advance--we’ll provide scripts & resources, so all you need is a computer and a phone. We welcome Wisconsin residents and out-of-state volunteers in all our phonebanks! The final day to join a Poll Observer Recruitment Phonebank is Monday, October 14th. 

Sign up for Absentee Ballot Cure: https://mobilize.us/s/AcSgXi 

Join the WisDems Ballot Cure Program to assist absentee voters and make every vote count! At Ballot Cure, we call voters whose ballots are in danger of rejection, walk them through the steps to remedy it, and ensure their vote gets counted. We host weekly virtual phonebanks with a training for new volunteers, and a room for experienced volunteers to make calls at the same time. The final day to join Ballot Cure is October 21st.

Staff the Voter Assistance Hotline: https://mobilize.us/s/LIlaHA

Join a team of volunteers dedicated to assisting voters all across the state. The Voter Assistance Hotline is an extremely important resource for WI residents, and we are recruiting volunteers who want to connect with voters and help make a difference. Our final training will be held on September 12th.

Key Links

November Poll Observer Official Signup: wisdems.org/novemberpollobserver 

Poll Observer Recruitment Phonebank signup: wisdems.org/voprophonebank

All Voter Protection events: wisdems.org/voproevents

Voting Registration and Information Website: myvote.wi.gov

WisDems Voter Guide and early vote info: vote.wisdems.org/ev

Project 2025 - A Summary

Project 2025 is a 900-page blueprint, developed by conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, for a conservative administration to take power and impose a white Christian nationalist agenda on all Americans. Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 because of its unpopularity but 31 of the 38 drafters were members of Trump’s administration and Trump is named over 300 times in the document.

The following is a list of the changes recommended by Project 2025.

Government

Invoke Section 17 to reclassify most government employees as political appointees and fire or replace them with Trump loyalists

by-pass Congress

Pack the courts with MAGA judges

Deploy the military to stop protests

End independence of DOJ

Eliminate FDA, NOAA

Dismantle FBI and Homeland Security

Economy

Reduce taxes for top 1% and corporations

Reduce regulations on big business and oil

Eliminate unions and worker protections

Education

Eliminate Department of Education

Use tax funded vouchers to pay for private religious schools

Increase reliance on privately-managed charter schools

Encourage religious indoctrination through public schools

Ban African American and gender studies

Limit curriculum about slavery and racism

Ban books on slavery, racism, fascism etc

Health Care and Retirement

Repeal ACA

Reduce Medicare and Medicaid

Raise retirement age

Eliminate Social Security for elderly and disabled

Social Policy

Reduce federal funding for social programs, food assistance, housing

Eliminate Head Start and free/discounted school lunch

Dismantle Civil Rights and DEI protections in all levels of government

Promote capital punishment

Women’s Rights and Family

Enact nationwide abortion ban regardless of viability of fetus or health of mother

Ban all contraceptives

End no-fault divorce

End same sex marriage

Condemn single mothers and encourage traditional families

Immigration/Citizenship

Deport 10 million immigrants or detain in camps

Ban Muslims from entering country

Reduce legal immigration

End birthright citizenship

Environment 

Limit power of EPA, move to states

Expand drilling for oil and natural gas

Open up artic and public lands to drilling

Reduce protections for endangered species

Foreign Policy

Abandon NATO

Stop assistance to Ukraine

Support Israel v Palestine

Build up military

Focus on China

Michele Obama exhorts us to DO SOMETHING!! OK, but what can each of us do? Here's what:

• Volunteer for a canvass, taking place pretty much every Saturday and Sunday from now until November 5:
      Fox Point / Bayside
      Glendale
      Lakefront
      Shorewood
      Whitefish Bay
      Mequon
      Grafton and Cedarburg
      Jodi Habush Sinykin campaign
  
  If you are physically unable to canvass but would volunteer to drive canvassers through their turfs, send email to Nancy Kaplan. If you can, include the dates you would be available. Shifts run at 9am, 12noon, and 3pm.
  
  
• Volunteer to write postcards: We're targeting likely Democratic women with a goal of informing them of key candidates and to encourage them to vote. Grassroots North Shore will provide the postcards, names/addresses, stamps, and easy instructions. Send email to Norma Gilson.
  
  
• Volunteer to make phone calls: We will be following up our initial postcard mailing with phone calls to women voters who lean toward Democratic candidates. We've expanded our mailing target to just under 9,000 voters. Grassroots North Shore will provide names, phone numbers, scripts to use, and brief instructions. To reach such a large number of voters, we will REALLY NEED YOUR HELP. Send email to Nancy Kaplan.
  
  
• Volunteer to handout voter information at UWM, MIAD, and possibly other colleges and universities in the area. Grassroots North Shore will provide you with flyers and schedule specific days and times with you. Send email to Norma Gilson.
  
  
• Volunteer to write letters to those Republican women who probably voted for Nikki Haley in our April 2 presidential primary. Grassroots North Shore will provide a printed letter with a space for a hand-written note and a signature line, names and address, envelopes, and stamps. Send email to Nancy Kaplan.
  
  
• If you can't volunteer for some reason or just because you hate knocking on doors or calling/texting strangers, you can help Grassroots North Shore's efforts to elect Democrats and Progressives by donating to our fund for stamps, postcards, envelopes, printing, and the data that allows us to target our efforts.

Finally, though more in the semi-distant future, WAVE is holding a statewide Emergency Gun Violence Summit at the Baird Center (400 W Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee) on Thursday, October 10. Register for Wisconsin's largest gun violence prevention event, organized by Forward Latino and the 80% Coalition, a group of nearly 40 advocacy, business, faith-based, and service organizations! WAVE has generously offered supporters of Grassroots North Shore an opportunity to attend the event, including the luncheon, free of charge!

Now to the news: In case you missed Tuesday's ballot access news, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has you covered. In addition to Vice President Harris and the Butternut Berlusconi, the also-rans will include RFK Jr, Jill Stein, Cornel West, and one or two others. According to the MJS article, "the latest Marquette University Law School poll released in early August and before Kennedy dropped out, Vice President Kamala Harris had a two-point lead over Trump when third-party candidates were factored in. Polling for Kennedy has declined to 8% from double digits earlier in the year, and other third-party candidates are polling at 1% or less in Wisconsin."

Third party candidates, frankly, never succeed. But they can cause mischief. In The Guardian, David Daley articulates a solution that respects what third parties represent but also drains the mischief from their effects: "We need a modern fix that recognizes that third parties are here to stay, but also that a nation with a guiding principle of majority rule deserves winners who earn more than 50% of their fellow Americans’ votes. The best solution to the urgent 'spoiler' problem – which we’ve been exhaustingly debating since Ross Perot’s run in 1992 – is ranked-choice voting (RCV)."

Of course there are other, perhaps more reliable, ways of causing electoral mischief. The news from Georgia's Election Board is, for example, concerning since it seems as if it's just the most visible of widespread efforts to delay certifying vote counts in several states in an effort to stymy Congressional certification on January 6, 2025. Here's how Ian Millhiser explains the situation on Vox.com. "The Georgia State Elections Board recently enacted two new rules that seem designed to allow local election officials to sabotage the state’s vote-counting process.... The rules seek to alter the role of local election officials known as superintendents, whose job is to gather the vote tallies from the polling places within their jurisdiction, add up the tallies, and report those numbers to Georgia’s secretary of state. For at least a century, the Georgia Supreme Court has held that this duty is 'purely ministerial' and that these superintendents 'have no right to adjudicate upon the subject of irregularity or fraud' in an election."

Rick Hasen (Gary T. Schwartz Endowed Chair in Law and Professor of Political Science in the UCLA School of Law) will be publishing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on August 31 titled Why It Will Be Harder for Trump to Challenge This Year’s Election. He's put part of the essay on Election Law Blog, which he curates.

His full text will be behind the Journal's paywall, but even his excerpt is well worth a read.

Perhaps, like me, you were unaware that the Electoral Count Reform Act basically removes the threat of the so-called "contingent election," a process which would almost certainly anoint Benedict Don-Old. So it is important to know that the Act is "a strong bipartisan bill and major victory for voters’ ability to make their voices heard in future presidential elections" (Campaign Legal Center, February 15, 2024).

And then there's the joy that cometh in the morning! The New York Times opinion section offers Joy Can Do More Than Beat Trump by David French: "After nine years of confronting Donald Trump and facing a MAGA movement that has remade the Republican Party I once belonged to, I believe that fear may be sufficient to beat Trump, but only joy can push MAGA back to the periphery of American life." He goes on to wonder "if we’re leaving the era of the nasty snarl in favor of the broad smile. And it’s not just the Harris surge that’s made me wonder about this." The link above should get you past the paywall and the opinion is also worth a full read.

And on those hopeful signs of a nascent sanity in our political stew, how about a little Randy Rainbow to sing us out: The Lawyer or the Conman.

What a wonderful convention the Democrats are putting on! I was unable to hear many of the early speeches because I was in Fiserv Forum for the Harris/Walz rally. We did see part of the roll call, though, with our own Jason Rae presiding. Each state had its own "walk-on music." Ours, of course, was Jump Around. And we had our own DJ! The place was truly rockin'. But because of the hours I spent there — from roughly 3:30 to about 9:30pm — I have also been unable to gather as much newsy information as usual for this edition of this newsletter. So short shrift today, I fear.

I don't usually include photos or graphics in these communications because they sometimes make accessing the emails more difficult. But I'm sending you this joyful one of Vice President Kamala Harris bringing the house down in Milwaukee last night:

For those of you who missed some or all of the great presentations last night, here are links to some of the best:

• Representative Jamie Raskin's charming and forceful presentation, about 7.5 minutes
• Representative Jasmine Crockett skewering the MAGAites with a big grin, about 10 minutes
• Michelle Obama who is decidedly like no other, 20 minutes
• the inimitable President Barack Obama, 35 minutes

There were a lot of newsworthy presentations but I also want to commend to you the brief remarks by Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles, a self-confessed lifelong Republican. It's only a few seconds longer than two minutes.

Governor Tim Walz was a convention night's version of Where's Waldo. He was in Chicago one minute and in Milwaukee the next. Or so it seemed. His speech was nearly drowned out by the jubilent crowd a good deal of the time, but I did clearly here him say: "They [the GOP] left here riding high. Well, trust me, a hell of a lot can change in four weeks. You run a campaign based on fear, you’re going run into a little trouble when you run into a campaign that’s based on joy." You can find his entire talk at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's YouTube channel (12 minutes).

Every journalist and podcaster has a take on the Michelle and Barack show but one of the best that I have seen is David Kurtz's on Talking Points Memo. Kurtz includes a clip of President Obama's physical gestures that accompany his take-down of the Groper-in-Chief. It's not enough to read the words. You've got to see it!

Michelle Obama's speech was nothing short of superb but one line really stood out to me: Kamala Harris "understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth." You can watch a brief clip of that central moment here.

Tonight, Governor Tim Walz will accept his nomination to be the next Vice President of the United States. Former President Bill Clinton, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also scheduled to speak Wednesday. Then the grande finale tomorrow night: Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic Party's nomination to be the next President of the United States. You can join other Milwaukee County Democrats at a watch party to close the momentous Democratic National Convention.

I'm going to end this paean to the Democratic Party and the Harris/Walz campaign with a a note about resources in the month since our great President Biden stepped back from the race and endorsed his Vice President as his successor. The sour grapes crowd is calling this change a coup. Absolute balderdash! We're calling it a switch. And since Harris began her sprint, the campaign has really switched on the fund-raising gas, apparently amassing about half a BILLION dollars: "U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' election effort has raised around $500 million since she became the Democratic presidential candidate, sources told Reuters, an unprecedented money haul that reflects donor enthusiasm going into the Nov. 5 election" (Reuters, August 20, 2024).

We may have the big MO (momentum as some folks call it). But we still need to follow Michelle Obama's exhortation: DO SOMETHING! This coming weekend, August 24 and 25, is a vital Weekend of Action. You will find links to the closest canvass locations in the list below. Even if you can't do the walk and knock thing, you could drive people who can. So let's go win this thing!

         Democratic Party Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, to be her vice presidential running mate. This choice has prompted reflexive criticism of Walz' policies during his time as Governor of Minnesota.   Prominent among these are complaints about his policy to provide school breakfast and lunch for K - 12 schoolchildren, regardless of income. Another complaint is aimed at his declaration that Minnesota will be carbon neutral in electricity production by the year 2040. Still another is expanded voting convenience by adding voting places, days and hours plus drop boxes.  These government policies have earned Walz such labels as "tax and spend liberal," "socialist," "left-wing radical," and even "Marxist."

School Breakfast and Lunch

         Governor Walz used state funds to expand the school lunch program to include breakfast and lunch for all students.  He did this for two reasons: first, the non-poor were eating junk food that did not support their learning process; and secondly, if the meals were not provided to all kids, then those whose family incomes  were low enough to qualify for the federal lunch program would be identified as poor, inviting shaming and bullying. Walz removed the stigma by feeding all the students.

         Expanding the school nutrition program also enabled schools to achieve "economies of scale:"   Once the equipment and staff are in place to serve, say,  a third of the kids who are on federal lunch, the extra cost of serving the rest of the kids is fairly small. The capital equipment is already in place, the staff is hired, and additional supplies can be ordered likely with quantity discounts.    The school provides certain supplies and textbooks and computer-aided instruction, why not nutrition-aided instruction?   The benefits of school meals are public goods; as they say in Minnesota,  'each student learns better when they all learn better.'

 Carbon-neutral by 2040

         The root cause of the greenhouse emissions problem is called an economic "externality," i.e., a bi-product of buyer-seller exchange activity where  neither the buyer nor the seller face incentives to control -- or even monitor --  the costs of their actions.   The external cost of production is borne by the public rather than by the buyers and sellers of the electricity.     It is well understood in economics that regulation is needed to control externalities.    Unregulated markets will overproduce and underprice goods like electricity when they are generated with fuels that emit an external cost.   

         It is ridiculous to affix the pejorative "socialist" label to controls on emissions.    This is recognized by the self-described pro-market "conservative"   Climate Leadership Council that proposes a tax on carbon emissions and a tariff on imports from countries that fail to control their emissions.  (For more on carbon regulation:  https://shepherdexpress.com/news/issue-of-the-month/how-will-the-carbon-tax-slow-climate-chaos/)

 Voting rights

         Walz has proposed to make voting more convenient by adding polling places and expanding voting days and hours at those polling places, plus drop boxes for added convenience. It is ridiculous to affix "Socialism" to efforts to reduce the time cost of voting and to assure that the votes will be counted. In fact, it is just the opposite: when you impose high time costs on some people relative to others, representation is shifted to those with relative ease in voting.    Non-representative government redirects government resources, financed by tax dollars, toward those who have a voting advantage.  If it is socialism, it is socialism for the rich.  (For more on Socialism for the Rich see an earlier essay in Econ4Voters:  https://www.grassrootsnorthshore.com/20230824_mt). 

So the primary election for partisan offices except for president (which was included in the April 2 election) is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 13. If you have not voted yet, or even if you have, please contact your network of family, friends, and co-workers to turn them out to vote. Usually this kind of summer primary is not well attended, but this year the August election features TWO constitutional amendments that if passed will cripple this state's government in its response to emergencies, slow the budgeting process, and promote gridlock and a standoff between the legislative and the executive branches of government.

Learn more about these ballot questions at our website or the more extensive page from the League of Women Voters. You can see a sample ballot for your specific location at MyVote.WI.gov. That site will also tell you what your polling place is. Since we have new maps, it would be wise to check as your voting districts and your polling place may have changed.

Make a plan to vote! Make a plan to VOTE NO on both ballot questions!! They can be easily overlooked since they are on the back side of the ballot at the very bottom.

This missive is not a substitute for a real newsletter, but it will have to do until Thursday, a day later than usual. I'll be able to bring you the results of the voting on the ballot questions in our North Shore and Ozaukee communities as well as other news in our local, state, and federal elections.

Meanwhile rejoice for a moment or two: the latest polls in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin show the Harris-Walz ticket ahead by 4 in each of those states. It's early days yet, so don't sit back thinking we have this thing in the bag. We don't. We'll need EVERYONE to play a part in electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

You can start by planning to attend Glenna Cose Brin's Political Engagement Party on Tuesday, August 20, and/or the Milwaukee County Democratic Party's Acceptance Speech Watch Party on Thursday, August 22, when Vice President Kamala Harris will take up the presidential candidate mantle and propel us on the way to victory. I hope that by the time I write this week's real newsletter, I will have more information and links to sign up for these two events. Until then, though, pencil them in your calendar.

And while you're making a note of some near-future events, add the in-person Grassroots North Shore event, What Future Do We Want? It's up to us!, on Sunday, September 8, at Maslowski Park, 2200 W Bender Rd, Glendale. News of the speakers and other information about the event will be coming soon.

For an uplifting piece, read Reed Galen's substack "Irrational" Exuberance. The subhead for the piece is "Happiness is a Good and Necessary Thing in Politics." Give yourself a five-minute treat. Then go to our 2024 Election Volunteer page to figure out how you can best help the cause.

It's Governor Tim Walz for Vice President! The news outlets are filled to overflowing with the announcement and with details about the man and his life story. Here's how Talking Points Memo's David Kurtz succinctly summed up the choice: "A former teacher and coach and longtime National Guardsman, Walz has not been a prominent figure on the national Democratic stage. He was not known to have presidential ambitions. But in the weeks since President Biden ended his re-election bid, Walz’s solid record as a progressive governor, his perceived appeal in the critical Blue Wall states, and his direct, folksy manner had catapulted him into the top rank of vice presidential contenders for Harris."

Here's the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel approach: "after Harris' announcement [Wisconsin Democrats] pointed to Walz's working-class background as a former high school teacher, his military service and his six terms in Congress as experience that could appeal to voters in a key swing state like Wisconsin."

A lot of other news has been relegated to the virtual back pages by the sudden burst of excitement surrounding the presidential campaign. So here's a short list of stories you might find newsworthy. In the Arizona fraudulent electors case, former Orange Julius attorney Jenna Ellis is now cooperating with prosecutors. You can see coverage and a video of her statement at Politico.

In a sign of how potentially violent and intimidating our elections seem to have become, Arizona's Maricopa County "public school district isn’t opening its schools to voters as polling sites." It's not clear from the article in the Washington Post (gifted to you) exactly how widespread this phenomenon is: "Heightened school safety protocols and sustained attacks on voting systems and the people who run them — largely by Trump and his supporters — have prompted school leaders across America in both red and blue states to close their doors to the democratic process, according to interviews with nearly 20 school district leaders, county officials, school safety officials and election experts."

Don the Con is scheduled to be sentenced on September 18. Roger Parloff, Senior Editor of Lawfare, has taken A Close Look at Trump’s Immunity Objections to His N.Y. Convictions. "With the filing of Donald Trump’s reply memorandum on Aug. 1, briefing is now complete on whether the former president’s 34 felony convictions, handed down by a Manhattan jury on May 30, can survive the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 1 presidential immunity ruling. New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has pledged to rule on that question by Sept. 6 and, if he rules for the People, to then proceed to Trump’s sentencing on Sept. 18." Parloff recognizes just how fraught the territory Judge Merchan must cover and foresees the case traversing the trial and appellate courts in New York only to land yet again at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Before turning to more immediate and proximate matters, let's take a minute or two to poke the bear! The one RFK Jr. dumped in Central Park a decade ago. Unfortunately he posted his strange confession video on X(Twitter). But you really should hold your nose and go see it. He's telling this story to Roseanne Barr and some unnamed and unseen others, and they're all laughing it up. But it should not be funny. RFK recounts how he saw coverage of the bizarre events on the news, with "a mile of yellow tape, 20 cop cars and helicopters flying over it." So, the dead bear discovery involved an extensive public safety response. Ha ha?

The euphoria around our new Democratic ticket cannot blind us to the work we need to do in our own backyards. So here are some immediate ways for you to engage: On Saturday, August 10, and Sunday, August 11, we are volunteering with the Democratic Party to Get Out the Vote for next Tuesday's election. Even if you don't have a lot of contested races on your ballot, it is imperative that we all vote and VOTE NO on the two ballot questions you will find at the bottom of the second side or your ballot. In addition, we are knocking on as many doors as we can. So please pitch in. In general, you can find events near you by going to Mobilize, but here are some happening in the North Shore:

If you can't canvass, show up for a shift and offer to navigate and drive for a canvasser. It will make a huge difference.

As you know, Jodi Habush Sinykin is running to represent state Senate District 8. The district encompasses Assembly Districts 22, 23, and 24. And Democrats have candidates running in all three of those districts, too. Jodi's campaign is already up and running and she needs our support for the five canvasses she has scheduled in August. (These are in addition to canvasses organized by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.)

• August 7th @ 5:30 - Germantown
• August 9th @ 4:30 - Menomonee Falls
• August 14th @ 5:30 - Port Washington
• August 20th @ 5:30 - Menomonee Falls
• August 26th @ 5:30 - Mequon

If you have not seen Vice President Kamala Harris's first ad for her campaign for president, give yourself a brief treat, complements of The Guardian. The spot is called "We Choose Freedom." Beyoncé's song "Freedom" provides the musical accompaniment as Kamala Harris frames the election: "the freedom to get ahead; the freedom to be safe from gun violence; the freedom to make decisions about your own body." She defines herself as a prosecutor versus a felon. Most importantly, she is looking toward a hopeful, joyous future as opposed to the MAGA agenda taking us back to an age of illegal abortions and an era of manifest inequality before the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act became law. As she exclaimed in her speech in Indianapolis last week, “These extremists want to take us backward, but we are not going back.”

Here's another great Harris ad. Our fearless VP and presidential candidate calls Benedict Donald out for nixing the bipartisan border bill this past spring. Although she's only 10 days into this project, her campaign team is apparently in full swing. I don't usually recommend this but keep your eyes open for more of her campaign ads!

So, have you heard about "weird" as an epithet for The Big Lie-bowski and his Mini-Me JD? What do you think? Here's what Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo thinks. And here's a whole blog post (kinda crude) documenting just how weird the MAGA set are. It's a surprising way to define your opponents in a political race, but it seems to be catching on and, more to the point, working. An AP story explains how it came about and why it seems to work.

On the local scene, early in-person voting began yesterday, July 30. Generally, early voting takes place in your town, village, or city hall. If you have not requested an absentee ballot already, you should consider early in-person voting. Voting by absentee ballot or early in person has a significant upside: they're much more flexible ways to vote than planning to vote on Election Day. To see the early voting information for your community, visit our page Early Voting Information for August 13 Primary. You might also want to prepare for voting in this election by viewing a sample ballot and by reading up on the candidates. Our Elections 2024 provides the names of candidates and links to their online sites. And if you live in Glendale, Shorewood, or the part of the city in Senate District 4, you might want to review information about the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for SD4.

As those of us in Glendale and Shorewood know, Dora Drake has now been elected to Senate District 4 to fill out the term for that senate seat, vacant since February when Lena Taylor became a Milwaukee County Judge. Now as the incumbent, she is running in the August 13 primary to be the Democratic nominee for Senate District 4 on the November 5 ballot. You can find election information about Senator Drake and her opponent Representative LaKeshia Myers as well as other candidates on the August 13 ballot. Those of us in Assembly District 10 should also know that Grassroots North Shore enthusiastically endorses Senator Drake. So if you live in Glendale or Shorewood — or in Assembly Districts 10, 11, or 12 — you can vote for her again!

The 10 days or so since Vice President Harris became the presumptive nominee for president have been amazing and joyous. Filled with energy and enthusiasm. In the next week or so, we can carry her message of freedom and opportunity throughout our area. Here are some of the canvasses and other volunteer events you should really sign up for:

• High Traffic Canvassing in Glendale, Thursday August 1, 6:00 - 7:30pm. Stone Creek Coffe, 6969 N Port Washington Rd, Glendale
  
  
• Fox Point Volunteer Recruitment Phonebank, Thursday August 1, 7:00 - 8:30pm (repeats Thursday August 8) Address provided on sign-up.
  
  
• Weekday Canvassing in Fox Point Thursday August 1, 4:30 - 7:30pm (repeats on Friday August 2, Monday August 5, Tuesday August 6, and August 7 - 13 )
  
  
• Fox Point Canvass, Saturday August 3, 9:00am - 12:00pm and 12:00 - 3:00pm (repeats Sunday August 4, Saturday August 10 and Sunday August 11) Address provided on sign-up.
  
  
• Shorewood Canvassing, Saturday August 3, 9:00am - 12:00pm and 12:00 - 3:00pm, 94516 N Newhall St. (repeats Saturday August 10)
  
  
• Glendale Canvassing, Sunday August 4, 9:00am - 12:00pm and 12:00 - 3:00pm (repeats Saturday August 10 and Sunday August 11)
  
  
• Social / Relational Organizing Glendale & Fox Point, Tuesday, August 6, 6:00 - 7:30pm
  
  
• John Zarbano Meet and Greet, Tuesday August 6, 6:00 - 7:00pm, Cedarburg Library Community Room
  
  
• Get Out the Vote in Grafton and Cedarburg, Saturday August 10, 9:00am - 12:00pm and 12:00 - 3:00pm (repeats Sunday August 11), address upon sign-up
  
  
• Get Out the Vote in Port Washington, Saturday August 10, 9:00am - 12:00pm and 12:00 - 3:00pm (repeats Sunday August 11), address upon sign-up

As you know, Jodi Habush Sinykin is running to represent state Senate District 8. The district encompasses Assembly Districts 22, 23, and 24. And Democrats have candidates running in all three of those districts. Jodi's campaign is already up and running and she needs our support for the five canvasses she has scheduled in August. (These are in addition to canvasses organized by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.)

• August 7th @ 5:30 - Germantown
• August 9th @ 4:30 - Menomonee Falls
• August 14th @ 5:30 - Port Washington
• August 20th @ 5:30 - Menomonee Falls
• August 26th @ 5:30 - Mequon

It's great if you can canvass. But if you can't, you can really assist a canvasser by volunteering to drive the canvasser through the route. Because her district includes a large chunk of Ozaukee County — some of it very difficult to walk without a driver/navigator — and chunks of Washington and Waukesha counties — areas with which most of our canvassers are unfamiliar — having a driver and navigator makes knocking on doors more efficient. So please sign up for one or more of the Habush Sinykin events above.

There are lots of ways you can help get out the vote for this very low turn-out election in just under two weeks. Here's one. Rideshare2Vote Wisconsin: Help drive voters on a Ride2Vote! At Rideshare2Vote, our mission is clear: Our complimentary Ride2Vote Program creates access to the polls for voters and boosts Democratic voter turnout. Join the only team in the nation making sure voters cast their ballots. Our team contacts and schedules a Ride2Vote for nonvoting Democrats year-round to stave off the MAGA assault at every level of our government. You can learn more here, then sign up for training now. Sign up.

There's a lot of news to get to, including the drivel from the RNC, but first things first. Grassroots North Shore really needs a few more good people! Norma Gilson has 5 or 6 packages of flyers to be dropped off at houses in Glendale and Shorewood. This action differs from canvassing in that we are not asking you to knock on doors or talk to strangers if you don't want to. These turf packets are easily walkable. And they are part of our "VOTE NO on the ballot questions" campaign. To deliver flyers, contact Norma Gilson.

I have 20 some phone lists that have not yet been assigned. These are really easy calls to make to strong Democratic women who live in the new Senate District 8. These women have recently received a postcard from us alerting them to the August 13 election. The phone call reinforces the postcard message and provides a chance to give more information about the ballot questions. I started my call list yesterday and had two wonderful conversations with women who were only dimly aware of the election and were grateful for the call, and especially on the information about the ballot questions. We are leaving messages and/or texting people too. To sign up for a phone list, contact Nancy Kaplan.

Jody Habush Sinykin is recruiting people to canvass for her, separately from the canvasses the Democrats are hosting. She's running for the tipping point state senate seat (formerly held by Dan Knodl). Winning this senate seat is vital to the strategy for winning the state senate majority in 2026. Vying for that seat is the execrable Duey Strobel who is new to the redrawn Senate District 8. So it's a very winnable race and Jodi is a fabulous candidate. We need to give her all the support we can. To kick off her campaign in earnest, she is holding a campaign launch party for anyone who will canvass for her. The kickoff party takes place on Monday, July 29, at 5pm. To sign up, please email Talia Gottlieb or go to her Volunteer Sign Up page.

And the last ask of this week: The Democratic Part of Milwaukee County shoulders the responsibility for the Dems State Fair booth. The Fair runs from Thursday, August 1, through Sunday, August 11, with three shifts per day: 10am - 2pm; 2 - 6pm; and 6 - 9pm. In exchange for volunteering, you will be mailed a free admission ticket for each shift you sign up for. Sign up.

Now for the news! The Republican Convention is in town, of course. Tonight's big keynote speech will come from the newly anointed VP pick, Senator J.D.Vance. Republicans seem to be ecstatic about the choice. In the coming days, we will learn more about his positions on the issues, though he has been known to be something of a chameleon. Here's the Biden-Harris campaign's substack on his positions: DONALD TRUMP AND J.D. VANCE. Contrast those positions with President Biden's accomplishments.

In the past few days we saw two truly astonishing events. First, Don the Con's close call with a bullet from an AR-15 style weapon wielded by a 20 year old, apparently conservative, young man. As yet, the authorities know very little about the shooter so we should not speculate about even the most innocuous detail. The fact that he was able to get into a position close enough to attempt an assassination is troubling.

CNN is producing live updates on the House investigations into how such an event could have happened. CBS News notes that "a sniper from a local tactical team deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service at the rally took a picture of the gunman and saw him looking through a rangefinder minutes before he tried to assassinate the former president, a local law enforcement officer with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News." We might be shocked, but not surprised, that we continue to witness such political violence. Now The Former Guy is both a fomenter and a victim of it. You can bet on the play his victimhood will get, both in his campaign and in its coverage.

Oddly enough, what Judge Cannon ruled in the Mar-a-Lago documents case is, to me at least, considerably more concerning. She has ruled that the special counsel, Jack Smith, "was illegally appointed by the Justice Department" (AP, July 15, 2024). "The dismissal by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon brings a stunning and abrupt halt to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted." Andrew Weissmann and Mary McCord discuss both the attempted assissination and Jack Smith's options for the case on their podcast "Prosecuting Donald Trump: An Unsettling Few Days." Apparently Jack Smith has already indicated he will appeal, either to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals or directly to the US Supreme Court.

If it stands, the Cannon ruling will cast doubt on 25 years of special counsels, including the work of the odious Ken Starr and the cases against Hunter Biden. But more seriously, the ruling would mean much more difficulty appointing special counsels in the first place — as I understand it they would have to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. So the Department of Justice would have no other mechanism to try to structure an investigation so that it is removed from political pressure. That, after all, was the purpose of the Special Counsel statute in the first place. Here's Wikipedia's explanation: "In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exists for the usual prosecuting authority."