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.

In case you missed it, Attorney General Josh Kaul just added 10 additional felony charges against Kenneth Chesebro (a lawyer affiliated with Trump's 2020 campaign), Jim Troupis (a lawyer who represented Trump in Wisconsin in 2020), and Mike Roman (a former aide to Trump). Here's the meat of the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (published Dec. 10, 2024):

"The additional charges allege forgery to defraud the Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020, even though Joe Biden won the state.

"The new charges join the original single charge of felony forgery filed earlier this year. Chesebro, Troupis and Roman are scheduled to appear in court in Madison on Thursday."

Note that the new charges focus on defrauding the fake electors! In other words, the three men are charged because they deliberately lied to the 10 Republicans who were gullible enough to believe that their signatures on the forged documents would only be presented to Congress if the courts ruled that Trump had actually won the election in Wisconsin. The false electors themselves are not being criminally charged because most of them said "they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won the state without a court ruling saying so."

You may remember that the Biden electors sued the fake Republican electors, in an unprecedented case. In settling that suit last year, the 10 Republicans "acknowledged their actions were used in an attempt to overturn an election." Here's how Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) — one of several parties representing the lawful Democratic electors — described a crucial part of that settlement: the 10 false electors "have agreed not to serve as electors in the next election and not to sign such a certification in any future election in which they are not the duly certified electors under state law."

Four other states — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia — still have pending charges related to the fake electors scheme in state and federal courts.

Trump himself, of course, is successfully wriggling out of his two federal cases (the Insurrection case and the classified documents case). The fate of the RICO case in Atlanta, a state case and therefore not subject to the Department of Justice's prohibition on indicting a sitting president, seems to be in limbo.

And now Alvin Bragg, who successfully prosecuted Trump for 34 felonies stemming from his payments to silence Stormy Daniels, is now pleading with the court not to dismiss the case outright. According to Talking Point Memo's Morning Briefing this morning, Bragg is proposing "freezing the case until Trump is out of office, or agreeing that any future sentence wouldn’t include jail time. Another idea: closing the case with a notation that acknowledges his conviction but says that he was never sentenced and that his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity." (To get to this morsel, you have to scroll down past the main article, "What We Take For Granted" — also worth a full read — and a few other short pieces.)

Yet we continue to see prosecutions of the January 6 insurrectionists and of the fraudulent electors. The rule of law, so foundational to our beloved country, continues to apply, albeit to the smaller fish to fry. The reality is, justice grinds exceedingly fine but way too slow. And it seems unable to reach the top of the kind of criminal pyramid Trump operates.

As a sign of our government's prosecutorial disfunction, FBI Director Wray told employees that he would be stepping down at the end of the Biden administration. The replacement Trump intends to nominate is deeply embedded in the rot of MAGAism. In his resignation announcement Wray hopes that the Bureau will be able to maintain its core values: "When you look at where the threats are headed, it's clear that the importance of our work --  keeping Americans safe and upholding the Constitution -- will not change. And what absolutely cannot, must not change is our commitment to doing the right thing, the right way, every time. Our adherence to our core values, our dedication to independence and objectivity, and our defense of the rule of law -- those fundamental aspects of who we are must never change" (ABC News, December 11, 20024). We shall see.

On that troubling note, let me end this edition of the newsletter with two actions you can take from home in front of your computer, laptop, or phone.

1. The Brennan Center for Justice held an event on December 10 Analyzing Trump's Plan to Invoke the Alien Enemies Act. The full video recording of the event is now available. The panel discusses various aspects of the problems Trump may face if he tries to use the Alien Enemies Act, passed in 1798, to rationalize his mass deportation scheme.
   
   
2. Please sign the League of Women Voters' petition to President Biden asking him to publish the Equal Rights Amendment. Here's the page for more information and to sign the petition.

Are you still struggling to right yourself after the November 5 election knocked you down? I am. But I am taking to hear Vice President Harris when she said: "only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here's the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars. The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service." We all need some time to recover from from what seemed to be a grievous blow. But I'm here to tell you that it was, after all, only ONE election. And not the end of the Democratic Party or the world. You can probably tell I'm in the "buck up, buttercup" phase of my post-election journey.

In fact, democracy, both as an idea and as a sytem of governance, is asserting itself even as our own system seems under attack from within. I speak of the recent events in South Korea and the ongoing events in the country of Georgia. In South Korea, the president declared martial law at 23:00 (11:00pm local time) on December 3. Almost immediately, thousands of people gathered outside the National Assembly compound. Some 300 elite military personnel landed helicopters within the grounds of the National Assembly, apparently to prevent the Assembly from overturnting the martial law declaration. Meanwhile, 190 members of the National Assembly hurriedly broke into the National Assembly building — equivalent to our Capitol Building — some of them clambering over fences. At 1:00am, the National Assembly voted to overturn martial law. As 5:18am the South Korean Cabinet rescinded martial law. Although martial law has been rescinded, the crisis continues as protesters call for the president to resign. An impeachment process is taking place in the Assembly.

So, the high drama began at 11:00pm and in essence ended six hours and 18 minutes later when the Cabinet lifted the declaration of marital law. Wow: it came and went in a flash.The president's imposition of martial law came late at night: was he counting on having the remainder of the night to solidify power? People of all ages turned out in a cold night by the thousands. How did so many people know about the declaration so quickly? And why did they rush to the National Assembly quickly enough to help prevent the police and the military from seizing it before the Assembly members could reach the building and hold a vote? Whatever the answers to these questions are, the moral of the story is crystal clear: in democracies, power emanates from the people. (See AlJazeera, December 3, 2024. )

Although still unfolding, the story in Georgia (the country not the state) is similar in some ways but far more intense and existential. This small country was part of the United Soviet Socialist Republics. Yet now an overwhelming majority of its citizens — more than 80% according to "In Georgia’s capital, a new fury fuels street protests" (Washington Post, December 4, gifted) — want to move toward integration with Europe. The current leadership, however, decided to postpone negotiations with the EU until 2028. In the face of public disapproval, the Dream Party, the party of the head of government, is trying to strengthen relations with Russia. "The country’s president and figurehead for the opposition, Salome Zourabichvili, is calling it Georgia’s 'Maidan,' referring to the uprising in Ukraine in 2013 that spelled the end for the country’s pro-Russian leadership" (Deacon Herald, December 4, 2024). It's unclear what the outcome of the impeachment vote — now scheduled for 7:00pm Saturday, December 7 — but we can see some starts twinkling in the darkness. Like Ukraine's, the trajectory in Georgia seeks democracy and a strong relationship with the West.

I bring these somewhat obscure stories of events in other parts of the world to help us see our own situation in their light. People in these two countries, and in Ukraine, care deeply about their democracies and their futures. And they have turned out in the streets in huge numbers to demonstrate their profound disagreement with their government. It's unlikely, perhaps, that millions of Americans will rush into the streets to mount peaceful yet continuous protests as our own wannabe dictator makes his moves. Yet it is important to see that people joining together can exert their collective power. In that vein, I also recommend Malcom Nance's Five Steps To Resist The Coming Tyranny.

Vance speaks of resistance. And in some ways that may be necessary. But we want to be more that resisters. We will form an opposition — so that we can both defend (resist) and act to change the world around us. Unlike Korea or Georgia, we live in a federalist system, one that relies on states acting independently of federal government. The outcome of our last elections show the promise: while Wisconsin, by the narrowest of margins of course, awarded its 10 electoral college votes to Trump, on the same ballot we profoundly changed the make-up of the Assembly and the Wisconsin Senate. And we re-elected Senator Tammy Baldwin, Representative Gwen Moore, and Representative Mark Pocan. At the state and local level, we have shown our power, and we can do it again in 2025.

So let us begin: on Monday, December 9, the North Shore Fair Maps group is holding its monthly meeting — MASS DEPORTATION NOW! — online at 7pm. The presentation will briefly lay out plans for 2025, outline the work ahead on enshrining fair maps first as a statute and eventually as a constitutional amendment, and shine a spotlight on the immigration threats. North Shore Fair Maps friend and one of the thousands of Dreamers, Iuscely Flores, who is one of those Dreamers, will explain what it's like to live under threat of deportation and what we can do to resist and oppose. Plan to register now for the event on Monday.

What you can do: help DACA recipients renew their papers at December workshops. Help by spreading the word: Sign up link for Dreamers to attend a workshop. Also tax-deductible donations needed to fund this vital work (DACA renewal costs $555) will be accepted through the project’s fiscal agent The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Please write “For the Dreamers” in the memo line. Donate here.

The spring election is usually a pretty low-turnout election. And this one may be also. So every vote we can rustle up for a progressive on the ticket is vital. Here's what's at stake in this Supreme Court election. When we elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz, we reoriented the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And as the Court was better aligned with our values, it reversed a previous SCOWIS ruling on our voting maps to give us, finally, fair maps that would yield a legislature that actually represents the voters. And the new maps did just that. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley was part of the four member coalition that brought us our current maps but she has announced that she intends to retire in 2025. So it is imperative that we keep the current SCOWIS progressive orientation.

So start helping to elect a new Supreme Court Justice by downloading and circulating nomination papers for Judge Susan Crawford. Here's who you'd be supporting as a nominator and circulator: As a prosecutor, private-practice attorney, and now as a Judge, Susan Crawford has always believed in protecting the basic rights and freedoms of Wisconsinites. She has a deep understanding of our justice system and knows how important it is to have Supreme Court justices who understand how to keep communities safe, who are fair and impartial, and who will reject efforts to politicize the constitution to undermine our most basic rights. She’s running for Wisconsin Supreme Court to protect the progress we've made and ensure we have a progressive majority that won’t rubber-stamp an extreme right-wing agenda to take our state backward.

Judge Crawford's announced opponent is Brad Schimel, former Attorney General in the Scott Walker administration. His Wikipedia page asserts, "Schimel is a practicing Catholic and supports pro-life causes." After Attorney General Josh Kaul defeated him in 2018, lame duck Governor Walker appointed him to the Waukesha County Circuit Court. Schimel was subsequently "reprimanded by the chief judge of the 3rd Judicial District" for failing to obey a statewide stat court directive to wear a mask during in-person court proceedings. Finally the head of the Wisconsin state court system, Justice Patience Rogensack, "barred Schimel from presiding over cases in person due to his refusal to wear a face covering (or hold proceedings all remotely via videoconference). The ban was lifted after Schimel agreed to wear a face covering in court."

You should also know that Dr. Jill Underly is running for re-election as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. You can download her nomination papers and detailed instructions. At least one other progressive — Jeff Wright, Superintendent of the Sauk Prairie School District — is also planning to run. As of today, he does not have a working website and his LinkedIn site does not appear to offer a way to acquire his nomination papers. As soon as I can locate them, I will make sure to alert you. As you probably know, you cannot sign nomination papers for more than one candidate in each race for one seat.

Take the next step to codify fair voting maps in state law. TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS TO PASS NONPARTISAN REDISTRICTING LEGISLATION. Sign the petition.

Finally, thanks to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we have a preview of the spring 2025 races and potential candidates. Our 2025 Elections page provides an overview of all the races in the North Shore and in southern Ozaukee County, with links to specific communities and school boards. Nominations are not certified until after January 7, 2025, so we won't know for sure who is on the ballot or whether a primary will be necessary. Right now, we believe there will be primaries on February 18 for the Cedarburg School Board and the Mequon-Thiensville School Board. No other races currently will require a primary. But if a third candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction emerges, there will need to be a statewide primary for that race on everyone's ballot on February 18.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

other important links

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key to Winning: Get Out the Vote

Canvassing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EVENTS

Wednesday, October 23

Thursday, October 24

Friday, October 25

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

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

SAVE THE DATE

Monday, November 11

other important links