Dear {{recipient.first_name_or_friend}} — 

With just three weeks until the primary (February 21), here's what you need to do:

1. MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE!
2. Check your registration, polling place, sample ballot, and request an absentee ballot at MyVote.WI.gov
3. Find information about the candidates who are on the February 21 ballot at our Elections page.
4. Find early voting times and places for your community on our early in-person voting page.
5. Ask five friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to vote in this super low turnout election.

On my ballot for the primary, there is only one race: to determine which two candidates will be on the April 4 ballot for Supreme Court Justice. This phenomenon is likely to be the case in many municipalities across the state. In the seven north shore communities and in Ozaukee County there are hardly any contested races in the primary. But this primary is on EVERY BALLOT IN THE STATE. Don't you dare miss it.

The candidates are not shown as affiliated with any political party because this election is supposedly nonpartisan. But we all know that is not the case. There are two progressive judges running: Judge Janet Protasiewicz (pronounced pro-tuh-SAY-witz) and Judge Everett Mitchell. Visit our page devoted to this office for links to the candidates' responses to our questionnaire, their websites and other online information. And vote for ONE of them!

There are a lot of other resources you might want to consult. In his column Murphy's Law in Urban Milwaukee, Bruce Murphy details The Radical Views of Kelly and Dorow, the two "conservatives" running in this primary. The piece delves into Regent University's law school where Kelly and Dorow both got their law degrees, exploring the school's principles and its standing among law schools in the US. He also notes that Kelly — a Scott Walker appointee on the Wisconsin Supreme Court but who lost his election for a full 10-year term in 2020 — "wrote a book, in 2014, with strikingly unorthodox views on the law, declaring that that 'all authority' comes not from the U.S. Constitution but from God." As for Dorow, Murphy cites her letter applying to Walker for a vacant seat on a Wisconsin Circuit Court: "her application for the judgeship condemned the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision by the U.S. Supreme Court as the 'worst Wisconsin or U.S. Supreme Court decision.' The 6-3 ruling cited the Due Process clause of the 14th amendment to strike down the sodomy law in Texas." He goes on to say that "press accounts of her debate performance [on january 9, 2023] raised questions about her knowledge of the issues. 'Dorow spent most of the time during her answers referencing a plastic binder of notes in front of her,' PBS Wisconsin reported. 'On most questions, Dorow read from a prepared script and did not answer fully,' the Journal Sentinel observed."

The Wisconsin Examiner, in a piece by Henry Redman, exposes the views the two "conservatives" espoused at a December 6, 2022, event held by the Republican Women of Waukesha County for “celebrating conservatives in law.” It provides insights into more than judicial "philosophy" and is well worth the few minutes it takes to read.

John Nichols, associate editor of the Capital Times, published a piece in early January setting the background for this race and rightly demonstrating that Justice Roggensack, whose resignation creates this judicial opening, led a Court that has been highly partisan: "In recent years, Roggensack has been part of a conservative majority than has turned the Supreme Court into a national embarrassment. With her fellow conservative judicial activist colleagues, Roggensack undermined public health measures during the coronavirus pandemic, eroded nonpartisan oversight of elections and embraced gerrymandering of legislative districts to favor the conservative majority's Republican allies." And he points out that "since 2018, conservatives have lost two places on the high court bench with the easy elections of a pair of mainstream progressive jurists. Justice Rebecca Dallet won in 2018 by a 56-44 margin, and Justice Jill Karofsky won by a 55-45 margin in 2020." He concludes "For progressives, the question is which contender would be the strongest in an April general election against a conservative. If voters bet right, and if Roggensack’s seat is taken by a progressive, the court will be able to revisit the issues it got wrong during Roggensack’s tenure."

Spencer Black, a regular columnist for The Capitol Times, has a January 24 piece, From elections to drinking water — court election could seal Wisconsin's fate, discussed the race and, like Nichols, urged voters to "support the strongest candidate." Only he does make a choice. Black has a deep knowledge of politics in this state. As he's been talking to "politically knowledgeable folks around the state," he finds that, despite the fact that Judge Everett Mitchell's "rulings on key issues as a justice would likely be very similar to those of Judge Protasiewicz," those he consulted shared the "unanimous opinion is that Protasiewicz is far and away the strongest progressive candidate." Grassroots North Shore does not endorse a candidate when there is more than one progressive running in a single race, as there is in this one. So you should read Black's piece with an open mind.

PBS Wisconsin has a good summary of the January 9, 2023, debate with the four candidates. And you can watch interviews with Dan Kelly and Judge Everett Mitchell online. And as you talk about this election, be sure to follow the advice of Wisconsin Conservation Voices' Messaging Guidance for 2023 Supreme Court Race. The advice is sound political messaging regardless of the topic — for example, in the current election "center our shared values of freedom in your messaging. Offer specific examples of court cases that relate to people’s real-life concerns, be clear that power lies in the hands of the people, and that this will have impacts on our state for decades." And "use hopeful, unifying words that are clear and easy to understand." As examples, the document lists "For All; Freedom, fair, accessible, unbiased; voting maps that represent our communities."

Finally, a small diversion into national news. Apparently George Santos has recused himself from his House committee assignments. See the coverage on the Washington Post site or on Daily Kos. He-who-shall-not-be-named may be facing criminal charges at long last. The potential charges stem from his hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, according to NBC News. And CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) declares Fani Willis is going to indict Trump soon. Here’s what that looks like." Fani Willis, of course, is the Fulton County District Attorney who recently wrapped up a special purpose grand jury investigation of potential criminality in TFG's effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. At the January 24 hearing about the matter, she argued that the report the grand jury submitted should not be made public until charging decisions are made, decisions she said were "imminent."

Now the nag: yes it is cold outside but the work still needs to get done. In the Events list below, you will find that canvassing season has begun. Turn out to canvass! Help ensure that we get at least one progressive for Supreme Court Justice on the ballot in the April 4 election. The Glendale Team, the Fox Point Team, the Brown Deer folks and others will be hosting these events throughout this election season. Bundle up and join in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLAN AHEAD!!

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

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

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

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

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

The spring elections — a primary on February 21 and a general election on April 4 — will be upon us before you know it. And despite the fact that nonpartisan elections are little noticed with low, low turnout, this year's so-called nonpartisan contests will define the state of democracy in Wisconsin for the foreseeable future. I kid you not!

First and foremost, there is an election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Two progressive candidates will be on the primary ballot — Judge Janet Protasiewic and Judge Everett Mitchell — along with two "conservative" (by which we mean MAGA) candidates. The two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary will advance to the April 4 election. And that means if we fail to turn out, we could find ourselves with no progressive candidate to vote for. Both Judge Mitchell and Judge Protasiewic support voting rights, fair election maps, and a woman's right to make decisions about her own body. Neither of the "conservative candidates" do. Please read the candidates' responses to our Grassroots North Shore questionnaire, visit the links to the candidates' online information, and plan to attend our Supreme Opportunity Annual Fundraiser on February 5 from 7:00 — 8:30 (on Zoom). Judge Mitchell and Judge Protasiewic will introduce themselves to you at that event. (More about the program anon.)

Just as important is the special election in state Senate District 8. Until the day Alberta Darling resigned her state Senate seat, the Republicans held a supermajority in that body. And that meant they could impeach and remove any state officer they pleased without a single vote from any Democrat. It works like this: a majority vote in the Assembly impeaches a civil officer of the state. The Senate then holds a trial. If 2/3 of the senators present vote to convict, the impeached officer is removed from office. Fortunately the legislature was not in session in November and December, 2022. And because they are currently down a seat, they won't be able to act on such grave matters as impeachments until a new State Senator is seated after the special election. If Senate District 8 is once again represented by a Republican, Robin Vos has already declared their intentions. And that's just part of the reason this special election is so, well, special.

Jodi Habush Sinykin, a Wisconsin native and environmental lawyer, is running for the 8th WI Senate District, which includes Bayside, part of Brown Deer, Fox Point, River Hills, Whitefish Bay, Thiensville, Mequon, Cedarburg, Grafton, then westward to Germantown, Richfield, some of Menomonee Falls and Sussex. You can and should read about her life and passions on her website and keep up with her activities on her Facebook page and Twitter account. Endorsed by the UAW and by Daily Kos, among many other organizations, she will be a tremendous asset to her constituents and to the future of our state. If you live in Senate District 8, you MUST vote for her in the special election primary on February 21 AND IN THE GENERAL ELECTION ON APRIL 4.

If you don't live in SD8, you can still volunteer with the campaign and you can donate funds through her Act Blue page. Bonnie and Leon Joseph will be hosting a fundraiser for Habush Sinykin on Sunday, January 22, from 2:00 — 4:00pm, at their home (see the address on the donation page). Or you can go and donate any amount at the door. No doubt there will be oodles of dark money sloshing around this campaign — which is why every dollar you can give can help elect her. The recent special election of a Democrat for a Virginia state Senate seat in a Republican-leaning district should give us hope. But remember: hope is not a plan. It will take real work to get this job done. And that means YOU.

On that note, let me pitch making phone calls to strong Democratic women ahead of the primary and the general election. We were very successful with our phone campaign for the 2022 elections, reaching over 6200 women. The results — a BIG shift from Republican to Democratic votes in Ozaukee County — speak volumes about what grassroots activities can help produce. Governor Evers even WON Port Washington and Thiensville! I'm organizing the phone effort now and would really appreciate hearing from you at [email protected]. We will begin calling and leaving voicemail messages around January 30. Once you contact me to let me know that you will volunteer, I will send you a list of people and phone numbers to call, some brief instructions, a script you can use, and another, shorter, script you may be able to use to send text messages or leave short voicemails.

If you need yet another reason to get engaged in the spring elections, you should know that voter suppression is alive and working in Wisconsin. Don't just take my word for it. An Urban Milwaukee exposé documented that Bob Spindell, the chair of the 4th Congressional District Republican Party and a fraudulent elector from 2020, emailed his supporters bragging that “we can be especially proud of the City of Milwaukee (80.2% Dem Vote) casting 37,000 less votes than cast in the 2018 election with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic areas.” The Spindell email goes on to gloat that “…this great and important decrease in Democrat votes in the City” was due to a “well thought out multi-faceted plan.”

Finally, the League of Women Voters Wisconsin is holding voter registration drives at the DMV on Mill Road (7301 W. Mill Rd., Milwaukee). They're looking for volunteers for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from January 11-February 1 and February 22-March 15, 11:00am-1:30pm. Sign up to help fight voter suppression by making sure all eligible voters are registered!

year of our political dreams!

Let's begin with a little look ahead. We will have two regular elections, for nonpartisan offices including an extremely important seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, on February 21 (a primary) and April 4 (general). Grassroots North Shore will soon put up the names of progressive candidates together with links to their online information. Our Elections page currently displays which offices are going to be on ballots in our area. Check it out.

You can find out more about the two progressive candidates — Everett Mitchell and Janet Protasiewicz plus three "conservatives" — at a forum sponsored by Citizen Action on Wednesday, January 11, at 7:00pm in a Zoom webinar. Sign up here.

We also have two special elections to fill vacant seats. One is in Mequon on Tuesday, January 10, to fill a seat for Alderman District 8. Nancy Urbani is a candidate. The second special election will fill the vacant Wisconsin State Senate District 8, formerly filled by Alberta Darling. Jodi Habush Sinykin is the only progressive in the race. You can visit her Twitter account and donate to her effort. If you live in Assembly Districts 22, 23, or 24, she will be on you ballot, both on February 21 and April 4. Even if you're not, she needs your help, and she needs your financial support.

We highly recommend that you sign up for absentee ballots for all elections in 2023. The weather is unpredictable in February and even in April. Some of you have plans to abscond to a sunny spot for the winter. And some may have shorter vacations planned that include one or the other election days. But voting in these 2023 elections is critical if we hope to have a Wisconsin Supreme Court that can review the radically gerrymandered voting maps and can rule on whether the 1849 law banning abortion is still legal. Voting absentee is absolutely secure. You can track when your ballot has been sent to you and when it is received at the clerk's office with MyVote.Wi.gov. (To return your absentee ballot, you can either drop it in the mail or take it to your municipal clerk's office. Drop boxes are not available for voting!)

Grassroots North Shore will hold our annual fundraiser on Sunday, February 5, 7:00 — 8:30pm with Nicholas Stephanopoulos, professor of law at Harvard University whose research and numerous public appearances focus on election and constitutional law, and with presentations by Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Janet Protasiewicz and Everett Mitchell. Our Fundraiser is the kick-off of our Spring days of action. We will be doing our best to elect a new WI Supreme Court Justice AND a Democrat for the State Senate in District 8 (and thwart the GOP supermajority). Sign up here.

I apologize for the early and short newsletter this week. I've been traveling to visit family and friends in Baltimore and Ocean City, Maryland. But I'll be back at my desk by mid-week and beginning to recruit volunteers for the various tasks we'll be undertaking for the February primary. Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the crazy clown show going on this week in the US House of Representatives. Perhaps you have been too. The serious crazy, though, comes next. Hang on.

Yesterday was historic as the House Select Committee wound down its work and issued four criminal referrals recommending that the Department of Justice charge the ex-president for inciting an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, conspiring to make false statements (this is about the fake electors scheme), and conspiring to defraud the United States. All the national news outlets, of course, covered the story but many — like the New York Times and the Washington Post — are behind paywalls. So here are a few free discussions of the executive summary (which you can download here): Daily Kos, Axios, CNN, and MSNBC.

Stories about the January 6 Select Committee have, however, been eclipsed already by a flood of news coming out of Congress and the White House. If you only read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, however, you'll be pretty much in the dark. I can find no account of the Select Committee's meeting yesterday. There is, however, a startling and welcome article about how voting patterns in the suburbs have shifted a lot over the last four election cycles. As a subhead in the piece by Daniel Bice shows, "There have been huge voting shifts away from Republican Party in the Milwaukee suburbs." Apparently that shift is apparent in the suburbs around Madison too. In the Ozaukee city of Mequon, for example, this last election saw a "22-point swing (from plus 22.3 Republican to plus 0.8 Republican)." It may still be red-ish, but just barely. Even places like Elm Grove, while still in the GOP win column, are shifting significantly: "a 21-point swing (from plus 25.9 Republican to plus 4.8 Republican)."

The shifts Bice notes are encouraging but we cannot afford to overlook supposedly nonpartisan issues. For example, I could not find much coverage of two Wisconsin constitutional amendments that may be passed in time to be placed on the ballot for the April 4 election. Both have to do with elections and both were passed once (first consideration) in the 2021 legislative session. They need to be passed again (second consideration), in the 2023 legislative session after which they are to be ratified by the registered voters in the state.

The first one prohibits "the use of a donation or grant of private resources for purposes of election administration." It is aimed squarely at the so-called "Zuck bucks" that provided funds to some election administrations throughout the state and the nation in 2020. Get an explanation of Mark Zuckerburg's grants to election administration here. You can read the full text of the proposed amendment here.

The second proposed amendment is more concerning because it seeks to further tighten the restrictions on who can vote in the state. Here's the Legislative Reference Bureau's analysis of what it would do:

The actual language of the amendment, available here, changes the wording to read "only a United States citizen age 18 or older" and strikes the language "every United States citizen age 18 or older." The revision may seem trivial to non-grammarians but its intent is to be more restrictive and perhaps to pave the way to require proof of US citizenship in order to register to vote. Or to prevent any Wisconsin municipality from allowing non-citizens to vote in, say, school board elections, as some areas around the country have recently done.

Both amendments have to pass the new legislature (called second consideration) and then be ratified by the people. The actual language that will be on the ballot will be "simplified" and probably written so as to obfuscate the actual meaning of the amendments. We'll discuss this issue in greater detail if it appears that these amendments will be on our ballots on April 4.

A basic elections page is now available at Grassroots North Shore so you can see what offices will be on the ballot in various municipalities. Some information is still missing, though. In Milwaukee County, there will be an election for Appeals Court District 1. Sara Geenen is running against incumbent William Brash. If you live in the county, you can sign her nomination papers. We won't be able to fill in candidate names and online resources until we know who has qualified for the ballot in each race, probably not until the end of the first week in January 2023.

There appear to be no events listed for the next week or so on the Milwaukee County Democratic website. The organization is discarding its current web presence and moving to a new one on a new platform. I will link to it when it is ready. Stand for Peace, however will be operating as usual on Saturday, December 24, from noon to 1:00pm, at Silver Spring and Port Washington and on Saturday, December 31, from noon to 1:00pm, at King and North Streets. Visit the upcoming calendar for future locations. And the Democratic Party of Ozaukee County is holding its monthly meeting on Wednesday, December 21, at 7:00pm, both online and in person. The calendar on their website directs interested parties to their Facebook page for information. The office is located at 1930 Wisconsin Ave , Grafton, 53024.

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Well that hybernation stuff didn't last long! The race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is heating up fast. Two "conservatives" — Dan Kelly (who was appointed to the Court by Scott Walker and then defeated in a 2020 election by Justice Jill Karofsky) and Jennifer Dorow (who was the presiding judge in the trial of Darrell Brooks, the man who killed six people at the Waukesha Christmas parade a year ago). And there are two progressives running: Everett Mitchel (who presides over the Juvenile Division in Branch 4 of the Dane County Circuit Court) and Janet Protasiewicz (who has been on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court bench for 25 years).

Just in case you're wondering why electing a progressive Supreme Court Justice is so important, let me point you to a report the non-profit law firm Law Forward published recently. Called Undermining Democracy, it looks at three trends in the Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions in its 2021 term: direct attacks on democracy, consolidating power at the legislature, and results-oriented judging. The report exemplifies each theme with specific cases and shows how these cases interact with each other to undermine democracy in our state. It's not light or quick reading, but it is well worth your time. And it lays out quite clearly the imperative to vote in the primary on February 21 and the general election on April 4.

The first order of business is to make sure candidates acquire enough signatures to get on the ballot for the February 21 primary. Download the nomination papers for Everett Mitchell OR for Janet Protasiewicz, BUT NOT BOTH. Each comes with a set of instructions: follow them carefully! (You might also consider making a donation through their websites, linked above: remember that "early money is like yeast.")

In preparation for endorsing one candidate, Citizen Action is holding a forum for Janet Prostasiewicz and Everett Mitchell on Wednesday, January 11, at 7pm on Zoom. You can sign up now and a link will be sent to you ahead of the event.

There will also be a special election — on Tuesday, April 4 — for a new Wisconsin Senator in Senate District 8. Alberta Darling, who has represented SD8 since 1992, resigned right after Thanksgiving, providing only a week of notice. Jodi Habush Sinykin, a lawyer living in Whitefish Bay, announced her candidacy a few days ago. If you live in Whitefish Bay, Brown Deer, River Hills, Bayside, parts of Ozaukee County, Washington County, or a sliver of Waukesha County, she will be on your ballot on April 4. (Something like FIVE Republicans have announced a run for this office, so there will be a Republican primary on February 21. But unless another Democrat announces, there will not be a Democratic primary for this office.)

You should download and circulate her nomination papers (if you live in the district). To check which Senate District last year's redistricting placed you in, you can go to MyVote.WI.gov or to the lookup page for the Wisconsin legislature. However, anyone and everyone can donate to the campaign! Here's the ActBlue page.

Nomination papers both for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and for Senate District 8 are due in Madison on January 3, but need to be signed and returned to the candidate much sooner than that. In fact, ASAP. So please don't procrastinate!

It's a bit too early right now, but plan ahead to get absentee ballots when the request becomes available after New Year's Day at MyVote.WI.gov. You never know what the weather is going to be like in February, or in April, for that matter. And if you're planning a trip this winter, you'll need to vote by mail from wherever you are. Be sure to figure out where the ballot should be sent — to your permanent home in Wisconsin or to the warm and sunny place you plan to be! And give yourself plenty of time to return your ballots by mail.

In a repeat from last week's newsletter, you still have opportunities to get trained to assist the UWM's Mapping Racism and Resistance Project to identify and document discriminatory covenants — once-legal clauses embedded in property deeds that barred people who were not white from buying or occupying land — in various communities. The project seeks to answer key questions: "How common were these restrictions? What areas of our community were reserved for white people only? How much land was restricted in this way? When were they put into place? What did they say? What are the legacies of these practices today?" Volunteer training will take place on the following Wednesdays:

• December 14, 12 - 1pm
• December 21, 7 - 8pm
• January 4, 7 - 8pm
• January 18, 7 - 8pm

As will undoubtedly be the case until the new year, the Events list is pretty small. But here's an opportunity to support Governor Evers's inauguration. There will be a Kids Gala on December 31, from 10am - 12pm, and Evers's staff is looking for 10-15 volunteers to take a variety of roles. If you're interested and want more details (including where the event will be held!), email Chastity Duffey.

We're in the hybernation phase of the year, I'm afraid. You'll see that there's almost nothing on the events list. And the next elections won't happen until February 21 (for the primary) and April 4. But there are a host of issues that have kind of languished while we've been working so hard for the fall 2022 elections. So while we await the results of the Senate run-off in Georgia today, I thought I'd look at some of what the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is working on.

On Monday, SCOTUS heard oral arguments in a religious bigotry case masquerading as a free speech issue. Joan McCarter at Daily Kos has a good summary of the arguments in "Supreme Court hears another pro-bigotry, anti-LGBTQ case and again proves its illegitimacy." The case is a bit weird because the plaintiff is a business that does not yet exist. The issue is whether the web designer would be required to build a wedding website for a gay couple, since she believes same-sex marriage contradicts Scripture. "Justice Sonia Sotomayor went to the crux of the threat this case poses: 'What if a wedding website maker doesn’t believe in interracial marriage or letting disabled people get married?'" Could the designer refuse disabled people? When the lawyer for the non-existant business agreed that the designer could, Justice Sotomayor concluded, "So there is no line on race, there is no line on disability, ethnicity, none of the protected categories." The New York Times covered the arguments here and the Washington Post here. Both conclude SCOTUS seems likely to back the bigot.

In an important elections case, Moore v. Harper, SCOTUS will hear oral arguments on Wednesday, December 7. This case asserts the independence of state legislatures in determining all kinds of election laws. At issue is whether governors and state courts have ANY role to play in setting the rules for elections. At the heart of the case is what's known as the "independent state legislature" theory (ISLT). A key issue is the role of courts in countermanding partisan gerrymandering, the sort of election map design that keeps one party in power in perpetuity. Professor of election law at the UCLA Law School, Richard Hasen has a really clear explanation of the case's basics on the SCOTUSblog podcast. (It runs for just ove 23 minutes.)

This case, Ian MacDougall in ProPublica writes, "has major implications for ... gerrymandering." In fact it arose from a redistricting dispute in North Carolina on the grounds that the US Constitution stipulates that the "Times, Places and Manner" of congressional elections "shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof." MacDougall sums up the crux: "North Carolina Republicans want the Supreme Court to bar state courts from interfering with state legislatures when it comes to congressional elections."

Richard Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, NYU School of Law, has two detailed posts about the independent state legislature theory delving into some of the key arguments, from the most conservative, to the least conservative. The first explores THE ISLT: How State Statutes and State Constitutions Differ and then applies that discussion to how the independent state legislature theory might play out at SCOTUS. The second piece, The ISLT: The Remedial Version, discusses a limited way the state legislatures could be independent of judicial review.

Speaking of Supreme Courts, Justice Patience Roggensack's retirement from the Wisconsin Supreme Court means that we have an opportunity to elect a new justice who will make common cause with the more progressive justices: Jill Karofsky, Rebecca Dallet, and Ann Walsh Bradley. Right now it looks like there will be a primary for this office since four people have indicated that they plan to run. Citizen Action of Wisconsin will be hosting a State Supreme Court forum on January 11th, 2023, at 7pm (via Zoom) for all Democratic and progressive State Supreme Court candidates. Citizen Action plans to endorse a candidate to make the court "a liberal, pro-voting rights, anti-gerrymandering majority!" You can RSVP now and a link will be sent to you.

On the racial justice beat, there are several initiatives in our North Shore communities to address equitable housing issues. The latest Bay Bridge newsletter includes information about training sessions for those who want to contribute to UWM's Mapping Racism and Resistance Project. The sessions will train you to assist the project team in identifying and documenting discriminatory covenants in various communities. These covenants were legal clauses embedded in property deeds that barred people who were not white from buying or occupying land. The goal of the mapping project is to answer key questions: "How common were these restrictions? What areas of our community were reserved for white people only? How much land was restricted in this way? When were they put into place? What did they say? What are the legacies of these practices today?" Volunteer training will take place on the following Wednesdays:

• December 7, 7 - 8pm
• December 14, 12 - 1pm
• December 21, 7 - 8pm
• January 4, 7 - 8pm
• January 18, 7 - 8pm

In addition, the North Shore Equitable Housing Coalition, with groups in Glendale and Fox Point/Bayside, is organizing to strategize approaches to village boards to repudiate racially restrictive covenants, a first step toward building awareness of intentional segregation in the North Shore. The Coalition will be meeting via Zoom on Thursday, January 12, at 7pm. I don't have a link for this meeting yet, but if you may be interested in this work, send an email to Nancy Kaplan and I'll make sure you get the link.

An opportunity to support Governor Evers's inauguration has just arrived in my email. There will be a Kids Gala on December 31, from 10am - 12pm, and Evers's staff is looking for 10-15 volunteers to take a variety of roles. If you're interested and want more details (including where the event will be held!), email Chastity Duffey.

Also, there will be a candlelight vigil for victims of gun violence on Saturday, December 10, from 10:30am - 1pm at the Brown Deer Event Center (8653 W. Brown Deer Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53224). The Donovan Hines Foundation of Exuberance dedicates this event to honoring and remembering all victims of violence in Milwaukee. Speakers will include Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Ashanti Hamilton, Director of the Office of Violence Prevention, among others. RSVP is encouraged, though not required.

And finally, an opportunity to acquire some furniture from our Brown Deer office — FREE! We are temporarily closing the office, which we have not used since March 2020, while we figure out what our needs will be going forward. We're putting some equipment in storage but the rest of the chairs, desks and tables must go. If you are interested in any of these things, you can visit the office (5600 W Brown Deer Rd, Suite 116) on Wednesday, December 8, from noon - 2pm and from 4 - 6pm. Ginny Goode ([email protected], 414-460-5686) will make arrangements with you to pick up your selections. We ask that you arrange to move what you want out of the office by Wednesday, December 14.

The events list is even shorter this week than last and may be nonexistent as we head into Thanksgiving week. So I plan to take the week off: no new newsletter on Tuesday, November 22!

I'm sure you've heard the good news: Democrats will retain control of the US Senate. And that means judges and administration officials can be appointed over the next two years. With the body split evenly, however, appointments are likely to be slowed by the power-sharing agreement currently in place. This scheme means that every committee will have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on it. And tie votes mean taking the issue to the full Senate for a vote on what's known as a discharge petition. Vice President Kamala Harris would then be needed to break the tie. It's a cumbersome and time-consuming process that just slows all the work of the Senate down.

Just as important: with the House likely to be in Republican hands, the Senate could take over the January 6 investigation. With power-sharing, however, Democrats would be unable to issue subpoenas, seriously hamstringing the investigation.

These are just two strong reasons for working hard to elect a 51st Democrat. A 51st Democratic senator would mean quicker appointments and no need for discharge petitions. It would mean investigating committees could issue subpoenas. Senator Raphael Warnock is currently campaigning in a run-off election against Herschel Walker in Georgia. We want to make sure he wins, again. The election is scheduled for December 6. So there's no time to lose! Here are four excellent ways to get involved:

1. Donate
   
   
2. Phone
   Fair Fight 2022 GA Runoff Election Phonebanks
   Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda
   Indivisible (Grassroots North Shore is a member organization)
   
   
3. Text
   Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda
   Georgia Working Families Party
   
   
4. Write postcards and/or letters
   Vote Forward

The results in Wisconsin were a resounding success, and a BIG WIN for Grassroots North Shore. We really worked hard this election cycle and it seems to have paid off. According to the Village clerk, turnout in Shorewood was a whopping 93% of voters registered before Election Day, although as you will see below, the analysis in Urban Milwaukee has a lower number.

In fact, turnout in the state was lower than it had been in 2018 — about 74% of voters registered before Election Day turned out four years ago while this year's turnout was probably about 63%. Nevertheless Governor Evers tripled his margin of victory! For a detailed analysis of the turnout and election results, John D. Johnson's piece in Urban Milwaukee is worth a careful read. (For another analysis of the Wisconsin results, you can watch a half hour discussion with Shawn Johnson and Matthew DeFour with WisconsinEye.) Here's a key point, though:

A lot of the blue shifts came in communities where Grassroots North Shore had extensively sent postcards, phoned, leafletted, and canvassed. According to Johnson's piece, turnout in the North Shore communities was as follows:

• Bayside: 77%
• Brown Deer: 73%
• Fox Point: 84%
• Glendale: 80%
• River Hills: 85%
• Shorewood: 81%
• Whitefish Bay: 84%

We can't take all the credit of course, but the results reinforce the message: campaigning in every imaginable way is hard work — and it pays off.

The national results are not complete yet, but they are stunning. Not only did Democrats hold the Senate, they also picked up at least three governors: in Maryland, the first Black man, Wes Moore, was elected; in Massachusetts, the first woman, Maura Healy, was elected; and in Arizona, Katie Hobbs, the first Democrat elected as Governor since Janet Napolitano resigned in 2009, defeated her MAGA-maximun opponent! John Fetterman won his race for US Senate in Pennsylvania, picking up retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey's seat. Although Republicans have so far gained five House seats (see the coverage at the New York Times), the out party on average gains around 25-30 in midterm elections!

So who was the BIGGEST LOSER of the midterms? Why none other than TFG (that's The Former Guy, DT) who apparently was the butt of endless jokes on Monday's late night comedy shows. He's going to announce his third run for the White House tonight, we hear. Good luck with that, I say! And in more zany news, a Russian soldier, who claims he was acting on orders, removed a llama and an irate raccoon from the Kherson zoo in Ukraine. You can read the story and watch the video at Newsweek.

With this newsletter, Grassroots North Shore is sending an enormous THANK YOU to all the many, many Grassroots North Shore volunteers:

• who wrote postcards and letters,
• who distributed yard signs,
• who phoned nearly 6300 women,
• who delivered flyers,
• who stood outside libraries with election signs,
• who dropped off sample ballots in Cambridge Woods,
• who went to UWM, MIAD, MSOE, and MATC to register young people to vote, then to encourage early voting and finally to urge them to vote on election day, and
• who canvassed with Neighborhood Action Teams and the Ozaukee Dems.

We worked as hard as we could right up until the polls closed last night. And it looks as if it paid off big time. Let this election be a lesson: we cannot ever afford to sleep through an election — ANY ELECTION — ever again.

We won't know specific turnout numbers for some time yet but we do know that both statewide and locally we won a huge victory. We probably lost the race for State Treasurer but Governor Evers won re-election with a much healthier margin than he had in his first election four years ago. And despite their extreme gerrymandering of the election maps, the Republicans failed in their bid to win a veto-proof majority in the state legislature. Governor Evers can wield a veto pen whenever he needs to prevent the state legislature from enacting harmful laws!

Attorney General Josh Kaul will also win re-election. As I write this, the Journal Sentinel has not yet called the race, but with 99% of the vote counted, Kaul leads by 1.4%. Unfortunately, Wisconsin will continue to be represented in the US Senate by the pernicious ignoramus Ron Johnson, but we can take some comfort from the fact that the young and talented Mandela Barnes kept it close. Doug LaFollette will probably be re-elected with a .3% of the vote, although there may well be a re-count of that race.

Election results for State Senate and State Assembly can be found on the Election Results page of the online Journal Sentinel.

Although control of the US Senate and the US House are not decided yet, Democrats racked up a huge win, in my view, simply by defying the doomsaying predictions of the pre-election pundits. Republicans were expecting a so-called "red wave." Generally in midterm elections the party that holds the White House, in this case President Joe Biden, loses a lot of seats in both the House and the Senate. Not this time! In the New York Times online, one article begins "Democrats showed up, Trump-backed candidates underperformed and inflation wasn’t the whole story." It goes on to say that "across the East Coast, in Virginia’s northern suburbs and mixed areas of Rhode Island and New Hampshire, embattled Democrats managed to hang on. They even knocked off a few Republicans here and there. In many tight races, abortion and Mr. Trump’s looming presence may have been the G.O.P.’s undoing."

In the Washington Post's first analysis, Trump lost by backing flawed candidates like Mehmet Oz. And in three toss-up races yet to be decided — Blake Masters (R) vs Mark Kelly (D) in Arizona, Herschel Walker (R) vs Raphael Warnock (D) in Georgia, and Adam Laxalt (R) vs Catherine Cortez Masto (D) in Nevada — Democrats are favored in two. And Democrats also won two new governors' races: Maura Healy will replace the outgoing Republican governor in Massachusetts and Wes Moore will replace the outgoing Republican governor in Maryland. Democratic governors in Kansas (!), Michigan, New York, New Mexico, Minnesota — and let's not forget Wisconsin! — won re-election. Josh Shapiro, the current Attorney General in Pennsylvania, will retain the governorship there too, keeping that state in Democratic hands. And it looks like Kari Lake will go down to defeat in Arizona where that state's current Attorney General, Katie Hobbs, has a small lead. You can check in on the gubernatorial races at Politico.

Finally, abortion rights won where it was on the ballot: Voters support abortion rights in all five states with ballot measures: "Voters in California, Vermont and Michigan on Tuesday approved ballot measures enshrining abortion rights into their state constitutions, while those in the traditionally red states of Montana and Kentucky rejected measures that would have restricted access to reproductive care." In Wisconsin, constitutional amendments must be initiated by the state legislature, and there's little hope that the 1849 law banning abortions here will be overturned any time soon. Alas. But the strength of this issue in the election was clearly underestimated.

The events list this week is really short and will probably remain so as we head into the winter holidays. But I want to make you aware that in Wisconsin, we have an upcoming election (the primary on February 21 and the general election on April 4). It's vital that we pay attention: in addition to a critical race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, there will be elections for city and village governance as well as for school boards. As we know, MAGA types are vowing to contest local governance at every level. We need to be strong in the fight for our values and our freedoms. More to come on when and how to prepare for these contests.

ONLY ONE MORE WEEK. Let's focus on what everyone needs to do.

• VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. Early in person voting is happening NOW. If you live in Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, Glendale, River Hills, Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, or Ozaukee County, you can vote — usually at your municipal clerk's office — until Friday, November 4, at 5:00. See the exact times and locations on our website.
  
  
• In Milwaukee, early in person voting ends on Saturday, November 5, at 3:00pm. There are a lot of early voting sites, including many city libraries, Fiserv Forum, and the UWM Student Union. See the Milwaukee Election Commission page for full details. Voting early is a fantastic thing to do. It helps make Election Day voting easier for many people, since the lines will be shorter; it means you're free to help with GOTV activities on Election Day; and it ensures that your vote will be in on time — just in case your car breaks down or an emergency happens or illness crops up at the last minute!
  
  
• GOTV: this is absolutely the most important thing we can be doing — other than voting ourselves. In the seven North Shore communities, GOTV will take place on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Election Day (November 4-8). Sign up for one or more shifts (there are 4 each day) in one (or more) of the following staging locations:
  • Fox Point
  • Glendale
  • Brown Deer
  • Whitefish Bay
  • In Ozaukee County or other areas of Milwaukee County, use the mobilize link and filter events by your zip code. You will also find virtual events at that link.
    
    
• Phone voters in the North Shore and Ozaukee County to add to our vote total. This election is all about TURNOUT. So the conversations we have with people are all about motivating them to vote. These ARE NOT "persuasion calls." We're phoning 30-55 year old women who we believe are strong or at least leaning Democrats, who lead busy lives, and who do not always vote in midterm elections. Getting them to the polls, either this week during early voting or on Election Day, will make the difference between having Governor Evers or Governor Michels for the next four years. Also Senator Barnes or Senator Johnson for the next six years. To help out with this important project, contact Nancy Kaplan, 443-465-1920.
  
  
• Volunteer to hold signs at the East Library in Milwaukee. Supermarket Legends is the host for this activity. Contact Norma Gilson, 414-588-1241.
  
  
• Donate to the candidate(s) of your choice: Tony Evers (Governor) and Sara Rodriguez (Lt Governor), Josh Kaul (Attorney General), Aaron Richardson (Treasurer), Doug LaFollette (Secretary of State), Mandela Barnes (US Senate), Gwen Moore (Congressional District 4), Deb Andraca (Assembly District 23), Dan Larsen (Assembly District 60), Darrin Madison (Assembly District 10), Bob Tatterson (Assembly District 24).

There's a lot happening politically right now:

• the first trial of five Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy;
• a heinous attack on Paul Pelosi in an apparent attempt to kidnap or kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi;
• a criminal trial of the Trump Organization;
• many, many investigations of our former Prez;
• and of course the war in Ukraine.

What happens to the January 6 Select Committee in the House of Representatives will depend on who controls the House in the next Congress. The fate of abortion in this country depends on who controls the House and the Senate. Whether Social Security and Medicare remain intact depends on whether Democrats win this election. Whatever you're feeling about our chances, we have to believe that we can prevail. And we have to do the work. Go Team!