It's been a grim week, more depressing than usual if that's possible. So I want to start with something sort of fun, at least for those of us not easily snookered by the vast grifting of the Trump family and the regime it heads. So, about that wonderful, made-in-America phone Trump and his older sons announced with great fanfare on June 16, 2025, the 10-year anniversary of Trump's golden escalator ride to announce his bid for the presidency.

Actually, Trump Mobile announced both a cell phone service — "a transformational, new cellular service designed to deliver top-tier connectivity, unbeatable value and all-American service for our nation’s hardest-working people" — AND a gold-plated T1 phone. Don't you just love all the hyperbole? Here's how the phone is described: "It is a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier." And then here's what happened (Press Release: Introducing TRUMP MOBILE, June 16, 2025). Naturally followers of the Trump cult signed up.

Now, a year later, "the company behind Trump Mobile, T1 Mobile LLC, quietly updated its preorder terms and conditions to clarify that it 'does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase'" (Yahoo!Finance, May 11, 2026). Here's Ari Melber covering the story on The Beat. You can watch the segment on Instagram, complete with a spitting-mad Trump supporter having a conniption!

The Hill quotes the International Business Times estimating that approximately 600,000 phones have been preordered with a $100 deposit for each one. That adds up to a princely sum of $60 million the company is holding with no commitment to make the phones! Yahoo!Finance captures the response of would-be customers: "Purchasers like tech content creator Carter Ryan, who goes by CarterPCs online, were quick to call out the company’s vague language. 'I’m paying $100 for the chance to maybe give you more money in the future, if you decide to make the product that I’m paying for in the first place?' he said in a post on TikTok."

The saga of the phone provides a preview, of sorts, for the Iran war. Just yesterday AlJazeera announced that Trump claims 'not long' before war ends. But we've heard this song before. On April 21, three weeks ago, PBS News noted that "President Donald Trump has made contradictory statements about the timeline to end the war. He has repeatedly declared victory and then later threatened Iran." A few days after hostilities began on February 28, Trump claimed the war was intended to last four to five weeks. On March 9, he averred the war would be over "very soon." And that he thinks the "war is very complete, pretty much." Over and over, he has declared victory, only to renew his saber-rattling. So now it's mid-May and we're still at war with no end in sight, pretty much! We may not be dropping tons of bombs every day, but our naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is, by definition, an act of war. Politifact has put together a lengthy timeline of the repeated pattern. Maybe peace in our time is just another version of Infrastructure Week.

Meanwhile, despite Trump and Hegseth repeatedly claiming the US has reduced the Iranian military to rubble, the New York Times reports that "U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities." Intelligence assessments "show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities." Iran has "roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile, according to the assessments. That stockpile encompasses both ballistic missiles, which can target other nations in the region, and a smaller supply of cruise missiles, which can be used against shorter-range targets on land or at sea." Faced with information undermining the assurances Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly provided, Trump declared that any suggestion that the Iranian military was still viable was "virtual treason," whatever that means.

Turning now to developments in Wisconsin, we got word that Governor Evers and the GOP leadership in the state can "announce deal attaining 50 percent special education reimbursement and securing over $600 million for K-12 schools, tens of millions of dollars in property tax relief, eliminating income tax on tips and overtime, and providing up to $600 in direct support payments for working families" (Evers Press Release, May 11, 2026). The money for these appropriations is to come from "a small portion of the state’s readily available state surplus, the balance of which also increased since the 2025-27 state budget was enacted last summer, leaving billions of dollars remaining and available in the state’s checking and savings coffers for the next biennial state budget and to respond to any pressing state challenges in the interim."

As reporting in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel indicates, though, the bill is not certain to pass. For one thing, the putative Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany, has made his opposition clear. Ditto some "Democratic lawmakers and candidates for governor." With money coming out of the surplus, it's evident that the investment in kids and K-12 schools, in property tax relief statewide, and in help for working families represents one-time patches to long term problems. And while Robin Vos touted the bill as a compromise, it does not address these issues in a serious, long-term way.

TAKE ACTION

Now that the April election is behind us, it is not too early to start work on the partisan primary that will take place on August 11. (See rresults of the Supreme Court election in the North Shore and Ozaukee County.) I want to stress how important it is for everyone to do something to turn out our voters. The only way we are going to be able to win the struggle for democracy in this country is to make our voices shout, to pump up the volume, as it were. Partisan gerrymanders fall apart if enough people are determined to defeat them by voting to overcome them. In the same way, turning out as many voters in the primary as possible will help determine who is best positioned to win the governorship and to control the Assembly and the state Senate. As you are probably aware, Grassroots North Shore is holding a forum for candidates for governor on Sunday, May 17, at Nicolet High School, from 2:00 - 4:00pm. There are a few spaces left. So if you want to come, hurry up and register!

Grassroots North Shore is also beginning its effort to reach voters ahead of the primary, leafletting at the houses of strong Democratic women who have missed one or more of the last four primaries or spring elections — in other words, the elections that seem less important than presidential ones or even midterms. And because Ozaukee County is more difficult terrain in which to deliver print material by hand, we will be phoning and texting strong Democratic women there too. And we need your help! To learn more about what we are undertaking and to put your hand up to participate, email Nancy Kaplan or Norma Gilson. We will begin phoning by early June, finishing our calls in time for people to request absentee ballots and doing the leafletting beginning in mid June. Please sign up!

Take a trip to Madison on Tuesday, May 26, to protest Tom Tiffany's vote to cut funds for healthcare to pay for billionaires' tax cuts. That's what the Big Ugly Bill Tiffany and other MAGAites in Congress did last year. SEIU and a host of other organizations are going around the state to highlight the issue and to define Tom Tiffany as a danger to working families in Wisconsin. The protest will take place at the Madison Club, 5 E Wilson St in Madison from 11:00am - 12:30pm. Sign up.

Let's start with some good news! The Cook Political Report ratings on the congressional districts in Wisconsin has Congressional District (CD) 1, where Republican Bryan Steil is the incombent, as just barely Lean Republican with a Partisan Voting Index (PVI) of R+2. Congressional District 3, where Republican Derrick Van Orden is the incumbent, is rated as a Tossup even though its PVI is R+3! Dave's Redistricting site has a tiny 1% Republican advantage for CD 1 and a 0.4% Democratic lean in CD 3. Given the record of Democrats in special elections both last year and this, these districts should flip from red to blue.

CD 6 — where Glenn Grothman is the incumbent — has a PVI of R+8, but it might be flippable as well since the Democratic over-performance (the vote total compared to the vote for Kamala Harris) has been nearly 10 percentage points! (Dave's Redistricting, however, shows a 15.6% Republican make-up!)

We can see this dynamic, this shift toward voting blue, playing out in a number of ways. For example, a substantial part of Grothman's district is in Ozaukee County where Chris Taylor won by 3.3% and in Sheboygan County where she won by 0.9 percentage points! Harris's vote percentage in Ozaukee County was 43.9%. In Sheboygan County, the Democratic ticket garnered 41.7% of the vote. So by this calculation, Taylor over-performed by 9.4 percentage points in Ozaukee County and 9.1 percentage points in Sheboygan County.

And then there's the statewide view: Harris lost by less than 1% but Taylor won the state by approximately 20%! To be sure, the electorate for an April election differs from the electorate for a November election, especially if it's a presidential election year. But one other way to judge where we are with Wisconsin voters is to look at overall voter enthusiasm. Harry Enten, the CNN pollster, tweeted that

The latest ABC News poll finds the same 5 point gap between registered voters who "would vote for the Democratic candidate if midterms were held today" and those who say they would vote for the Republican. This poll, however, does not look at likely voters. The article goes on to provide some comparisons with earlier mid-term elections. "Before the last midterms, in an April 2022 ABC/Post poll, registered voters were split about evenly between the two parties and Republicans won Congress. In an April 2018 ABC/Post poll, Democrats led by 4 points and Democrats went on to win the House in November." The story also notes that "independents prefer Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives by a wide margin."

Of course Louisiana v. Callais, the recent Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act but left it standing as a kind of zombie idea, is not part of the good news. Far from it. WUNC, a public radio station housed at the University of North Carolina, headlines its story about the decision this way: "Supreme Court paves the way for largest-ever drop in Black representation in Congress." WISN12 News explains the potential impact of the ruling: "Experts say the decision paves the way for Republican-controlled states to eliminate minority-led districts, which often favor Democrats, potentially swaying the balance of power in Congress."

We've seen a version of this movie before. Just three years ago, this same Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, and beyond. NPR's account points out that the decision is "likely to cause ripples throughout the country.... Ultimately, effects will be felt in every aspect of the nation's economic, educational, and social life — from the Rooney rule that requires a minority applicant be considered in all NFL coach hiring decisions to employment and promotion decisions, DEI programs in schools and workplaces, and much more."

So what was the impact? A study published in January 2026 and described in a March 24, 2026 article in Future Ed found that "In fall 2024, high-achieving underrepresented minority (URM) students in the first class to enter college after the SFFA ruling—Native American, Hispanic, Black, or Pacific Islander students with SAT scores above 1300—were up to 10 percentage points less likely to enroll at highly selective public and private colleges (those with pre-pandemic acceptance rates below 25 percent). Across the roughly 74,000 students enrolled at those institutions, this translates to 2,800 fewer URM students and 2,150 more non-URM students." (Emphasis added.)

In other words, the change in intentions (as in considering race and diversity in admission policies) turned out to have a significant impact on outcomes. In 1982, Congress understood that fact and amended the Voting Rights Act, which had required those bringing vote dilution cases to prove racial motives behind electoral maps, to authorize those bringing such cases to prove disparate impacts or effects. As Justice Kagan's dissent demonstrates at length, "The new Section 2 [as amended in 1982] repudiated the intent requirement and adopted a 'results test'" (see page 59 of the whole pdf document, page 15 of the dissent). She goes on to point out that Congress has the specific power to legislate means to oppose procedures that result in discrimination — not just discrimination that is intentional but also that which is the outcome of actions. "So even though the Fifteenth Amendment itself barred only intentional discrimination, Congress could enact legislation extending to discriminatory effects."

So Callais turns §2 on its head. Or rather returns it to the state it was in from 1965 to 1982. During that period and again now, vote dilution cases will have to show racial motives, a nearly impossible job since all a legislature needs to do is claim a race-neutral justification for the electoral maps it draws that just happen to dilute the power of minority citizens' votes.

A site called Governing paraphrases a New York Times analysis that concludes Democrats stand to lose 10 seats in the US House. But that's just at the federal level. "In 10 state legislatures across the South, Republicans could gain more than 190 seats currently held by Democrats, most of them Black representatives in majority-minority districts, according to an analysis released in December by voting rights groups Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund." And so just the way we saw elite educational institutions bleaching after the ban on affirmative action, we are facing the bleaching of American government at all levels.

The fight for racial equality will now have to be fought again at the very basic level we thought we had secured so long ago. Reforming the Supreme Court will have to be the prime battlefield! And our best offense is in our numbers. Turnout in 2026 and in 2028 will matter more than ever. Please commit to joining the fight, starting now and running through the tape, as it were.

TAKE ACTION

WisDems Voter Protection:
This week’s Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais represents a dark moment for American democracy. By further weakening the Voting Rights Act, the Court has made it harder to ensure fair representation, especially for Black and Latino communities whose voices have too often been targeted for exclusion. But if this ruling clarifies anything, it’s this: the fight for voting rights is inseparable from every other fight for justice. And it raises the stakes for all of us, right here, right now.

If the stakes are higher than ever, then so is our responsibility to meet them. This May Day, the call isn’t just to stand in solidarity. It is to take action. Join us, and let’s protect the vote together.

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. Sign up to be a Poll Observer for the August 11th Primary.

Hotline/Ballot Cure Interest Forms are now LIVE!
Are you interested in being a resource for voters for the August primary and the November general election? Want to help absentee voters cure their mail-in ballots so that their votes will count? Be a hotline/ballot cure volunteer for Wisconsin! After you fill out this form, our team will reach out to take you through the next steps. Hotline and ballot cure volunteering is 100% virtual and can be done from anywhere in the country.

May Day is upon us. Do you have a plan for tomorrow? Most Grassroots North Shore supporters are no longer employed. And most of us don't go to school anymore either. So what can YOU do to support the Day of Action? Here in Milwaukee, SEIU and Voces de la Frontera are jointly sponsoring a Day without Immigrants. You should demonstrate solidarity with them by joining the march and rally beginning at the Voces offices, 733 W Mitchell St, Milwaukee, at 10:00am Friday morning.

I also urge you to go to MayDayStrong.org and sign the Pledge to refrain from any shopping on Friday even if you cannot stay home from school or work or can't march with Voces. The general nationwide theme is "It's Workers Over Billionaires." Here's how the national site describes the effort: "On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual through No School. No Work. No Shopping." Make this your first Action Item of the week!

Your second Action Item for this week is to download, circulate, and sign nomination papers for one candidate in each race for which you are a valid elector. You can sign ANY STATEWIDE CANDIDATE's nomination form. For congressional districts, state senate districts, and assembly districts, you must be an eligible voter in that district! Here's the 2026 Elections web page with all the nomination papers I've been able to acquire. The Democratic Party wants to know about your efforts. Please report the pages and numbers of signatures you're gathering. Also remember to get the nomination papers back to each candidate's campaign as soon after May 18 as you can. The forms are due in Madison at the Wisconsin Election Commission offices in Madison by 5:00pm on June 1. And candidates need some time to collate and check all the forms for correctness before turning them in.

Hot off the presses! Wednesday morning, as I was writing this newsletter, the MAGA justices in the Roberts Supreme Court (SCOTUS) just issued a ruling that effectively guts the 1965 Voting Rights Act by striking down the Louisiana electoral map. The 6-3 decision said "that Louisiana’s new majority-minority district violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution" (New York Times, April 29, 2026). The three dissenters — Justices Brown Jackson, Kagan and Sotomayer — "argued that the justices had taken the final step to dismantle the landmark civil rights law." The majority opinion, written by Justice Alito of course, claims that the ruling is a limited one "that preserved a central tenet of the Voting Rights Act." The logic is really tortured: in the new framework "challengers will need to show proof a state 'intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race'" [emphasis added].

Here's my limited understanding: CRACKING minority populations — that is, diluting a minority community's vote by breaking it up into two or more districts based on race — remains unconstitutional, but PACKING minority voters into a single district to provide them with the power to elect their preferred candidate is now constitutionally ok-dokey as long as it's not based on race. It's permissible to dilute minority power or conversely to concentrate it as long as the district lines are drawn to protect incumbency OR based on partisanship. Say what?

The effect of the ruling in Louisiana, whose population is approximately one-third Black, is that the state's effort to create a second majority-minority district, so that two of the state's six representatives would reflect the composition of the state, must be thrown out. The one remaining majority-minority district — the one that has been packed with minority voters — could remain as is. Or IT COULD BE CRACKED so that Republicans can eliminate it all together. The congressional representative who was recently elected to the second majority-minority district now struck down by SCOTUS gets right to the heart of the matter: "the practical effect is to make it far harder for minority communities to challenge redistricting maps that dilute their political voice."

Now all eyes are on Florida where the legislature met Tuesday in special session to consider new maps (AP, April 27, 2026). Governor DeSantis believes the map he proposed before the SCOTUS decision came down — maps that seek to eliminate four districts held by Democrats and dominated by minorities who, mirabile dictu, regularly vote for Democrats — would pass muster with SCOTUS because it corrects what DeSantis calls "legal infirmities" similar to the Louisiana map the court just struck down. The gerrymander the new map proposes is based, not on race, but on partisanship, the MAGA GOP claim. This in light of the fact that the four Black congressmen currently representing Florida constituents will no longer be in the next congress. One is running for governor and the other three are either seeking higher office or simply not standing for re-election!

Despite the new ruling and the proposed maps that seek to eliminate Democrats' districts, all might not be smooth sailing in Texas and elsewhere: "By aggressively targeting Democratic-held districts, Republicans may have weakened some of their own safest seats" (Newsweek, April 28, 2026). The problem has a name: the Dummymander. The Atlantic recently had an article about it: The Revenge of the Dummymander (link shared as a gift). We all know how pernicious partisan gerrymandering is. But sometimes it can go awry. As The Atlantic article explains, "Dummymander is the term that the political scientists Bernard Grofman and Thomas L. Brunell coined for what happens when a gerrymander backfires, hurting the party that it was designed to help." The gerrymander doesn't work when voters do not behave as expected. In Texas, the GOP is now worried that the Latino voters who shifted substantially toward Trump in 2024 have now returned to the Democratic fold. But the new map that attempts to draw five new Republican districts were predicated on the voting data from 2024. And that could mean a big swing and a miss.

As usual, it's been a very eventful week. The redistricting referendum that just passed in Virginia cannot be certified yet because a case trying to kill the new maps is pending before the Virginia Supreme Court. The issue the plaintiffs brought is not constitutional but rather procedural: "a Republican legal challenge contends the General Assembly violated procedural rules by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless" (AP, April 27, 2026). The justices heard oral arguments on Monday but have not yet ruled in the case.

In other news, Jimmy Kimmel got his licks in early, before the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, when he pre-roasted the Trumps and their entourage on Thursday night. Here's the YouTube clip of that monologue. The jokes were pretty pointed, I have to say, but the fake cut-away shots were priceless. Of course the First Lady and the President have both called for Kimmel to be fired, again. But the whole fracas was upstaged by a would-be assassin carrying a shotgun, no less, trying to rush the ballroom where the event was being held. Fortunately no one was killed, or even seriously injured. But it surely has not escaped anyone's notice that the attempted security breach has become the latest bullet-proof reason to build Trump's hideous White House ballroom.

A three-year extension of FISA section 702, the provision that allows the intelligence community to spy on American citizens' communications with foreigners, passed the House on Wednesday. The provision expires tonight but it's unlikely to pass the Senate in its current form. First, the House-passed ban, which includes a provision permanently banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital currency, "is so divisive across the Capitol that it has stalled a major affordable housing package for months." And second, "privacy hawks on both sides of the aisle are demanding new guardrails to prevent the federal government from conducting warrantless surveillance on its own citizens" (Politico, April 29, 2026).

Finally, I want to recommend that you read state Senator Chris Larson's 2025-26 Session Wrap-Up. He begins by pointing out that a legislative session covers two years, or 24 months. But that "the current Republican majority has shrunk [it] to about 14 and a half months. The 2025-26 Legislative Session effectively ended on March 19, after which no new bills could be introduced." After recounting some data about the number of Democratic bills introduced in each chamber, the number that were included in a public hearing, and the number that were ultimately passed into law, he concludes "just 1.1% of Democratic bills got so much as a public hearing this session, and none became law." The rest of the piece discusses the big wins — and there were some, like the Postpartum Medicaid Extension and Gail's Law — and the big losses. At the very beginning of his missive, Larson wryly points out that "Wisconsin has — at least in theory — a full-time legislature." A perfect example that we don't always get what we pay for!

As always, your Action Items this week should include a visit to 5 Calls. Some of the items you might consider include Oppose the ICE and CBP Budget Reconciliation Funding Bill, No War With Iran, and Reform FISA Section 702 to Stop Government Surveillance.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Another Tuesday, another electoral victory! We have the momentum — the BIG MO as they say. As you probably know, Virginia voters agreed to adopt the new — but temporary — congressional district maps the legislature proposed to override the maps drawn by an independent, nonpartisan commission after the last census. The new map provides Democrats with the opportunity to win up to five additional congressional seats, leaving just one for Republicans to hold. The new map will be in place only until the next decennial census in 2030, at which point the nonpartisan commission will again draw the congressional district maps in a nonpartisan way in 2031.

The map Virginia adopted yesterday is, as the New York Times puts it, "one of the country’s most aggressively gerrymandered congressional maps." (As usual, the link to the Times story is gifted to get you past the paywall.) The article goes on to note that the "party’s newly combative approach extends beyond redistricting as it has felt a new urgency to regain power in Washington." Both its "qualms over dark money" and its more compromising posture in previous funding battles have been overridden by the need not to "bring a stick to a knife fight." The referendum passed by only by three percentage points, possibly because the "issue seems to have unsettled some Virginia voters" and because the NO campaign relentlessly focused on Democrats' past positions vehemently opposing gerrymandering.

Wisconsin's process for developing its electoral maps makes it impossible for us to do the same, even though in our evenly divided state our congressional delegation includes six Republicans and only two Democrats. That's why two groups have brought lawsuits seeking the opportunity to draw new maps before the 2028 election. One of those lawsuits was dismissed on March 31. It argued that "the state’s congressional maps were an illegal partisan gerrymander." The other lawsuit — "challenging the congressional maps on the basis that they illegally dampen the competitiveness of the state’s congressional elections" — will probably go to trial next year (Wisconsin Examiner, March 31, 2026).

Meanwhile, as the result of an earlier case about maps for legislative districts, we have much fairer maps and have a solid chance of winning majorities in both the state Senate and in the Assembly. As a sign that the state's Republicans recognize that a sea change is coming, we are seeing lots of current office holders deciding not to run again, most notably both leaders of the two houses. The list in the Assembly includes:

• Robin Vos, the longest serving Speaker of the Assembly (AD 33)
• Scott Allen (AD 82)
• Robert Brooks (AD 59)
• Rick Gundrum (AD 58)
• Dave Murphy (AD 56)
• Jerry O'Connor (AD 60)
• Kevin Petersen (AD 57)

The senators hanging up their hats include:

• Devin LeMahieu, Majority Leader (SD 9)
• Rob Hutton (SD 5)
• Jesse James (SD 23)
• Steve Nass (SD 11)
• Van Wanggaard (SD 21)

Two of the retirees in the Senate — Rob Hutton and Van Wanggaard — are on the Grassroots North Shore hit list for the fall election. In addition, we will be targeting two Assembly Districts in the Milwaukee area — AD 21 (Jesse Rodriguez) and AD 61 (Bob Donovan) — and three Congressional Districts — CD 1 (Bryan Steil), CD 3 (Derrick Van Orden) and CD 6 (Glenn Grothman). We plan to connect with grassroots groups in those areas so that we can work together on phoning and sending postcards once the primary is over.

Our elections page has now expanded to provide you with access to nomination papers for many of those running for various offices. The top part of the page includes a link to information about absentee ballots and drop boxes for some communities plus the date of the August primary, registration information for students, and the results on the Wisconsin Supreme Court election (including the number of percentage points in the community's movement toward the progressive candidate, Chris Taylor). At the very bottom of the elections page, you will find a link to the online information candidates have provided.

I will be adding the online information for our target list of candidates in the coming days. Obviously, you cannot sign nomination papers for any of them unless you happen to live in their districts, but if you're interested in finding out about the people who want to run for those seats, be sure to check back in a week or two.

For me, the biggest surprise in this part of the election cycle is the number of people who would like to be on the primary ballot contesting for the nomination to run against Glenn Grothman in the 6th Congressional District. Ballotpedia lists eight Democratic candidates, but one of them informed us that he needed to bow out of the race to deal with an urgent family matter. In addition to the seven candidates on the Democratic side, there are two independents (and one Republican!) listed. I urge people who live in the 6th Congressional District to look at the online information about the candidates BEFORE you decide to download, circulate, and sign nomination papers for a candidate. Keep in mind: you can sign only ONE NOMINATION FORM for each office. And you must be a resident of the district the candidate is running in.

Most offices have many fewer people aspiring to be the nominee, and I know of no other races where there are candidates running as Independents as well as others running as Democrats. Between now and when nomination papers are due at the Wisconsin Election Commission on June 1, there may be some additions and/or subtractions. I'll try to keep up and let you know. You can also use the Ballotpedia index to Wisconsin elections. Ballotpedia provides a questionnaire to candidates and posts responses when they receive them. If you click on the "Click Here" link next to the race you are interested in, you will see a list of candidates for that office. If a candidate has submitted answers to the Candidate Connection questionnaire, you will see anext to the candidate's name. Clicking on that will take you to that person's responses.

On a final note about our upcoming election, make sure you RSVP for our Governor's forum on Sunday, May 17, at Nicolet High School (6710 N Jean Nicolet Rd, Glendale). Seven candidates will participate: Mandela Barnes, Joel Brennan David Crowley, Francesca Hong, Missy Hughes, Sara Rodriguez, and Kelda Roys. Kathleen Dunn, a retired radio talk-show host of 44 years, will moderate the forum.

Whether or not you can attend the forum, you can help whoever wins the primary in August execute a robust campaign in the 84 days between the primary and the general election. Governor Evers in conjunction with the Wisconsin Democratic Party has set up the Governor Readiness Project, "a new initiative to prepare for the general election — starting now before we even know who our nominee will be." Not only will the initiative make sure the candidate has the resources need to run a competitive campaign, it will also provide technical support. As The Cap Times put it, "The goal is simple: Put together a ready-made campaign to hand off to the Democrat who wins the August 2026 primary."

Finally, I will leave you with some new data from my new favorite politics guru, G. Elliot Morris: "Trump's job approval has fallen to a new low" in the poll in the field from April 10 - 14. His net approval (approval minus disapproval) is now -26, or 35% approval and 61% disapproval. That's 17 points lower than when the tracker began in May 2025. "His net approval on prices and inflation has fallen to -46, worsening every single month of 2026: -31 in January, -35 in February, -40 in March, and now -46 in April. Just 26% of Americans approve of the way he is handling prices, while 72% disapprove. More than half of all respondents (56%) strongly disapprove." Morris shows that Trump's approval on every issue but one is underwater. He ends this most recent Strength in Numbers post with this: "Trump’s numbers have now declined in every wave of our poll this year. And while his support bounced occasionally in 2025, it has never increased two months in a row. Overall approval has dropped from 40% in January to 35% in April."

Before I start on the newsy bits, here are two events of note coming up quickly. First is a May 1 Day of Action. In Milwaukee and in Madison, Voces de la Frontera will hold its annual Day without Immigrants event. Here, there will be a rally at 10:00am at the Voces Offices (733 W Historic Mitchell Street). At 11:00am participants will march to the Federal Building (517 E Wisconsin Ave) for a program there. In Madison, the rally will take place at 12:00pm at Library Mall (715 State Street) followed by a march to the State Capitol at 1:00pm.

The more general May 1 Day of Action is themed "It's Workers Over Billionaires." Here's how you participate: No Work. No School. No Shopping. That's the essence of the action. Here's how the organizers describe the purpose of the event: "We are a network of hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of working people coming together with a common purpose: standing together against the billionaires waging a war on working people." The demands are straightforward:

• Stop the billionaire takeover corrupting our government.
• Protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people.
• Fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.
• Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, women and all our communities.
• Invest in people not wars.

To find events in your area, visit the MayDayStrong website.

And on Sunday, May 17, Grassroots North Shore will hold a forum for the Democratic candidates for governor. It will take place at Nicolet High School (6701 North Jean Nicolet Road, Glendale). The event will be moderated by Kathleen Dunn, a veteran of 44 years as a radio talk show host. The doors will open at 2:00pm; the program will begin at 2:30pm. As space is limited, please do yourself a favor and RSVP.

Here's some startling good news to get us going today. "In a Fox interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump effectively admitted that the ongoing Republican campaign to rig electoral maps in their favor to avert a wipeout in this year’s midterm elections has been a spectacular failure" (Daily Kos, April 15, 2026). Of course, his rambling interview was filled with lies — he had "the greatest opening year" and "the greatest economy ever." Some anchor in reality is better than none, I suppose.

Now for some not-so-wonderful news. In his Morning Memo at Talking Points Memo, David Kurtz writes, "The descent of the Justice Department into a crude weapon wielded by an erratic authoritarian is gathering speed and quickening the threat to America’s fraying democracy in ways that we all feared but hoped might be kept at bay for a bit longer." He cites four judicial events from yesterday:

1. The DOJ abandoned the seditious conspiracy convictions of a number of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers whose sentences had already been commuted. But now the DOJ seeks to wipe the slate clean.
2. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that District Judge James Boasberg could not investigate the contempt of court for the DOJ and ICE's failure to follow a judicial order that would have prevented 100+ Venezuelans from being deported to El Salvador in spring 2025.
3. Prosecutors in US Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office showed up unannounced at the Federal Reserve headquarters to try to undermine the Fed's independence.
4. The Trump DOJ released its so-called weaponization report attacking President Biden's Justice Department.

For the details on these, read the whole thing. TPM is always worth a look.

And on the sex scandal(s) beat, here's the latest. The collapse of Eric Swalwell's campaign and probably his career too has been swift. Yesterday, he resigned from congress, having already halted his campaign for governor of California amid a widening sexual assault scandal. It's all too familiar by now. But here's what puzzles me. Knowing that these allegations were just waiting to be discovered, why he nevertheless thought he could run for governor without being exposed escapes my understanding completely. What sort of reasoning leads a man to think that the scandal would never occur? The only thing holding the Epstein victims back from more openly implicating Donald Trump, it seems, is fear. Maybe Swalwell — and Tony Gonzales too — believe they are similarly immune, when clearly they are not. So what differentiates the "Epstein class" from these miscreants, I wonder. And will we ever see the full Epstein files? Keep watching the skies, I guess.

In Wisconsin, our legislature held a special session to deal with gerrymandering in the state. Except the session didn't actually happen. As Wisconsin Public Radio has it, "a special session of the Legislature to consider banning partisan gerrymandering came and went Tuesday. But it’s not gone for good." instead of quickly gaveling a session in and immediately gaveling it out again, this time "they didn’t adjourn — they just postponed." Republicans say they're "working toward a thoughtful solution to partisan gerrymandering." Governor Evers counters: “Lawmakers either want to ban partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin or they don’t. It’s that simple. If lawmakers fail to take a public vote on this basic question, then Wisconsinites have no choice but to assume their lawmaker’s position on this issue.” Maybe a little star gazing on this issue is in order.

Today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is chock full of stories and pictures of last night's thunderstorms and possible tornados, but I could not find a single article about the legislature's lack of action on gerrymandering yesterday. A wonderful headline today, though, almost makes up for that neglect: "GOP lawmakers hire private lawyers to defend spending on private lawyers." The piece begins "Republican leaders will pay private lawyers up to $550 an hour in taxpayer money to represent the Legislature in a lawsuit challenging them over that very practice: using taxpayer money to hire private attorneys." Irony and cynicism abound.

Meanwhile, we're in the seventh week of our ugly war with Iran and in the midst of a pretend ceasefire. This afternoon the New York Times announced that "Stocks Approach Record High as Wall St. Looks Beyond War." The first paragraph says it all: "The S&P 500 approached a fresh record high on Wednesday, reflecting investors’ optimism that a peace deal would be reached before the war in Iran could inflict significant damage on corporate America, even as a spike in oil prices has led to a gloomier economic outlook." The operative phrase here is "inflict significant damage on corporate America." I think what we're seeing is the effect of gaping wealth inequality in this country. Later in the article, the Times acknowledges that "some market watchers have been perplexed by the recent rally" since the Strait of Hormuz is like a straight jacket on the world's economy and "high oil and gas prices have been feeding into rising U.S. inflation and tumbling consumer confidence."

The preliminary data for April 2026 from the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers show that we are pretty unhappy. "Consumer sentiment sank about 11% this month, extending a decline that began with the start of the Iran conflict, and is currently about 9% below a year ago." Measured at just 47.6, confidence in the economy has hit a historic new low. Nevertheless stocks surge.

Let's end on an upbeat note. Senator Baldwin issued a press release a few days ago to announce that she "and her colleagues Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) ... will force the Senate to vote again to end the war in Iran." See the full press release. May the force be with them.

Here's the rest of the newsletter I sent on Wednesday, April 8, with the list of events and some Take Action posts. But before we get to that material, I have a couple of bits of information to add about elections past and future.

Let's begin with what just happened today in Hungary. Autocrat Victor Orban went down to a landslide defeat. Péter Magyar's party looks like he will win at least 2/3 of the seats in Parliament, making him the next Prime Minister of Hungary with a supermajority so that much of the damage Orban did to Hungary's democracy can be undone! May it be a harbinger for our elections in the fall.

I also want to mention that a Democrat, Alicia Halvensleben, won the election for mayor of Waukesha City — apparently she is the first Democrat to win that seat since 1964!! The surprisingly good news from our April election just keeps coming.

I also need to add two important events to this missive: The Worth Fighting For Wisconsin monthly meeting is on Monday, April 13, on Zoom at 7pm. Greta Neubauer, minority leader in the Assembly, and Jodi Habush Sinykin, subbing for Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, will be discussing the strategies for winning the majority in both houses, and of course the governor's race as well. Plus Ben Wikler, former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, will also appear to discuss his forthcoming book — This Is the Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy. His book promises to show what individuals and small groups can do to build a future in which democracy thrives. You should definitely sign up for this event.

Then on Wednesday, April 15, Wisconsin SEIU is sponsoring a rally — Tax Day: Protest Tom Tiffany's Healthcare Cuts. The event will take place at 11:00am at the GOP Milwaukee Field Office, 2244 N Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr. Dr in Milwaukee. Tiffany, a MAGA Republican who is currently the representative of Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District, voted to cut healthcare to help fund tax cuts for billionaires. And this year he's running to become Wisconsin's governor. We cannot let that happen. AccuWeather predicts temperatures in the low 60s and unfortunately rainy. Bring your umbrellas and raincoats. As the organizers say, our voices are stronger together. Join in!

TAKE ACTION

Milwaukee Voter Project: Be an MVP! The Milwaukee Voter Project is up and running and we need your help. Since the beginning of November 2025 we have had fewer than twenty people volunteer to work shifts registering voters at the DMV offices. Most weeks we are lucky to fill only two or three of the 65 shifts we have available. There are two important elections remaining in 2026:
               •  August 11- primary for partisan offices
               •  November 3- general election for partisan offices
We would like to get as many volunteers as possible trained and reaching out to voters during this important election cycle. You can sign up through May 30!

We have updated our processes and recommend that anyone who has not worked with us since 2024 watch two videos: the DMV training video AND the MYVOTE training video. These videos can be found on the 'training' tab on our MilwaukeeVoterProject.com website. And you can sign up for shifts for registering voters or for VOTER RECOVERY shifts on the Shifts tab on our website. Have questions or need more information? Call 262-617-9877 or email [email protected].

5 Calls: Here are some of the worthy topics you might want to use to call Senator Johnson, Senator Baldwin, and your Representative.
               •  No War with Iran;
               •  Impeach Trump;
               •  Impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth;
               •  Oppose Healthcare Cuts to Fund ICE and Illegal War;
               •  Protect Our Public Lands.

WOW! What a night. Chris Taylor won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court (SCOWIS) by a whopping 20 points!

The last four liberal justices won their seats by a mere 10 or 11 points and we all thought that was amazing enough. Every county save one — Menominee — swung toward Democrats compared to the votes in that county for president in 2024.

You've probably seen the map of Wisconsin with counties coded in shades of red or blue, depending on who won that county and by how much. But you may not have seen the "swing" by county. So here is the image from the New York Times account of the Wisconsin election.

Below is a numerical version of the swing toward Democratic votes by counties that are of particular interest to us and by the counties that fall in whole or in part in Congressional District 1 — Bryan Steil's district — and Congressional District 3 — Derrick Van Orden's district.

Here's another way of looking at the breadth and scope of the Taylor win, one that should give us a hefty lift as we look forward to the fall elections and our efforts to unseat Steil and Van Orden. From VoteHub on X:

Chris Taylor won 7/8 congressional districts last night:
WI-01: 🔵+15 (Trump + 4.5)
WI-02: 🔵+59 (Harris +40.0)
WI-03: 🔵+21 (Trump +7.4)
WI-04: 🔵+62 (Harris +51.4)
WI-05: 🔴+9 (Trump +22.1)
WI-06:🔵+4 (Trump +16.4)
WI-07: 🔵+3 (Trump +22.5)
WI-08: 🔵+7 (Trump +16.2)

(April 8, 2026)

Congressional District 5, currently occupied by Scott Fitzgerald, lies in the rural areas between Madison and Milwaukee. Obviously it's a much more difficult area for Democrats to win. But Wisconsin CD7, an open seat because Tom Tiffany is currently running for Governor, may be within reach. Ditto CD8 since the Fox Valley trended so heavily blue this spring.

Past performance does not guarantee future outcomes of course. Turnout can be quite different from one election to the next, especially when comparing spring elections, which typically have relatively low turnout, to presidential elections — with the highest turnouts — or to the midterm elections like the one we will have in fall 2026. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's calculation of turnout for this April's election has two different outcomes depending on how it is figured: based on Wisconsin's voting age population or based on all registered voters. The first method yields a statewide average of 32%. The second method yields ~42%. The second method does not include those who registered at the polls on election day, which means there's some uncertainty about the actual number of registered voters when the polls closed at 8pm CT.

Turnout in Milwaukee County, calculated with registered voters, was just shy of 39%. In Ozaukee County turnout was calculated at 48%. Taylor won the county by 4 points. I have not yet calculated all the returns in Oz, but a quick scan tells me she won every ward in the village of Thiensville, every ward in the city of Cedarburg, all but three wards in the city of Mequon, and every ward in the city of Port Washington. Some of those wins were relatively modest but some were HUGE.

I will do a deeper dive into the outcomes in the North Shore and Ozaukee and Washington Counties over the next few days. And I will also send another newsletter with the Events included. The Wisconsin election overshadowed the TACO Tuesday momentous event: our fearful leader's back-pedaling in his war with Iran. But that will have to wait.

This newsletter is all about REAL WINNING. And the results here are down to all of you, making phone calls, sending postcards, and most of all voting. We have some laurels and a few weeks to rest on them before we have to start gearing up for the fall. So a heartfelt thank-you to everyone.

Yours,
Nancy Kaplan
Grassroots North Shore

For the next six days, the only thing that matters — locally at least — is the upcoming election for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Early in-person voting ends in most North Shore suburbs, Ozaukee County municipalities, and Washington County municipalities on Friday, April 3. Contact your municipal clerk for dates, times, and places. In Milwaukee, early in-person voting also takes place in several locations on Saturday, April 4, and Sunday, April 5. If you have not voted yet, please do so this week! Otherwise, plan to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, April 7, from 7:00am to 8:00pm.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is organizing plenty of Get Out the Vote Canvassing with a number of candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor. This is a great opportunity to meet and hear from them AND to do a little electioneering! Here's a list of who will be where as we knock the last doors in our communities.

• Chris Taylor in Milwaukee's West Side, Saturday, April 4 at 12:00pm;
• Joel Brennan in Tosa, Saturday, April 4 at 12:00pm;
• Joel Brennan in Riverwest, Saturday, April 4 at 3:00pm;
• David Crowley in Glendale, Saturday, April 4 at 3:00pm;
• Kelda Roys in Bayview, Saturday, April 4 at 3:00pm.

• Sara Rodriguez in Milwaukee's West Side, Monday, April 6 at 9:00am;
• Missy Hughes in Tosa, Monday, April 6 at 3:00pm

And to close out the campaign, Chris Taylor will kick off the canvass at the Bayview office of the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County, 2999 S Delaware Ave in Milwaukee, on Tuesday, April 7, at 12:00pm!

Please sign up to do some canvassing as we run through the tape at the finish line of this election. It will certainly be a low turnout affair. Which is why we need to urge people to vote in this one. Already, the rate of early and absentee votes lags well behind where it was a year ago when Susan Crawford was running. Here's a list of canvassing staging locations for the Get Out the Vote end game:

• Brown Deer, April 4, 5, 6, and 7
• Fox Point/Bayside, April 3, 4, and 6
• Glendale, April 3, 4, and 6
• Germantown, April 2, 4, 6, and 7
• Grafton & Cedarburg, April 4, 6, and 7
• Lakefront, April 4, 6, and 7
• Mequon, April 2, 4, 6, and 7
• West Allis, April 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7
• Whitefish Bay, April 3, 4, and 6

People don't seem to feel the same sense of urgency about this election that they felt a year ago when the balance of the court was in the contention, but they should. With a solidly liberal majority currently on the court, what's the big deal this year? There's a lot less money sloshing around this race — and no Elon Musk to act as villain. Yet, a little reflection reveals that electing Chris Taylor solidifies control of the court until at least 2030, when the next census takes place. That means protecting fair maps, voting rights, and reproductive rights — not to mention election challenges emanating from the 2028 elections!

Campaigns are always interesting windows into the character of candidates. So I was thrilled when I accidentally received a post card from the Lazar campaign. I thought I'd share with you the way her campaign portrays her opponent and herself. The photo of Judge Taylor speaks volumes, as does the characterization of her as "The Activist."

Although Judge Taylor has been on the bench since 2022, the Lazar campaign pronounces her a "career politician" and fails to note that she is a sitting judge. She's depicted in a clearly darkened photograph, microphone in hand and no judicial trappings in sight. Adding that she worked for Planned Parenthood is simply a way of saying that she supports reproductive rights without having to come out and say directly that Maria Lazar is opposed to abortion!

Meanwhile, the Lazar campaign portrays the candidate in a bright light, smiling, in front of what appears to be a library of law books. The card uses her title and proclaims that she has "12 years of Honorable Judicial Experience" without providing a clue about her judicial philosophy, let alone her ideology.

The headline above the two pictures reads "TWO RECORDS. ONE CHOICE." The reverse side of the card, however, reveals a great deal about Lazar's views: "Wisconsin's Supreme Court is our last line of defense. The Madison political machine is spending millions to install a career activist who will put her partisan agenda first." The reference to the "Madison Machine" is simply code for lefties we don't like. And of course, there's an appeal for a donation complete with QR code.

As for the money race, the financial reporting for February 3 through March 23 came out on Monday. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it on March 31, "Chris Taylor outraising, outspending Maria Lazar in Supreme Court race." Their analysis shows "Taylor and her supporters have outspent Lazar and her backers 15-1." It's no wonder the Republican party, which paid for the Lazar campaign piece I received, is so eager to funnel donations to their candidate!

It's pretty late in the cycle, but the two candidates are going to debate on April 2 — that's tomorrow — from 7:00 - 8:00pm on WISN 12 News. Even if you've already voted, it is worth watching I should think.

In no election, no matter how small, can we afford to sit on our hands. So please, get busy. If you cannot canvass, you can make phone calls, send texts, talk to like-minded family and friends, urging them to get out and vote.

And thus endeth the lesson!

Our demented leader plans to address the nation tonight. Any bets on whether he rambles on about his ballroom, about rogue judges, about the pens he uses? Will he declare victory in Iran and leave? Does he think the price of gasoline will magically decline Thursday morning if he announces that he's won? After all, according to his highness, the war has already achieved regime change: "President Trump on Sunday suggested that 'regime change' in Iran had been achieved because so many of its top leaders have been killed in U.S.-Israeli attacks, as he sought to show progress in a war that has entered a second month." So said the New York Times on Monday.

Today, though, the story is a little different. Here's the Times' headline: Trump Seeks to Redefine ‘Regime Change’ in Iran War. The flip-flopping stars in the story: "Regime change has occurred in Iran. Or it hasn’t. It is a goal of the war. Except it isn’t. Those are some of the dizzying messages that have come from President Trump and his aides in recent days. The phrase 'regime change' has flown from lips this week like fighter jets crisscrossing the Persian Gulf" (March 31, 2026). Maybe it's time for some regime change here at home.

Let's end this report with some really good news. CNN Politics looks at the two special elections in Florida that took place on March 24 and finds that they "provided more evidence that the Democratic success in elections since Donald Trump’s return to the White House rests not just on a motivated base but also on winning over Republicans and independents." To get at the reasoning, I need to quote the piece at some length.

We have the wind at our backs. So do something good for your soul, your community and your country.

TAKE ACTION

5 Calls has you covered for a number of highly urgent matters. As always, the site provides information about each subject, contact numbers for the relevant officials, and a script you can use or modify. Here are two salient issues right now.

• Oppose Healthcare Cuts to Fund ICE and Illegal War
  
  
• Say No to War with Cuba

MoveOn has a petition asking senators to block the nomination of Casey Means, who is not a doctor, to the post of Surgeon General. Sign it.

Before we get to the delicious news from the latest polls, I just need to remind you in case you haven't given it much thought:

NO KINGS THIS SATURDAY!
MAKE YOUR PLAN NOW — AND BRING A FRIEND!

The main event is being held at Washington Park at the bandshell (1859 N. 40th Street, Milwaukee) from noon to 3:00pm. Speeches are scheduled to begin at 1:00pm. Here's a map of the Park.

No Kings rallies and marches are a joyous and peaceful way to celebrate our freedom to assemble and to protest: NO KINGS and NO WAR IN IRAN. If you don't already have a sign to bring, or you just want to make a new one, there will be a sign making station at the Park. If you want to do it in advance, here are some ideas!

The venue is bigger than the last one to make sure there's room for everyone. Plan to attend! But be forewarned: there is very little parking nearby. So why don't you RIDE THE BUS with Grassroots North Shore? We are chartering as many school buses as we need, but first we need YOU to do TWO things:

1. Make a reservation so we will be sure to be able to accommodate you.
   
   
2. Pay $10 PER RIDER to defray the cost of the rental.

If you have already reserved seats on the bus but have not paid for every person, including yourself, who plans to ride with us: DO IT NOW please.

Find other solutions to the parking problem — including some parking suggestions if you are driving and route information if you want to take public transportation — on the pdf we are providing. Of course, you can carpool with friends. Or consider using UBER or LYFT!

If you can't make it to Washington Park, there are other No Kings rallies scheduled around the area. Each one has a different time. So click the link for the one you might like to attend to find out the details.

• Shorewood
• Grafton
• West Bend
• Brookfield
• Greenfield

Now for some news. The new Marquette poll came out yesterday. Although many likely voters claim they are still undecided, Chris Taylor leads Maria Lazar by 8 points. The degree of uncertainty is a bit disquieting but on a hopeful note, self-reported independents favor Taylor by 9 points. "Registered voters have become somewhat more familiar with both candidates since October, though more than 60% continue to say they haven’t heard enough to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of each candidate." Good news but no excuse for letting up. Run through the tape, always.

Unfortunately, the candidate debate originally scheduled for tonight has been postponed because Judge Taylor is recovering from kidney stones. No new date has yet been set for it. We hope she recovers soon. Kidney stones are no joke!

So here are some numbers to get you in the NO KINGS mood from Strength in Numbers: "President Donald Trump has had a bad month of news cycles (again). His new war against Iran is one of the most unpopular ever. The national average price of a gallon of gas is now $3.96, according to AAA — up over a dollar from $2.93 before the U.S. war in Iran began on Feb. 28, 2026. That price is now higher than at any point since 2022." The poll shows a 6-point margin in favor of Democrats on the generic ballot question. Moreover, he writes, "the party out of power has gained an average of about 5 points between February and November in modern midterm cycles. If that pattern holds — and the starting point is already D+6 — Democrats would be looking at a margin well into wave territory by Election Day."

Have a look at the approval-disapproval graphs on key issues from G. Elliott Morris' substack:

In more bad news for our malevolent leader, Emily Singer (staff on Daily Kos), headlines today's post "Men propelled Trump to the White House. Now they're turning on him." Harry Enten, the CNN data guy, put it this way in a March 24 post: "Trump won in 2024 because of men. They are abandoning him right now. He won men by 13 pt in 2024, but his net approval is now -7 pt with them. Men under 45: Trump won by 5 pt in 2024. Now he's 19 pt underwater with them." You can see his segment — and enjoy his high energy reporting style — in a post on The Daily Beast. It's 3+ minutes of WOW and worth a watch.

In other just-desserts comeuppance, NBC News is reporting that the activist who pushed 2020 election fraud claims was convicted of election fraud. And guess where this happy event occurred: right here in Racine, Wisconsin! "A jury convicted a Wisconsin man of election fraud and identity theft for requesting the ballots of Republican state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Democratic Racine Mayor Cory Mason without their consent." Huzzah!

Finally, despite Aileen "Loosey" Cannon's judicial order sealing the report from Jack Smith's investigation of the purloined classified documents our wannabe dictator took when he left the Oval Office in 2021, MS NOW reports that "Trump appeared to have business motive for keeping classified documents, Jack Smith finds." Here are the first two paragraphs of the news item:

Read the whole thing. It's mind-blowing!

TAKE ACTION

Campus Voter Engagement Volunteers Needed

Alerting students to upcoming elections is very rewarding. Volunteers will be informing students about the Supreme Court Election and providing them with information on registering to vote, early in person voting on the UWM campus and other city locations, and candidate information. Your job will be handing out flyers and holding a very quick conversation with students as they dash by to their next class. We need volunteers to work at UWM the week of March 30 – April 3 and April 6 and 7. A shift is approximately 1 ½-2 hours, and the work is outdoors (weather permitting) since we are handing out partisan flyers and need to stay on public sidewalks and Spaights Plaza at UWM. Please let Norma Gilson know if you can participate at [email protected], 414-588-1241.

Get Out the Vote: Early in-person voting began yesterday!

Pedal to the metal, folks.

• Brown Deer, March 28 and 29 plusApril 4, 5, 6, and 7
• Fox Point/Bayside, Saturday March 28 plus April 3, 4, and 6
• Glendale, Sunday March 29 plus April 3, 4, and 6
• Germantown, Early Vote, Sunday March 29
• Germantown, GOTV, April 2, 4, 6, and 7
• Grafton & Cedarburg, Early Vote, Sunday March 29
• Grafton & Cedarburg, GOTV, April 4, 6, and 7
• Lakefront, Saturday and Sunday March 28 & 29 plus April 4, 6, and 7
• Mequon, Early Vote, Saturday and Sunday March 28 & 29
• Mequon, GOTV, April 2, 4, 6, and 7
• West Allis, Saturday and Sunday March 28 & 29 plus April 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7
• Whitefish Bay, Saturday and Sunday plus GOTV days March 28 & 29 plus April 3, 4, and 6

Grassroots North Shore is co-sponsoring a virtual meeting between the Democratic National Committee and various grassroots groups, including Swing Leftand the Swing Blue Alliance. This is the first time that I can recall that the Democratic Party is meeting with grassroots groups. So I hope Grassroots North Shore supporters will sign up to make sure we have a good showing and to find out how the party intends to "Flip the House." The event is scheduled for Wednesday, March 18, at 7:00pm Central Time. And just FYI, both Derrick Van Orden (Wisconsin CD3) and Bryan Steil (CD1) are on the flip list.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! NO KINGS 3 is coming on March 28! And we need YOU! Not only do you need to attend a rally, either the main one in Milwaukee at Washington Park from 11:00am - 3:00pm or one of the other smaller gatherings around the city (see the list below or visit nokings.org for a complete map) but you also need to DO SOMETHING MORE. Grassroots North Shore needs volunteers to work the crowd. The goal is to persuade others to step up, to go beyond attending protest rallies and marches. Here's what you'll do:

1. chat with attendees and thank them for coming;
2. hand them a flyer and encourage them to find ONE action they can do to make a difference in their communities;
3. ask them to follow the flyer's QR code to sign up for an action then and there.

SIGN UP to volunteer.

If you cannot canvass (or even if you can), PLEASE DONATE to fund the sound system, the port-a-potties, the garbage cans, and some extra screens so everyone in the crowd can see and hear the speakers.

Here's a list of other rallies around Milwaukee. The times vary so check with and sign up for the rally you want to attend.

• Shorewood
• Grafton
• West Bend
• Brookfield
• Greenfield

While we're in the midst of one campaign for a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, comes news that Justice Annette Ziegler plans to retire in August, 2027, at the end of her current term. Which means in spring 2027 when there is yet another election for the court, the seat will be open! Defeating a sitting justice has been next to impossible. So it is to our advantage to have another open seat next year.

Although Annette Ziegler did not cite the change of the court's ideological make-up, as Rebecca Bradley did when she announced that she would not run again, Wisconsin Public Radio notes that "her tenure was not without its disputes with what recently became a liberal majority on the court. In 2023, after Justice Janet Protasiewicz took the bench, flipping the court’s ideological stance for the first time in 15 years, Ziegler accused her liberal colleagues of going “rogue” and undermining her authority as chief."

Now we're only weeks away from this spring's election. Early in-person voting begins March 24 and ends in most of the suburbs on April 3. You can check your community's website for days and hours. You can also still request an absentee ballot at MyVote.WI.gov. You may be able to return it through a drop box (again, check with your community's clerk for more information). If you use the postal service, be sure you do so as early as possible, because the mail has been slower than in the past. And the new process for postmarking mail means that your ballot will not necessarily be postmarked the day you put it in the mail! See the postal service's explanation and what you can do to ensure your ballot is postmarked appropriately here.

In these last few weeks before Election Day, it is vital that we contact as many supportive voters as we can! That's why the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has organized canvasses all over the state. Below you will find a list of staging locations together with dates and times. But NOTE: there is a special canvass at the Glendale staging location (6563 N Crestwood Dr, Glendale 53209) you won't want to miss: former White House chief of staff and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel will cheer us on and knock doors with us starting at noon on Sunday, March 15. Sign Up to attend.

The City of Milwaukee has been preparing for ramped up immigration enforcement with a trio of proposals for its "ICE Out MKE" campaign. Two of three proposals — one of which "declared opposition to ICE activity in the US" and the other of which called on "Milwaukee Police to intervene if anti-ICE protesters’ rights are violated" — have been passed by the Council and were signed by Mayor Johnson on March 6. The third proposal would prohibit ICE from using City-owned property for any of its activities (620WTMJ Radio Station, March 9, 2026).

The internet at my house has been spotty lately. And while I can't make a direct connection between its sporadic failures and the illegal war we are waging in Iran, CNBC (March 11, 2026) notes that "Data centers have already been targeted. Iran’s wave of retaliatory attacks hit AWS facilities in the UAE and Bahrain, causing banking, payments, enterprise and consumer services to experience outages." The article begins "Tech companies have been funnelling billions of dollars into AI infrastructure projects in the Middle East over the past few years, drawn in by cheap and readily available energy and land, alongside local government support." Data centers in Wisconsin threaten to raise utility rates and use huge quantities of water to keep the servers cool. Let's hope our legislature takes heed before it is too late.

This just in: "Trump says he’ll tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve to cut energy costs" (CNBC, March 11, 2027). Meanwhile "The International Energy Agency has ordered the largest release of government oil reserves in its history in an effort to calm the oil price shock triggered by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. All 32 members of the world’s energy watchdog agreed unanimously to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of the group’s total government stockpiles and more than double the IEA’s previous biggest release, the IEA said" (The Guardian, Middle East Crisis Live, March 11, 2026).

Not everything is grim, though. A new satirical statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has appeared on the National Mall. On Tuesday, the third golden statue appeared "depicting Donald Trump and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as doomed lovers from the movie Titanic" (The Guardian, March 11, 2026). I think you'll want to see it.

There is also a "Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame." It was "installed last weekend in Farragut Square, a public park close to the White House, naming and shaming public figures associated with the late child sex offender and trafficker" (MEDILL ON THE HILL, March 4, 2026). The installation consists of stars — modeled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — "featuring prominent politicians, billionaires and celebrities tied to Epstein. Each star carried a QR code that directed visitors to specific entries in the Epstein files or news articles detailing their connection to him."

"Hurry up, please. It's time." That's from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. And it begins "April is the cruelest month." Let's make sure it's not cruel this year: get your absentee ballot, plan to vote early in person, see what's on your ballot at MyVote.WI.gov. And then get busy!

TAKE ACTION

Campus Voter Engagement Volunteers Needed: Alerting students to upcoming elections is very rewarding. Volunteers will be informing students about the Supreme Court Election and providing them with information on registering to vote, early in person voting on the UWM campus and other city locations, and candidate information. Your job will be handing out flyers and holding a very quick conversation with students as they dash by to their next class. We need volunteers to go to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) during the week of March 23-26 and possibly April 6 and 7. We need volunteers to work at UWM the week of March 30 – April 3 and April 6 and 7. A shift is approximately 1 ½-2 hours, and the work is outdoors (weather permitting) since we are handing out partisan flyers and need to stay on public sidewalks and Spaights Plaza at UWM. Please let Norma Gilson know if you can participate at [email protected], 414-588-1241.

From Indivisible: Tell your Members of Congress: End Trump’s illegal war with Iran. Trump’s war has already cost the lives of US servicemembers, at least 1,000 Iranian civilians, and others caught in the crossfire throughout the region. Democrats' efforts to end it with a War Powers Resolution failed last week, but the fight is far from over. The regime will soon ask for billions more of taxpayers' money to continue their bloodsoaked recklessness. Use the link above to email your Members of Congress, then call your senators and your representative and demand they refuse to fund Trump's war.