Let's begin with where we are and what YOU need to do. We've done postcards and we're finishing up our phone calls to postcard recipients. Those are team efforts involving hundreds of volunteers. Now in these last 12 days of campaigning, we are deploying a different, more individual strategy that doesn't involve communicating with people you don't know.

Do relational voter outreach: it's effective and efficient!

Talk to and/or email at least 5 like-minded family, friends, and colleagues to make sure they understand how important it is that they vote in the April 1 election. Here are two "cheat sheets" (aka talking points) to quickly get them — and yourself — up to speed on the issues both for the Supreme Court race and for the race to elect a Superintendent of Public Schools.

1. Crawford v Schimel (aka Schlemiel) and Underly v Kinser talking points. There are pertinent quotations from Schimel with a document you can access to verify relevant sources for these claims if you're so inclined.
   
   
2. A piece about Judge Susan Crawford with a page of suggestions for holding a conversation.

Ask your contacts also to contact at least 5 family, friends, and colleagues to spread the word. And provide them with the links to the documents or download them so you can attach them to emails.

A different way to accomplish the work of contacting people you know and who will trust your judgment is to use the application REACH. This app allows you to use your contact list, choose the people you want to connect with, and send them a text message about the election. You can acquire the app and get training on how to use it on Thursday, March 20, and again on Thursday, March 27, from 6:00 - 7:30pm. The training is being held at 8405 W Lisbon Ave. Sign up for a session.

Early in-person voting is happening right now and runs weekdays until March 28. Most communities vote early at their village or city hall. In Milwaukee there are 10 early voting locations and residents can use any one of them to vote. If in doubt, you can find your early voting location, a sample ballot, and your Election Day polling place at MyVote.WI.gov.

The election on April 1 is the LAST ONE WE WILL HAVE IN WISCONSIN IN 2025! Hurrah!! But Grassroots North Shore isn't just a body of volunteers enmeshed in election work. We're having an important program on Sunday, April 6, on "What's Next for the State and the Nation." We're gathering at 3:30 at Plymouth Church (2717 E Hampshire Blvd, Milwaukee) with the program beginning at 4:00pm. In addition to hearing from our dynamic team in Madison — Greta Neubauer, Democratic Leader of the Assembly; Deb Andraca, representing the 23rd Assembly District; and Jodi Habush Sinykin, the newly elected Senator for the 8th Senate District — our featured speaker is Jim Santelle, an expert on constitutional law. He has served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin under President Obama and he has also served under Attorneys General Janet Reno and Eric Holder. Currently he is the host of Amicus: A Law Review on Civic Media. Please join us. RSVP so we will know to expect you!

The most important thing happening in the state right now is the Joint Finance Committee listening sessions on Governor Evers's proposed budget. Senator Jodi Habush Sinykin and Representative Deb Andraca held their own listening session last Saturday at the Whitefish Bay Library. Obviously, it's too late to attend it, but here are the PowerPoint materials they used to help explain what's in the budget and what the process for passing a new budget is. The Joint Finance Committee is required by law to hold four official sessions around the state and allow for public input at those sessions. They will be held as follows:

• April 2 in Kaukauna at the Kaukauna High School Auxiliary Gymnasium (Door AA4),
• April 4 in West Allis at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center,
• April 28 in Hayward at the Hayward High School Auditorium, and
• April 29 in Wausau at the Northcentral Technical College Center for Health Sciences.

In addition to attending a live session, you can submit a comment online.

In yesterday's The Contrarian, Jennifer Rubin focuses on Words and Phrases We Could Do Without. Among the words she covers are "war" when it is used "outside of battlefield combat." She writes, "If every issue (e.g., crime, border security, drug addiction) can be elevated to the status of “war,” it enables power-seeking politicians and their minions to throw the term around like rice at a wedding, in an attempt to justify extraordinary powers and abuses." And so it is that the president has tried to use "the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime statute, to summarily deport individuals without due process and without access to the courts." A federal court quickly issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to block the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans but the deportations continued! Are we in a constitutional crisis yet?

Last night, Chris Hayes held a lengthy interview with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in which Senator Schumer appeared to hold the view that the crisis is not yet upon us. Like Chris Hayes, I was taken aback. Stunned in fact. You can watch a key part of the segment. In today's The Contrarian, Jen Rubin takes this question on: The Constitutional Crisis May be Upon Us.

Democrats in Congress have no power and very few tools at their disposal to disrupt what is happening to our government, to the rule of law, and to our country. So it is up to us. Indivisible and allied groups have called for a nationwide mobilization — HANDS OFF — on Saturday, April 5. It's currently in the planning stages here, but please mark your calendars and plan to participate! If you are in or going to be near Washington, D.C., the mobilization will take place from 12 - 3:30pm EDT at the Washington Monument (2 15th St NW, Washington, D.C.). Here's what the organization says about the event:

Finally, I'd like to leave you with Michael Podhorzer's short but insightful and sobering view of American history: America's Second "Redemption". It's an important piece and hope you will read it if only to have a clear-eyed view of what it will take to make the arc of the universe bend toward justice again.

TAKE ACTION

As always, knock doors and talk to people. It's time to Get Out the (Early) Vote:

• Get Out the Early Vote in Shorewood! Saturday, March 22
• Get Out the Early Vote in Whitefish Bay! Sunday, March 23
• Get Out the Early Vote in Glendale! March 22 & 23
• Get Out the Early Vote in Fox Point and Bayside! March 22 & 23
• Get Out the Early Vote in Northwest MKE and Brown Deer! March 22 & 23
• Get Out the Early Vote in Mequon! March 22 & 23
• Get Out the Early Vote in Germantown! March 22 & 23
• Get Out the Early Vote in Menomonee Falls! March 22 & 23

Statement from APWU (American Postal Workers Union): The Washington Post has reported that the Trump Administration will soon issue an Executive Order firing the Postal Board of Governors, and placing the United States Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department. If this reporting is true, it would be an outrageous, unlawful attack on a storied national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and created by Congress to serve every American home and business equally.

Any attack on the Postal Service would be part of the billionaire oligarch coup, directed not just at the postal workers our union represents, but the millions of Americans who rely on the critical public service our members provide every single day. The public Postal Service is the low-cost anchor of a $1.2 trillion mail and shipping industry, which supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the country.

Efforts to privatize the Postal Service, in whole or in part, or to strip it of its independence or public service mission, would be of no benefit to the American people. Instead, it would drive up postage rates and lead to reduced service, especially to rural America.

The Postal Service is owned by the people, for the benefit of the people. Postal workers are dedicated to our mission to serve, no matter who sits in the White House or in Congress. Postal workers and our unions will join with the public to fight for the vibrant, independent, and public Postal Service we all deserve.

Make FOIA requests: Representative Jamie Raskin offers a citizen's protest action, urging everyone to file a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): "Today I filed a formal demand for access to my personal data obtained by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk. I encourage all U.S. citizens to join me in doing the same.

"Elon Musk should have been more careful in what he wished for. DOGE recently dodged lawsuits about its seizure of citizens’ personal data by telling courts that it is a legitimate government agency entitled to extract this information. What Elon Musk apparently did not realize is that this statement triggers DOGE’s obligation to comply with citizen demands to see and—if need be—correct their personal information under the Privacy Act. It also allows every citizen to find out what other agencies or outside parties have been made privy to our information" (Daily Kos, March 11, 2025). Download the document as a pdf or as a Microsoft Word document and mail it to </br /></br />     U.S. Department of Government Efficiency </br />     736 Jackson Place, NW </br />     Washington, D.C. 20503 </br /> </br />      United States Digital Service </br />     736 Jackson Place, NW </br />     Washington, D.C. 20503

Grassroots North Shore has a new Rapid Response team working to bring us timely information about events and actions happening locally, in our state, and in the nation. Rapid Response emails will come to you from [email protected]. These communications can't necessarily wait to be covered in our weekly newsletter. So the way to make sure you receive them in your inbox — rather than in your spam or promotions folder — is to add [email protected] to your contacts or address app. We'll do our best to curate these announcements so that you are not bombarded by too many communications from us each week. And I hope you will not chose to unsubscribe because doing so means cutting off ALL emails from Grassroots North Shore, even this newsletter and our announcements of events. See below for some of this week's immediate needs for rapid responses.

Speaking of which, our next event, our Annual Meeting on Sunday April 6, will address these questions:

• What's Next for the State and for the Nation?
• How Do We Harness Our Citizen Power?

In addition to hearing from our dynamic team in Madison — Greta Neubauer, Democratic Leader of the Assembly; Deb Andraca, representing the 23rd Assembly District; and Jodi Habush Sinykin, the newly elected Senator for the 8th Senate District — our featured speaker is Jim Santelle, an expert on constitutional law. He has served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin under President Obama and he has also served under Attorneys General Janet Reno and Eric Holder. Currently he is the host of Amicus: A Law Review on Civic Media. Please join us at Plymouth Church (2717 E Hampshire Ave, Milwaukee) from 4:00 - 5:30pm. RSVP so we will know to expect you!

There is some tension among the Democratic Senators about whether to vote for the Continuing Resolution (CR) designed to fund the federal government for the rest of this fiscal year which ends on September 30, 2025. The problem for many Democrats is that to pass in the Senate, Republicans need at least 7 or 8 Democrats to vote for it. The problem for Democrats is that the bill as currently constituted does NOTHING to keep Musk and his Muskovites from continuing to impound funds, fire federal employees, and shut down duly authorized federal agencies — including the entire Department of Education!

Not approving the CR will, of course, shut down the government and MAGAs will certainly blame Democrats for the disruption. Personally, I say bring it on. But not everyone feels that way. You can see Josh Marshall's reasoning at Talking Points Memo for a kind of run-down (spoiler alert: he basically agrees with me, or I with him). If you agree that Dems have little to lose and something to gain if they show some fight, please call Senator Baldwin's office TODAY: 202-224-5653. The CR will come up for a Senate vote in the next 48 hours. Don't Delay: Call Today!

Part of the MAGA project, it now seems, is to do away with any way to combat corruption in our government. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat with a spine of steel, took to the Senate floor to expose some of the many ways corruption in rampaging throughout D.C. The video is about 29 minutes long but is well worth it, not only to hear what Senator Murphy has to say but to see the ingenious graphic display of the Musk-Trump corruptions so far. Given all the other grave issues we are facing, this one may not seem the most urgent, but it will be difficult to repair the way these actions undermine our faith in government and make it easier to do more of the same kind of damage.

In another form of corruption, we are looking at various attempts to control who can vote. We can see that in Wisconsin in the April 1 election where we are being asked to approve a constitutional amendment to make PhotoID a requirement for registering to vote and to cast a ballot. This move is completely redundant since PhotoID is already law in this state. The sole purpose of proposing it as an amendment to the Wisconsin constitution is to make it much harder to amend or repeal. VOTE NO on the ballot question and discuss this with all your family and friends.

You can see our discussion of this issue on our 2025 Elections page. Here is a discussion of some of the ways election outcomes are being corrupted and possible corrections to voting manipulations. This video (6 minutes) focuses on several ways drawing districting lines to disadvantage voters of color. And it reminds us that our current voting maps have basic political fairness built into them because our current Wisconsin Supreme Court acted to end the GOP gerrymandering last year. But we are not safe. If Musk puppet Schimel is elected, we could be right back to rigged maps!

On the national front, we are witnessing the wholesale destruction of our federal government with the promise of cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to be part of the fiscal year 2026 budget by the fall. But we are NOT POWERLESS. Jamie Raskin offers a citizen's protest action that just might have some legs. He urges each and every one of us to file a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): "Today I filed a formal demand for access to my personal data obtained by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk. I encourage all U.S. citizens to join me in doing the same.

"Elon Musk should have been more careful in what he wished for. DOGE recently dodged lawsuits about its seizure of citizens’ personal data by telling courts that it is a legitimate government agency entitled to extract this information. What Elon Musk apparently did not realize is that this statement triggers DOGE’s obligation to comply with citizen demands to see and—if need be—correct their personal information under the Privacy Act. It also allows every citizen to find out what other agencies or outside parties have been made privy to our information" (Daily Kos, March 11, 2025). Download the document as a pdf or as a Microsoft Word document and mail it to

     U.S. Department of Government Efficiency
     736 Jackson Place, NW
     Washington, D.C. 20503

      United States Digital Service
     736 Jackson Place, NW
     Washington, D.C. 20503

A U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has already issued an injunction requiring DOGE to comply with FOIA requests. Let's just see how efficient that "department" really is.

One last note before we get to everything you need to do TODAY and over the next week to make your voices heard: the recent boycott of big-box businesses had a demonstrable effect, especially on Target and Costco. "Target Loses Web Traffic As Costco Gains On Feb. 28 Economic Blackout Day" Forbes tells us. Citizen actions definitely matter.

These ACTIONS require timely and immediate response. Go to it!

I REPEAT: Call Senator Tammy Baldwin now! (202) 224-5653. A Continuing Resolution (CR) narrowly passed the House yesterday. Now it goes to the Senate, where Democrats will be pressured to vote for it in order to stop the federal government from shutting down. But the House CR is a disaster: It cuts essential programs. It “essentially” gives Musk a license to continue to dismantle and defund government.

Mail a postcard March 15. Grassroots organizers have set a goal of 1 million postcards getting mailed to Donald Trump on March 15 (the Ides of Trump). Remember, Donald Trump fears us — but he cannot stop us. Learn more.

RALLY AGAINST THIS THREAT TO FREE SPEECH AND PEACEFUL PROTEST AND IN SUPPORT OF MAMOUD KAHIL.
US Federal Building, 517 Wisconsin Ave
3pm

Mamoud Khalil was a leader in the protests about Gaza last spring at Columbia University. He is Palestinian, was a graduate student at the time and has legal permanent residency in the U.S. He always acted peacefully and has not been accused of any crimes. Last Saturday night, he was taken at gunpoint by ICE and sent to detention in Louisiana, where they began procedures to deport him. Trump has said that he is "only the first of many."

This action is controversial because Kahil has been accused of supporting Hamas and therefore supporting terrorists. But this is clearly a 1st Amendment issue. The ACLU is representing him and a court has prevented his immediate deportation, but it is very unclear what will ultimately happen, to him and to the many others who disagree with Trump. Turn out to protest what has happened and demand that he be released.

Help Grassroots North Shore reach 10,800 WI Democratic Women. Grassroots North Shore sent postcards to all of these Democratic women in the greater Milwaukee metropolitan area. These women will vote for Crawford & Underly but we need to get them to the polls! The calls are easy. If you can take a list of 50 names and phone numbers, sign up.

TAKE ACTION

Items under this heading are ongoing and while just as important as Rapid Response Actions are a bit less time-sensitive.

As always, knock doors and talk to people. It's time to Get Out the (Early) Vote:

• Get Out the Early Vote in Shorewood!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Whitefish Bay!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Glendale!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Fox Point and Bayside!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Northwest MKE and Brown Deer!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Mequon!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Germantown!
• Get Out the Early Vote in Menomonee Falls!

For a host of issues and a way to connect easily with your Senators and Congressperson, try using the 5 Calls app.

Calling all callers and campus outreach volunteers: I'm not kidding when I say we need you. According to the latest Marquette Law School poll, voters had higher unfavorable than favorable views of both candidates. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel summed it up today, "About a month ahead of the April 1 election, a large percentage of Wisconsin voters still don't have an opinion about the two candidates running for the state Supreme Court." We have just under four weeks to make sure voters know who Judge Susan Crawford is and the values she would bring to the court. And just four weeks to tie her opponent to the Musk/Trump carnage. Please volunteer.

I did not watch the 90 minute rant the President addressed to Congress. NPR offers 6 takeaways from Trump's pointedly partisan address to Congress so that you can get the gist without having to listen to the speech. What IS worth listening to is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's response to the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada. Trudeau directly addresses the American people, his fellow Canadians, and then finally the President — whom he calls not by his awesome title but by his first name. The speech is pointed, strong, and concise — just over 14 minutes. (You may be subjected to some ads in the middle of his talk.)

Among the Prime Minister's no-nonsense remarks, he essentially calls Trump's justification for the tariffs false — what I would call a lie though he's too decent to use that word. In addressing the American people, he begins by saying "We don't want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally — and we don't want to see you hurt either. But your government has chosen to do this to you." Let that straightforward language sink in: "your government has chosen to do this to you." (Emphasis added.) And at one point he paraphrases the Wall Street Journal editorial board: "they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this [i.e. the trade war] is a very dumb thing to do."

Elissa Slotkin, newly elected senator from Michigan, gave the Democratic response. She focused on three core beliefs all Americans share: the middle class is the engine of our country; strong national defense keeps us safe; our democracy — no matter how messy — is unparalleled and worth fighting for. The whole speech is worth the 10.5 minutes to watch. And at the end, she provides a prescription for how to oppose what's happening to our country: 1) don't tune out; 2) hold your elected officials accountable; 3) organize. Grassroots North Shore can help you stay engaged, let your elected officials know what policies your support and what ones you don't, and organize around issues you care about. Like I said above, we need your help.

The Oval Office meltdown on Friday and Tuesday's 90 minute rant at the joint session of Congress have moved other significant developments to the back pages while two important Supreme Court of the United State (SCOTUS) decisions were handed down in the last couple of days. First, in a case on the Emergency Docket, SCOTUS denied the administration's request to block $2 billion foreign aid payments from USAID. The funds were intended to reimburse organizations for work that had already been done. Here's CNN's take: "Wednesday, a 5-4 majority of the high court let stand a lower court ruling that required the Trump administration to quickly spend nearly $2 billion in foreign aid."

Second, last Friday SCOTUS issued an unsigned order preventing the Trump administration from immediately firing Hampton Dellinger who heads Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency that works with federal whistleblowers and others whose rights as federal employees need to be protected. On Saturday (March 1), U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson "rejected the Trump administration's claims that the special counsel's removal protections are unconstitutional because they prevent the president from rightfully installing his preferred agency head." In her decision Jackson wrote, "The Special Counsel is supposed to withstand the winds of political change and help ensure that no government servant of either party becomes the subject of prohibited employment practices or faces reprisals for calling out wrongdoing — by holdovers from a previous administration or by officials of the new one" (CBS News, March 1 2025).

From watching the cases against Trump vanish after grinding slowly through one court after another, we surely know the courts will not "save us." The legal process simply takes too long, involving as it does many opportunities for defendants and plaintiffs alike to make numerous appeals. Still, the cases cited above nevertheless reveal some interesting advances to protect democratic structures. The USAID case suggests a court system trying to prevent wholesale reneging on contracts. The case preventing Trump from firing Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, similarly suggests the courts may be inclined to understand the crucial role political independence for some agencies plays in our system of government. Over the coming year, we will see whether my suppositions hold true.

The legal arena may be slow, but it is full of important information. To keep track of the action, you can consult the Litigation Tracker at Just Security (this evening it has 96 cases listed). Or you can use the Litigation Tracker at Lawfare.

Law cases make heavy reading at least for those of us who are not lawyers. So here's a little serious fun to indulge in before you choose the SOMETHING you will do this week to elect Judge Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Dr. Jill Underly to the Superintendent of Public Instruction: The Contrarian brings you "States of the Union."

TAKE ACTION

Volunteer with Grassroots North Shore to make calls to Democratic women ahead of the April 1 election.

Volunteer with Grassroots North Shore to leaflet on the UWM campus.

Volunteer with the Democratic Party to knock on doors:

• Bayside & Fox Point
• Brown Deer
• Glendale
• Shorewood
• Lakefront

League of Women Voters Vote No
"Wisconsin voters will be asked one question to amend (change) the constitution on their April ballot. This amendment, the sixth proposed by the legislature in the last year, is another example of the legislature attempting to bypass the authority of the executive and judicial branches through the constitutional amendment process, while denying voters the ability to propose their own citizen-led ballot initiatives." Go to the Toolkit.

Thursday, March 6: The People V. Musk campaign launched today. As promised, below you will find Messaging Talking Points for the campaign, a Social Media Toolkit that will be continuously updated from now until April 1st, a link to the Campaign Website, and the link to RSVP for our first Town Hall event for this Thursday, with Ben. Unfortunately, we do not have the link to sign up for the town hall but the links we do have are live.

Write letters to Wisconsin Voters with Vote Forward. Vote Forward is excited to bring you the first letter writing campaigns of 2025, focused on the important upcoming race for Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court Justice. On April 1, 2025, Wisconsin voters will choose either Judge Susan Crawford or Judge Brad Schimel to join an open seat on the state Supreme Court. Though this race is nonpartisan, meaning that neither candidate is running as a member of a political party, Crawford is widely perceived to be aligned with liberals, and Schimel with conservatives. After the April 2023 Supreme Court election (for which Vote Forward letter writers wrote over 350,000 letters!), the Court’s balance shifted to a 4-3 liberal majority. This year’s election could either preserve the Court’s existing liberal ideological balance, or shift it to a 4-3 conservative majority.

Begin by creating an account at Vote Forward. The organization has extensive resources, including frameworks for the letters you will augment with a personal reason for voting. The letter-writing campaign is strictly nonpartisan and does not mention specific candidates. The goal is to increase turnout, especially in historically marginalized communities, in the spring election. Still Vote Forward is a left-leaning organization: "We also support partisan campaigns to encourage likely-Democratic voters to turn out in strategic states and districts." Have a look at their detailed instructionsInstructions and then Create an account to get started.

I'm taking the liberty of beginning this week's newsletter with a plea for help. Grassroots North Shore is sending out 10,800 postcards this week and next. And that's a good thing. But it takes several nudges to turn out a voter. And in a low turnout election, EVERY SUPPORTER WE TURN OUT REALLY MATTERS. That's why we follow up postcards with phone calls. To make 10,800 calls in a little more than three weeks takes a lot of people phoning. THAT MEANS WE NEED YOU: sign up to volunteer to make phone calls ahead of the election. Or email me directly: [email protected]. The calls go quickly: generally few people answer the phone so we leave voicemails or texts when we can.

I mentioned this action in last week's newsletter but there's a lot more to say about it: Boycott Big Box Stores this Friday Feb 28. The People's Union USA asks consumers not to spend any money at major retailers on Friday as a protest against large corporations that have dissolved DEI initiatives. Forbes has a list of the large corporations that have "obeyed in advance" by discontinuing their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.

The 'No-Spending Day’ (aka Economic Blackout) focuses on major retailers — Amazon, Walmart, Ford, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Harley-Davidson, Coke, Pepsi, etc. — from midnight this Thurs, Feb. 27 to midnight Fri, Feb. 28. For absolutely necessary purchases, buy from small local businesses only. Organizers at The People’s Union write: "Do not shop online or in-store. Do not spend money on fast food or gas. Do not use credit or debit cards for anything but essential items. (Food, medicine, emergency supplies.) If you must spend, support small local businesses." AND SPREAD THE MESSAGE: talk about it, post about it, and especially document your actions that day.

Even Canada has heard! And at least some Canadians are joining in. The post includes information about future boycotts in the planning stages. These are narrowly targeted and most are lengthy. Stay tuned for more information about them.

• March 7 - 14: Amazon
• March 21 - 28: Nestlé
• April 7 - 14: Walmart
• April 18: Economic Blackout # 2
• April 21 - 28: General Mills

The Economic Blackout reminds us that we ordinary Americans have at least TWO kinds of power. The first, of course, is our votes. In Wisconsin, our next opportunity to wield that power is to turn out to elect Judge Susan Crawford to the Supreme Court and to re-elect Dr. Jill Underly as Superintendent of Public Instruction. You can do your part by going to Mobilize.us/wisdems to find canvass and Reach opportunities for the election. If you can't canvass, phone.

The second power is economic. Boycotts and other targeted economic actions — like withholding work for a day as Latinos have done, or ceasing to buy grapes in support of efforts to unionize farmworkers 50 some years ago — have a long history in this country. Alert others to this effort to restore corporate DEI initiatives and ask your friends and colleagues both to participate in the No-Spending Day and to alert others too. Both kinds of power rely on organizing masses of people to participate.

Nationally, The Guardian reports, the Washington Post is now a mouthpiece for the libertarian right wing. Its owner, Jeff Bezos, has announced that henceforth the opinion section will "be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.” If you STILL have a paid subscription to the Post, UNSUBSCRIBE. As one Daily Kos writer put it, Bezos and Washington Post go full fascist. Also, the opinion editor has either quit or been fired.

Let me end with an extensive quotation from Governor Pritzker from the end of his State of the State address (Chicago Tribune):

TAKE ACTION

Wisconsin Public Education Network: Celebrating Wisconsin public schools all week long! Feb. 24-28 is a time to put our appreciation into ACTION as we join this national celebration of the public schools that unite our communities. Here are two things you can easily do to participate:

1. Sign the petition: Close Wisconsin's special education funding gap! If you're like most voters in Wisconsin, you've probably noticed more and more school referenda on your ballots - and your rent and property tax bills going up. One of the biggest reasons for this is the fact that the state legislature has been underfunding preK-12 public education for over 15 years, forcing local school districts to go to referendum again and again. The good news is that in the 2025-26 State Budget, we have a chance to significantly reduce the need for operating referendums going forward with one simple law change - closing the Special Education Funding Gap.
2. Join the Statewide DAY OF ACTION February 28 in Madison. Bring school referenda yard signs with you to the Capitol — event begins at 11:30am at the State Capitol. Register.

League of Women Voters Vote No Toolkit
"Wisconsin voters will be asked one question to amend (change) the constitution on their April ballot. This amendment, the sixth proposed by the legislature in the last year, is another example of the legislature attempting to bypass the authority of the executive and judicial branches through the constitutional amendment process, while denying voters the ability to propose their own citizen-led ballot initiatives." Go to the Toolkit.

International Women's Day — Unite & Resist in Milwaukee
Rally on March 8 at 11:00am in Red Arrow Park, 920 N Water St, Milwaukee. This International Women’s Day, let’s build and strengthen the relationships we’ll need to face what’s ahead—together. Whether it’s a local protest, a community meeting, block party, rally, potluck, BBQ, or a casual coffee meetup, the goal is the same: connect with your neighbors, build community, and create the networks we’ll need to resist fascism and the takeover of our freedoms. On International Women’s Day, we’re taking to the streets against the attacks on women. Join us to defend our rights, our democracy, and our future. All are welcome at this peaceful protest!Sign Up.

Write letters to Wisconsin Voters with Vote Forward. Vote Forward is excited to bring you the first letter writing campaigns of 2025, focused on the important upcoming race for Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court Justice. On April 1, 2025, Wisconsin voters will choose either Judge Susan Crawford or Judge Brad Schimel to join an open seat on the state Supreme Court. Though this race is nonpartisan, meaning that neither candidate is running as a member of a political party, Crawford is widely perceived to be aligned with liberals, and Schimel with conservatives. After the April 2023 Supreme Court election (for which Vote Forward letter writers wrote over 350,000 letters!), the Court’s balance shifted to a 4-3 liberal majority. This year’s election could either preserve the Court’s existing liberal ideological balance, or shift it to a 4-3 conservative majority.

Begin by creating an account at Vote Forward. The organization has extensive resources, including frameworks for the letters you will augment with a personal reason for voting. The letter-writing campaign is strictly nonpartisan and does not mention specific candidates. The goal is to increase turnout, especially in historically marginalized communities, in the spring election. Still Vote Forward is a left-leaning organization: "We also support partisan campaigns to encourage likely-Democratic voters to turn out in strategic states and districts." Have a look at their detailed instructionsInstructions and then Create an account to get started.

Congregation Sinai, Tikkun Ha-ir, WIVEC and Working Families Party are sponsoring a GOTV Digital Postcard Party at Congregation Sinai (8223 N. Port Washington Road in Fox Point) on Wednesday, March 5. Send postcards to encourage voters to show up for the critically important election in April and take action on the amendment. No writing required! Refreshments will be served. It's an IN PERSON EVENT. Working Families creates postcards with an app on a cell phone. The app allows you to find WI voters in your contacts list. Please RSVP.

I want to start with what you can do, right this week, to make a difference in other people's lives. We may not be able to save every federal worker's jobs through direct action, but we can let them know that we care about what is happening to them. They are our friends and neighbors. And we rely on what they do every day: they regulate work places to keep us safe; they provide information and regulations to ensure our health; they support our small businesses; they make sure workers are hired and treated fairly; they administer Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And they are under attack!

So on Valentine's Day, instead of rallying outside the office of our MAGA Senator Ron Johnson to protest the ongoing horror in D.C., we are gathering at 310 W Wisconsin Avenue on the plaza outside the building that houses many federal offices to demonstrate our support. In addition to signs of support, we are also encouraging people to bring valentines and thank you notes to be delivered to those offices after the rally. Bring a friend or two and join us and many local grassroots organizations in Showing Some Love for America's Federal Workers! See our sign-up page for all the details.

In the "What Goes Around Comes Around" department, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Megan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), could remain in her position past the original term for which she was hired. And the Senate could not replace her unless WEC had sent a new nomination to the Senate for its approval. One key basis for the ruling was a precedent the Court had set in 2022 — in a 4-3 decision — in the Kaul v. Prehn case. You may recall that the Prehn decision declared that an occupant of an office could overstay his term indefinitely and that the legislature could not install a new person because the position was not vacant. So now, the same rule applies to the administrator of WEC. And the decision this time, note, was unanimous. For now at least, the rule of law still holds in Wisconsin.

The same is not true nationally however. We are experiencing a blitzkrieg without bullets. A coup, or more accurately, an autogolpe. As today's Morning Memo at Talking Points Memo (TPM) explains, "the true significance of the executive order was empowering DOGE, overseen by the world’s richest man, to have a key role in every department and agency. The result is an arrangement where Musk and his team operates as a layer superimposed between the White House and the rest of the federal government, positioning them as political enforcers in the style of the old Soviet commissars."

Josh Marshall, founder and Editor-in-Chief of TPM, spells it out clearly in his headline: Not Hyperbole Anymore: Musk Is In Charge of the US Government. The new Executive Order will empower DOGE (which I pronounce DOG-E or DOGGIE) to assign a "DOGE Team Lead" to every federal agency and empowers said DOG-E to call all hiring and firing shots. Naturally each team lead will report to Co-President Elon Musk. Marshall ends his article thus: "I don’t know what else to call these people besides political commissars. And again, they report to Elon Musk. He’s already very clearly operating here as an independent actor whose actions the President blesses after he’s found out what’s happened.... We’re in dystopian quasi-science fiction territory here."

Even before the latest Executive Order emanated from the Oval Office yesterday, Timothy Snyder, Yale historian and author of the Substack Thinking about..., saw this clearly in his February 5 posting Of course it's a coup. The subhead reads "Miss the obvious, lose your republic." He describes the 21st century coup not as a takeover of physical spaces but as "a couple dozen young men [who] go from government office to government office, dressed in civilian clothes and armed only with zip drives. Using technical jargon and vague references to orders from on high, they gain access to the basic computer systems of the federal government. Having done so, they proceed to grant their Supreme Leader access to information and the power to start and stop all government payments." Snyder's piece ends by noting that with his control of the government's information infrastructure, Musk now eclipses Trump: "President Trump will also perform at Musk’s pleasure. There is not much he can do without the use of the federal government’s computers. No one will explain this to Trump or to his supporters, of course."

It's pretty clear that the power of the purse the US Constitution places in Congress has been completely subverted. And it's equally clear that even if the Republican-controlled Congress were to recognize its own irrelevance and impotence in this regime, it is not inclined to push back — at least not yet. Rachel Maddow explains on her February 11 show that opposition is beginning to coalesce with Democrats in Congress, with the public, and in the courts. So far, the courts have recognized that the executive branch cannot be a spending or impounding authority unto itself. Although the effort to restrain Musk and Trump is necessarily piecemeal, the citizenry have awakened and are gathering in large groups to protest. Just Security's Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions currently lists 58 cases in the courts! It seems to be updated daily and organizes the cases by Executive Order or Action. And it includes any judicial rulings, such as injunctions or temporary restraining orders, in each case. Lawfare also provides a great litigation tracker, by default listed in reverse alphabetical order but can be rearranged using other criteria.

Our job right now is to vote in the February 18 primary — see our Elections 2025 pages for candidate information — and to work our fannies off to preserve our progressive majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This newsletter's trip through what is happening nationally should be dispositive evidence that courts, both federal and state, form a crucial bulwark to the rule of law and to our cherished freedoms. So, this weekend and on election day (Tuesday, February 18), the Wisconsin Democratic Party has organized canvasses all over the state. Here in the North Shore and in Ozaukee, Waukesha, and Washington Counties are these:

• Brown Deer
  
  
• Fox Point
  
  
• Glendale
  
  
• Shorewood
  
  
• Whitefish Bay
  
  
• Lakefront
  
  
• Grafton & Cedarburg
  
  
• Mequon
  
  
• Menomonee Falls
  
  
• Germantown

Let me end with a reminder of why we need to pull out all the stops to elect Judge Susan Crawford. On February 2, in an op-ed in The Capital Times she pledges to be a common sense Justice dedicated to protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites. Meanwhile, her opponent, politician Brad Schimel, has spent his entire career advancing an extreme far-right agenda. Judge Crawford wrote: “As attorney general, [Brad Schimel] failed victims of sexual assault by completing DNA testing on just nine out of over 6,000 backlogged sexual assault kits in two years, leaving dangerous predators on the streets and denying victims the justice they deserved. Schimel’s record speaks for itself. It’s clear that he is more concerned with advancing his own political agenda than protecting the safety and well-being of our communities and families.” The League of Women Voters has published a 2-page Voter Guide for this race you should consult.

I've been avoiding the news from D.C. this week — not with my head in the sand since I will certainly catch the highlights next week — in order to have the bandwidth to focus on other things. One of those things is local politics. Our 2025 Elections pages are filling up with good information for voters. Of note: the entire state of Wisconsin will have a primary for State Superintendent on February 18. Two of the three candidates — Dr. Jill Underly and Dr. Jeff Wright — are progressive educators. Grassroots North Shore generally does not endorse in non-partisan primaries but in this case, we are putting our stamp of approval on those two. Our elections pages will link you to online information about them (as well as about the third candidate) so you can bone up before you vote.

If you live in the Cedarburg School District or in Milwaukee Alder District 3 (scroll down for a list of candidates), you will also see primary elections for those seats. For the rest, there are some competitive races across the region but many of the races have only one candidate. Those who are unopposed have little or no incentive to keep their constituents informed about their positions on important issues. And that may be one reason why our spring elections tend to have pretty low turnout. Ironically, the local and judicial offices have a greater effect on our daily lives than most of what goes on nationally, yet we have trouble learning about our local governments. And with the continuing demise of local news outlets and reporting, the situation is hardly improving.

The race for Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is heating up. Both candidates have produced their first video ads. I won't link to former Attorney General Brad Schimel's but here's the one Judge Crawford released yesterday: Fair. Impartial. Common Sense. The Wisconsin Examiner watched Schimel's so you don't have to and noted that he "has touted the support of Chippewa County Sheriff Travis Hakes — a controversial figure whose county board voted 19-1 last year to find it had “no confidence” in him after he was accused of sexually harassing a female job applicant and subordinate" (Washington Examiner, January 22, 2025). Sometimes the company you keep reveals a lot about you.

You should request absentee ballots both for the February 18 primary and the April 1 election so that voting is as easy and convenient as possible. The mail-in ballots are pre-paid! You can also vote early in person in the primary (usually at your municipal clerk's office) beginning on February 4 and ending on February 14 (in most place — check with your municipal clerk for exact days and time in your community). Vote in a way that works for you. But VOTE.

Perhaps we should be paying more attention to what is happening here in Wisconsin since that's where we can be most effective at promoting a healthy democracy. So I urge you to tune in to Governor Evers' State of the State address this evening at 7:00pm. You should also listen to a radio address he gave on January 9, 2025, in which he highlights a "Pathway for Wisconsinites to Enshrine the Will of the People" (Governor Evers' Press Release, January 9, 2025). You should add your name to this ballot initiative proposal. (When you submit the form, you will see a donation page but you are not obligated to give.) Our Governor is letting us know he's there for us. We need to be there for him.

Those of us in Senate District 8 have a new senator representing us. And you should want to keep up with the news coming out of Senator Jodi Habush Sinykin's office. Here's how: sign up to receive her weekly newsletter. Yes, it means more emails in your inbox. But hearing from those who represent you can keep you focused on the political news that matters most: the work of your municipal and state government. We devote so much of our energy and attention on national issues that we may give what's going on around us too little attention. Let's redress the imbalance.

One part of refocusing on the here and now is to attend our Move Wisconsin Forward event on Sunday, February 2 at 5:00pm. It's online. Jeff Mandel from Law Forward and Nick Ramos from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign will headline the fundraiser. But we will also have the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court (wink, wink). When you sign up to attend, please also show your support by donating. You can use a credit card online at Act Blue or you can mail a check to GRNS, PO Box 170684, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53217-8056. We're an all-volunteer organization but that does not mean we don't need to spend any money to achieve our goals. An important way to appreciate the educational programs, the weekly newsletter, and the campaign activities like mailing postcards and making phone calls to voters that we undertake each year is to become a member through your donation to our annual fundraiser.

Speaking of the cost of things: minimum wages. It seems the minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.25 per hour and has not changed in a decade and a half. At roughly 2,000 of work a year, that amounts to $14,500 a year: not a wage anyone with a single minimum wage job could possibly live on. Meanwhile, our neighboring states are busy fixing things. On January 1, 2025, "the minimum wage increased to $15 per hour in Illinois and $11.13 in Minnesota. Michigan’s minimum wage rose to $10.56 an hour and will increase again in February to $12.48" (Urban Milwaukee, January 22, 2025). That's $22,260/year in Minnesota, $24,960/year in Michigan, and $30,000/year in Illinois. C'mon Wisconsin. Get with the progressive program! Our neighbors many poach our workers if we don't!

TAKE ACTION

Volunteer with Grassroots North Shore to write postcards and make follow-up phone calls (or text messages) to turn out as many voters who share our values as possible. We'll be sending out our postcards by February 14 and beginning following up those postcards with phone calls to urge people to vote in the spring 2025 elections around February 18. The postcards are easy to write, the phone calls are easy to make, and we know these methods of reaching voters work. So hop on board.

Write emails or texts about the coming elections to five of your your like-minded friends and family. Remind them to make a plan to vote in the primary election on February 18 and the general election on April 1. And in that communication, ask them to contact another five or more people with the same message. The Supreme Court race will determine what direction Wisconsin takes in the next several years. And the difference between the two candidates could not be more stark. 

Indivisible: Fight the Executive Order purporting to end birthright citizenship. Governor Evers and Attorney General Kaul "announced Wisconsin is joining a coalition of states challenging an unconstitutional executive order issued yesterday that attempts to end citizenship for certain kids born in America, violating Americans’ constitutional rights to which all kids born in the United States have long been entitled" (Governor Evers' Press Release, January 21, 2025). To do your part, take action.

In addition to filing a suit seeking to nullify the Executive Order purporting to overturn birthright citizenship, the ACLU also is sending emails to Congress about this issue. Join this effort too!

So much is happening at the local, state, and national level that it is hard to focus on any one thing. So it is imperative that everyone prioritize. Yes, if you watch the confirmation hearings for Hegseth, and Bondi, and others, you're bound to be outraged by some or all of it. But your anger, disgust, or despair will not change the outcome of the process. All of our 47th president's choices for senate-confirmed positions will almost certainly become heads of the agencies for which they have been nominated.

At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall has an excellent take on this: "What happens or doesn’t happen is entirely a matter decided within the Republican caucus. It is totally out of Democrats’ control. What follows from that is that everything Democrats do, inside the hearing room or outside, is simply and solely a matter of raising the stakes of decisions Republicans make and raising those stakes for the next election." That includes Speaker Johnson's decision to cave to you know who and raise the flags at the Capitol to full staff for the inauguration. It's a small slight to President Carter but a telling one. Just consider the contrast between the gaudy home of the 47th president and the humble ranch house in Plains, Georgia, where our 39th president spent his entire adult life.

My advice is to avoid the confirmation hearings and the inaugural hoopla altogether! Personally, I'm watching old seasons of the British Baking Show.

Still you absolutely should tune in to hear President Biden's farewell address at 7pm CST tonight. He may have been defeated but his presidency has been an unsung success, culminating it seems with the long-sought ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that will begin with the exchange of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, perhaps as early as Sunday. Here's a link to the New York Times breaking news article (gifted). And to mention just one more astounding achievement, Jill Lawrence at the Bulwark notes that "Biden has made history of his own: The economy added jobs every full month that he was in office, the first time that’s happened since the government began collecting data in 1939. 'Zero months with job losses,' said his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre." I fervently hope the main stream media covers his speech in full. We owe him our deep gratitude.

Timothy Snyder, on his substack "Thinking about ..." spells out another worthy recipient of our gratitude:

I hope you will read and think about his case. I haven't had much to say about the war in Ukraine but the incoming administration seems bent on pulling back American support. Snyder's essay says a lot about what is due to a country few Americans could find on a map a few short years ago and yet is delivering untold benefits to us and our fellow countrymen.

Here at home in Milwaukee, the dirty work of ICE is already beginning. Apparently, ICE is attempting to expand its facility at 310 East Knapp Street, where it has some office space and some rudimentary cells without beds. The Democratic Party of Milwaukee County has issued a press release reiterating that immigrants are our friends and neighbors who contribute to the health and wealth of our country.

You can read the remainder of the statement in this PDF.

Right now, we're in an intense period of nervous waiting while shoes drop all around us in quick succession. In the still center of the maelstrom, though, our core duty remains: elect Judge Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 1. In the coming weeks, we will have many opportunities to meet her and to learn more about her. At the Grassroots North Shore fundraiser — Move Wisconsin Forward — on Sunday, February 2, she will be a prominent speaker and will take our questions. Our featured speakers are Attorney Jeff Mandell, founder and general counsel for Law Forward, and Nick Ramos, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. They will discuss what's at stake in this coming election. Donate what you can to Grassroots North Shore so that we can carry on the work of finding, educating, and turning out voters for Judge Crawford.

It's just as important to learn about her opponent. For an early run-down on his record, you could visit BRAD SCHIMEL: BAD FOR WISCONSIN. Here are just a couple of highlights:

• After the 2016 election, Schimel bragged Trump had won in Wisconsin thanks to restrictions on the right to vote that the GOP passed and Schimel helped enforce as Attorney General.
• Even before the Dobbs decision, he sued Planned Parenthood to enforce new restrictions on access to safe and legal abortion in Wisconsin.

More recently, he spoke with Vicki McKenna on her podcast complaining, "the Jan. 6 defendants never got 'a fair shot' in court and accused Democrats of 'abusing the court system' for 'political gain.'" (Wisconsin Examiner, January 6, 2025). In his view, these insurrectionists didn't get "a fair shot" because they were tried in D.C. so the preponderance of the jurors were likely to be Democrats. That's true but beside the point: defendants must be tried where the alleged crimes were committed. Surely as a lawyer, a former Attorney General, and as a judge he knows that!

Ruth Conniff, the author of the piece in the Wisconsin Examiner, points out that among the legion of Republicans trying to revise the history of January 6, "Schimel’s comments stand out. For a Supreme Court candidate to suggest that jury trials don’t work and that the whole U.S. system of justice is so politicized it can’t be trusted is deeply undermining of the very institution Schimel proposes to join."

Because we are in a rapid election cycle once again, I am introducing what I hope will be a recurring feature to this newsletter: a section highlighting specific actions to take right now. I hope you will do at least some of them.

TAKE ACTION

Here are some things you can DO to help our communities move FORWARD:

1. WAVE, one of the many local organizations Grassroots North Shore works with, is circulating a petition to thank Governor Evers for signing an executive order to launch a state Office of Violence Prevention. The petition is well worth signing. You should be aware, however, that once you sign and submit the form you will be automatically directed to a donation page for the WAVE educational fund. This is a very common (dare I say universal) practice with online petitions. You can choose whether to contribute or not.
   
   
2. Opportunities for social gathering and service to celebrate Martin Luther King. This link will take you to a page to sign up for any one of these three opportunities. We are asking folks who are able to bring donations from THIS LIST for the Kinship Community Food Center.
   
   
   • 5-8 Friday January 17 — Chili and fixins at Debbie Patel’s home, 9130 N. Spruce Road, River Hills. Folks may come and go as they like, but note that at 7PM we will listen to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech” (17 minutes), and chat afterward. If you are able, please bring an item for the Kinship Community Food Center.
     
     
   • 1-4 Sunday January 19 — Chili and fixins at Debbie Patel’s home, 9130 N. Spruce Road, River Hills. Folks may come and go as they like, but note that at 3PM we will listen to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech” (17 minutes), and chat afterward. If you are able, please bring an item for the Kinship Community Food Center.
     
     
   • 11:30 - 3:00 Monday January 20 —Chicken Soup (for the body and soul) at Cheryl Maranto’s home 6563 N Crestwood Dr., Glendale. Assuage your angst on Inauguration Day by building community and doing service. At noon we will watch Wisconsin’s 45th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Tribute and Ceremony from the Capitol Rotunda and chat afterward. If you are able, please bring an item for the Kinship Community Food Center.

It's now been a full month since our fellow Americans saw fit to elect a felon, sex offender, and con artist to be the next President of the United States. The outrages have begun and it's tempting to react with our own outrage to each one: let's protest the militaristic idea to take Greenland and/or the Panama Canal by force; let's protest the suggestion that Canada become the 51st state; and so on. But there are other and better ways to work on preserving and strengthening our democracy here in Wisconsin. Two important virtual meetings are a good way to start.

First, on Monday, January 13, from 7:00 - 8:15pm, North Shore Fair Maps — now doing business as Worth Fighting For Wisconsin (WFFWI or wiffy) — is holding its monthly meeting. Judge Susan Crawford, candidate for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, will speak and take attendees' questions. Then the keynote speaker, Michael Podhorzer, will discuss "the pluto-theocratic takeover of the judicial system from the top down" and how a resurgent union movement may provide us with "our best hope to recover our civic health." Podhorzer is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the former political director of the AFL-CIO. You can read his substack, Weekend Reading. And sign up to attend.

Then, on Sunday, February 2, Grassroots North Shore will be holding its Annual Fundraiser: Preserve the WI Supreme Court Majority!. Our two speakers — Nick Ramos, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and Jeff Mandell, Founder and General Counsel of Law Forward — will discuss the stakes and our opportunities in the upcoming election for Supreme Court Justice. RSVP for the program and donate to our cause online. Your donation will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $4000! (If you would prefer to donate by check, please send it to Grassroots North Shore, PO Box 170684, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53217-8056.)

As you know, Grassroots North Shore is an all-volunteer organization. But we do have expenses — like renting the software that allows us to send you this newsletter every week, keeping our website going, and buying postcards and stamps to send to progressive voters to alert them to important issues and to help turn out the vote. In 2024, we made a measurable difference in defeating two proposed constitutional amendments, helped re-elect Senator Tammy Baldwin, elected Jodi Haybush Sinykin to the state Senate, and flipped enough Assembly seats to seriously impact Republican control of that body. But to preserve our gains with fairer voting maps, with voting rights, and many other progressive achievements, we really need to work hard to elect Judge Susan Crawford to replace the retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. The funds we raise this winter will undergird that work and will help prepare us for the FOUR elections Wisconsin will hold in 2026. We're grateful for your generosity. (But just so you know, contributions to Grassroots North Shore and its election activities are not tax deductible.)

In a recent email, our own Ben Wilkler wrote, "Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court majority is once again in the balance. A state Supreme Court justice is retiring, putting the tie-breaking vote up for grabs once again. And, there are two candidates vying to take her place: a far-right extremist, Brad Schimel, who drove the lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act when he was Scott Walker’s Attorney General… and Judge Susan Crawford—a fair and impartial judge who will reject efforts to politicize the constitution to undermine our most basic rights. All of the progress in Wisconsin in the last few years could be erased if a Trump-loyal right-winger like Schimel wins this seat." Dispirited and exhausted by our politics though we may be, it is imperative that we pick ourselves up off the floor and engage is this vital fight. Grassroots North Shore is sending out 4700 postcards right now and will send a second round after the February 18 primary (more about that event below). We will need your help to make phone calls to voters as soon after the primary as possible. So sign up to volunteer! The election is on April 1.

Right now, our 2025 Elections pages are still in the early stages of development. But we do have pages devoted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate we are endorsing as well as pages for the candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Because there are three candidates for the one position, there will be a state-wide primary on February 18. For information about the election and to request an absentee ballot, visit MyVote.WI.gov. Your municipality and/or your local school boards may also have primaries. According to that website, you will be able to see a sample ballot keyed to your address about 21 days before an election with state and local contests.

Within the next two weeks, we will have information about municipal and school board elections. There will also be yet another ballot question (aka a constitutional amendment). We don't yet have the exact language that will be on the ballot, but the full text of the constitutional amendment is pretty clear: "This constitutional amendment provides that a qualified elector may not vote in any election unless the elector presents photographic identification issued by this state, by the federal government, by a federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state, or by a college or university in this state, that verifies the elector’s identity. Acceptable forms of photographic identification must be specified by law. The amendment authorizes the legislature to pass laws establishing exceptions to the photographic identification requirement. Additionally, if an elector is unable to present valid photographic identification before voting on election day, the elector must be given the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot and present valid photographic identification at a later time and place, as provided by law."

Once again, the Republican-controlled legislature is simply trying to make it harder to repeal the current voter ID law by putting the requirement into the Wisconsin Constitution. We will be urging you to contact all your friends to encourage them to vote no on this ballot question.

Turning now to some key political news, Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, has decided to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee. If he wins, the loss for Wisconsin will be sharply felt but he will bring his organizing and fund-raising chops to the national scene. I don't know a thing about the others in this race. I do know that Wikler is probably the best state chair in the country. We've been fortunate to have him. To see what he's envisioning for the national party, watch Jon Stewart interview him on the Daily Show recently.

Also of note in Wisconsin, Governor Evers has let it be known that he "plans to include a measure in his next budget that would allow Wisconsinites to enact statutory and constitutional changes through a majority vote at the ballot box, which could put decisions on issues such as abortion and marijuana legalization in the hands of residents instead of lawmakers." The Journal Sentinel story, published on January 6, goes on to spell out how the process would work: "Evers' proposal would require the Legislature to create a statewide binding referendum process through a constitutional amendment. Voters would then be able to file petitions with the Wisconsin Elections Commission to hold a vote on proposed state laws and constitutional amendments or to repeal current state laws." Such an amendment is unlikely to pass as long as Republicans continue to control both the State Senate and the Assembly. But the day may not be far off when that condition no longer pertains!

Big rallies and marches formed important actions during the first Trump administration, but they may not suffice now that he has been elected a second time, by a slim margin of the popular vote but by a bigger portion of the Electoral College Vote. If you're like me, you are wracking your brains for what to do to resist and to oppose. Much depends on exactly what we are opposing, of course, but Malcom Nance, frequent guest on various MSNBC programs and an expert on national security, has some ideas. In December 2024, he wrote, "The job of my new model of resistance is not to run massive protests and mobilize millions to hit the streets so Antifa can cause riots and Trump will suspend the laws to crush us. We must harness the rules of psychological warfare and strike Trump in a way to cause personal psychic injury. Our tactics must be deep enough to escape notice till the moment they happen and then have news media driving impact." He proposes creating a new SuperPAC called FAFO: Focused Action with Focused Objectives. And he provides some practical actions.

Two in particular tickle my fancy. First, he proposes a National Inauguration Blackout. Most of us, I suspect, will not tune in on January 20 at noon to watch Trump take the oath of office he has no intention of honoring. But Nance's proposal is much more far-reaching (and also harder for news junkies to carry out): "Do not watch any inauguration or news media events for 100 hours. Read a book. Participate in a hobby. Enjoy time with family. Do ANYTHING except watch cable news or read any online or print news about the inauguration. This includes social media. ... Encourage all others in your family and social circle to just not participate with a tyrannical regime and its compliant news media that intends to do us all harm." The blackout is to begin at 8:00am ET on Monday, January 20, and end at 8:00am ET on Saturday, January 25. The Focused Objective: "financially impact the news media for a period of time they want all eyes on the inauguration. This will in turn show them that their advertising bottom line can be damaged and that complying has consequences."

The second is more fun. He proposes a National Imperial March on a Kazoo Day. "In Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill's) honor, let every person spend the next [two weeks] buying a kazoo and the moment after they delete their Twitter accounts [at noon on January 20, naturally], they play the Imperial March on their kazoos. It’s what the Orange Vader deserves." You can hear the Imperial March rendered in kazoo at the end of his admittedly long post.

To take a break from the nausea and headaches induced by the political news or the horror produced by the firestorms in Los Angeles and the snow and ice storms in the middle of the country, I recommend visiting the Webb Telescope Latest News page. I know nothing about astronomy but I am in constant awe of Webb's discoveries and marvelous images. Try it.

We have reached the bottom of the year. The shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, is Saturday, December 21, with the exact point of transition occurring at 3:21am Central Time. Technically speaking, the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice occurs when the North Pole "reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun" (Wikipedia). Now nights begin to shorten and days become longer. Although politically we may face many dark days ahead, we will not crouch in defeat. The sun will come out again. We have plans!

The first plan is to give North Shore Fair Maps a new name under which to pursue its priorities. Beginning January 1, it will be known as Worth Fighting For Wisconsin. Also known as Wffwi, pronounced "wiffy." Here's Debbie Patel's rationale for the change: "Since we began in January 2021, our membership has grown well beyond the North Shore Milwaukee borders (no matter how one defines them), and our pro-democracy work extends well beyond fair maps. Hence the name change" (Mailchimp). You can join the group's monthly meetings, always with stimulating topics and speakers. And action items.

As we prepare to celebrate the holidays, we need to take time to celebrate what we accomplished, both as Grassroots North Shore and as activists and progressives. First among those accomplishments is the TEMPORARY implementation of fair voting maps. I'll explain the temporary part below. What we need to remember is how we won such a welcome sea change for Wisconsin voters.

First, the Fair Maps Coalition, including Grassroots North Shore, worked for a decade or more to get the result we were seeking. Member groups held information sessions, met with county boards and city councils all over the state, distributed yard signs, mailed thousands of postcards, and supported non-binding resolutions, most of which passed with sizable majorities where they were allowed to occur. Some of this history is recounted on the Democracy Campaign's website. These efforts were so successful that the GOP-gerrymandered legislature passed a law prohibiting counties and municipalities from offering their voters non-binding resolutions and referenda. But by the time the legislature took away voters' right to express their views, 57 (79%) of Wisconsin's 72 counties had backed fair maps.

While we were participating in direct actions, we also elected three progressive justices to the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Justice Rebecca Dallet in 2017, Justice Jill Karofsky in 2020, and Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023. Those three justices, together with Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, comprise the progressive court we have today. We owe the unrigged voting maps we were able to use in November 2024 to those four jurists. Now Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who was first elected to the court in 1995, has decided not to run for a fourth 10-year term. Judge Susan Crawford is running in 2025 for her seat. Her competition is Brad Schimel, Attorney General in the Walker administration and currently Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge. To protect the progress we have made on fair maps and a host of other issues, we will need to make sure Judge Crawford prevails. (Again, more on that subject below.)

Although nationally the November 2024 elections resulted in widespread despair about our rights, our democracy, and our freedoms, we triumphed in Wisconsin state elections. We re-elected Senator Tammy Baldwin and flipped four state senate seats and 10 assembly seats, making it possible for Democrats to win the majority in one or both houses in the 2026 elections. One of the newly elected senators is Jodi Habush Sinykin! She now represents most of Milwaukee County's North Shore communities as well as a large swath of Ozaukee County and some bits of Washington and Waukesha counties. Democrats made inroads in all three WOW counties, the only places in the battleground states with a blue shift rather than a red one.

And in a sign of our electoral muscle, we can see the effects of the work Grassroots North Shore volunteers made on the Constitutional Amendments we faced this year. In the spring 2024 election, there were two proposed amendments. Both passed even though a number of grassroots groups and nonprofits did make some effort to defeat them. The effort failed largely because the groups were late to the effort and they were only loosely affiliated with each other. In the August 2024 primary, two more ballot questions appeared and both were defeated, no doubt as a result of the much more concerted hard work of a wide coalition of groups.

In the November election, the ballot had one referendum: asking whether state and local governments should be prohibited from allowing noncitizens to vote. The question in one way made no sense: noncitizens are currently prohibited from voting and they very rarely try to! But what's telling about the statewide approval of the ballot question is that nearly everywhere Grassroots North Shore launched a strenuous campaign to defeat it, the ballot question lost.

Yes, it's true that the it won statewide. But the disparity between the outcome of the vote in the North Shore communities plus the four wards where large numbers of UWM students vote — the areas where GRNS was most active — and the statewide outcome is striking. The referendum passed with 70% of the statewide vote. In our areas though — where we did the most work educating voters about what the question really meant and what it portends — it went down to defeat, in some cases by large percentages. The difference in how the amendment fared elsewhere and how it fared in the North Shore tells us that the canvassing we did had a measurable and substantial effect. Download an Excel spreadsheet with the election data so you can see for yourself.

What I have learned from the last election cycle is that putting our collective shoulders to the wheel, as vigorously as we can, yields dividends. And that's especially going to be true in the low turnout election we're expecting to have on April 1, 2025. Nomination papers are circulating now and can be accessed from our bare bones Election 2025 pages. You'll find the nomination papers for Susan Crawford, Jill Underly (Superintendent of Public Instruction), and Jeff Wright (candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction) plus nomination papers for Judge Danielle Shelton (Judge for Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Branch 40). Please act expeditiously: candidates will want you to return completed nomination papers next week! Once candidates have been certified for the ballot — after January 7, 2025 — we will fill out our Elections 2025 pages so that you have a one-stop spot to learn about the candidates and issues.

Now about the work to cement fair maps for the future. The voting maps now in place were the product of extensive litigation and are current law only by virtue of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's recent ruling that the previous maps violated the Wisconsin Constitution. A change in the composition of the court, with Brad Schimel rather than Susan Crawford occupying the "swing seat," could mean a quick reversal of the decision that brought us unrigged maps for November 2024. But even if no case is brought before a newly conservative court next year, gerrymandered maps could make a comeback after the next census in 2030. That's because new maps must be drawn every 10 years to reflect population changes revealed in a new census. Without a constitutional amendment, or at least a state statute, prohibiting gerrymandering, the party in power can begin the cycle all over again! Electing Judge Susan Crawford, then, is vital to maintaining fair voting maps.

As crucial as it is to elect a progressive justice for the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 1, 2025, that success would go only so far to cementing what we have already achieved. Iuscely Flores, Organizing Director of the Fair Maps Coalition, has outlined a three-pronged approach to achieving a constitutional amendment requiring that our voting maps be constructed by an independent redistricting commission.

1. Public Education and Input: Education is the cornerstone of the reform movement.
2. Legislative Advocacy Efforts: Legislative advocacy is essential to driving change.
3. Constitutional Amendment Proposal: Changing the Wisconsin Constitution is crucial for lasting reform.

Common Cause has produced a report, Unlocking Fair Maps: The Keys to Independent Redistricting, analyzing the issues and structures for independent redistricting. The new maps we had this November show what unrigging the maps actually means. The new legislature that will be sworn in in January 2025 actually represents the voters in this closely divided state. And that means we can expect legislators to listen to and to act on the issues their constituents care about.

I apologize for this rather long newsletter, the final one in 2024. I am taking the next two weeks off to rest, refresh, and reconnect with family and friends in Baltimore. I hope all of you will find the year-end festivities restorative. We are going to need you engaged in the fight for our freedoms and our future come the new year. So I will leave you with this uplifting video of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking to students at the Maryland Corps service year program on Tuesday, December 17: “As we then approach the end of this year, many people have come up to me telling me they feel tired, maybe even resigned. But let me be very clear. No one can walk away. We must stay in the fight. Every one of us."

Happy Holidays everyone.