What A GLORIOUS VICTORY we had yesterday! Both Judge Crawford and Dr. Underly won their races by 10% and 6% respectively. It wasn't even close in either race. And it is due in large part to the energy and dedication of all those who

• wrote thousands of postcards;
• made thousands of calls;
• sent thousands of texts and left thousands of voicemails;
• handed out hundreds of leaflets at MIAD and UWM;
• wrote emails, texted and talked to friends, family members, even strangers on the street!

Grassroots North Shore did its share of the work and reaps its just reward! A huge THANK YOU to everyone who took up the challenge to DO SOMETHING.

I have not yet had enough time and energy to compile the data from all the areas we touched — Assembly District 10 and Senate District 8 were our primary targets — but I should have something to say about vote totals and trends by next week's newsletter. In the meantime, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has provided a county-by-county map showing which counties Crawford won. The map lets you explore the totals and percents for each county.

Of immediate interest is the way vote totals shifted from red to blue EVERYWHERE in the state compared to the 2024 presidential vote totals, as you can see in this small map created by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

If you like you can download a much larger version.

The New York Times uses a version of the same map and also shows the blue shift county-by county. In Milwaukee, the shift was 11 points and in Dane, 12 points. Much less expected are the results in the WOW counties: Waukesha by 4.4 points; Ozaukee by 7.2 points; and Washington by 3.8 points. These are precisely the areas where Democrats have been chipping away at the GOP margins for several election cycles now.

The Director of election analytics at the NYTimes thinks that "turnout in this year’s spring election could be more than 2.4 million. That’s extraordinarily high for an off-year election — nearly 40 percent higher than the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, and just a few hundred thousand voters short of the number that might show up for a midterm election." Mobilizing voters wins elections. Period.

If you read stories in the national press about the outcome of this race (see this gifted article from the New York Times, for example), the article will of course mention the huge amount of money spent in the election. But they are less likely to differentiate between the mega bucks of MAGA donors and the much smaller bucks from billionaires aligned with democratic values. The Journal Sentinel did produce a bar graph that shows just how lopsided the donations to the two candidates were but I could only find it in a Daily Kos article that took it from X (Twitter). Here it is:

You can download the full size image here.

It's crystal clear that, compared to Crawford, Schimel raised buckets from billionaires. Yet Daniel Bice wrote at least two stories with a critical stance on Crawford's backing from Democratic-leaning donors:

• Bice: Susan Crawford says Elon Musk's spending is bad but George Soros' donation is just fine (February 26, 2025)
• Bice: George Soros and Wisconsin GOP billionaires dump big donations in Supreme Court race (February 11, 2025)

Later in the race (March 25, 2025), Bice recognizes the out-sized role Musk's money is playing, but he never produces the totals that starkly reveal the imbalance. So based on the amounts in his article, I have done it for him. Musk and his PACs contributed $35.6 million and other deep-pocketed GOP donors gave $7.4 million for a grand total of $43 million. During the same period, the Crawford campaign had donations from billionaires totaling just $5.24 million. And there you have it. Wisconsin's supreme court could not be purchased, even for $43 million.

It might feel like the really important political action in Wisconsin is over for now. But that feeling would be dead wrong. The stomping Judge Susan Crawford delivered last night is in fact just the beginning of what will be a long road to defeating the oligarchy that has captured our federal government, allowing Donald Trump to become the authoritarian leader he has longed to be. Rest assured, there will be state battles, chiefly centered for now on the budget for the coming biennium.

For now, though, we need to show the power of resistance through physical action. Cory Booker and his 25-hour-long speech on the Senate floor Monday and Tuesday displayed one striking form of physical resistance — so BRAVO Senator Booker. Few of us have such an august platform, though. Thus we will need to come together in a mighty coalition and take up peaceful protests to show our power.

TAKE ACTION

We need EVERYONE to show up on Saturday, April 5, at the Milwaukee Federal Building and Courthouse at 517 E Wisconsin Ave by noon! I can't stress the importance of this enough. But a more authoritative voice than mine explains why. Here's Ezra Levin, cofounder of Indivisible:

There was a time in my life when I would hop a plane or drive to D.C. to participate in this protest at the heart of government. Those days are, alas, behind me. Nevertheless, I will be at the rally in Milwaukee, with my walker and all. Rain, snow or shine. I hope I see all of you there too. Bring friends, neighbors, kids, grandkids along too. And SIGN UP to register our strength in numbers.

OPPOSE the SAVE Act (H.R. 22/S. 128): call your Representative and your Senators this week!

The SAVE Act is another deceptively named bill that would disenfranchise millions of voters. Here's part of the letter the Brennan Center for Justice President Michael Waldman sent to Congress on March 31, 2025.

The SAVE Act was scheduled for a vote perhaps as early as today. But because Speaker Johnson pulled a hissy fit over a failed bill and cancelled all legislative action in the House for this week, we have a bit more time.

For an easy way to find the correct representatives and senators and to make the calls, visit 5 Calls and scroll through the list of topics. Then click on the phone receiver icon (something of an anachronism these days). Once you get the name and contact number of your representative, you will find a sample script near the bottom of the screen together with buttons to register the result of the call: unavailable, voicemail, contact or skip. Make sure to make the calls this week!

In addition to the SAVE Act, 5 Calls offers a range of other topics. You can bookmark the site so that when other issues you care deeply about come up, you can use the tool to connect and to craft your message.

It's down to the two minute warning (that's football, you know). But really that's where we are in this election cycle. If you've been waiting to DO SOMETHING, now would be the time. Here are the most important things you can do.

• Vote early in-person before 5pm on March 28. Voting early banks your vote, makes sure you don't miss the chance to vote because you come down with the flu or have an accident on your bike or with your car, and enables you to something else useful, like handing out flyers on the UWM campus Monday, March 31, and Tuesday, April 1.Volunteer to leaflet on the campus here.
  
  
• CANVASS or volunteer to drive someone who is canvassing (you can just show up at the staging location and then say why you are there):
  • Get Out the Vote in Shorewood! Saturday, March 29
  • Get Out the Vote in Whitefish Bay! Saturday, March 29, Sunday, March 30 and more
  • Get Out the Vote in Glendale! Saturday, March 29, and Sunday, March 30
  • Get Out the Vote in Fox Point and Bayside! Saturday, March 29, Sunday, March 30 and more
  • Get Out the Vote in Northwest MKE and Brown Deer! Saturday, March 29, Sunday, March 30 and more
  • Get Out the Vote in Mequon! https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/753371/
  • Get Out the Vote in Germantown! March 22 & 23
  • Get Out the Vote in Menomonee Falls! March 22 & 23
    
    
• Make sure ALL your like-minded friends and colleagues know how important this election is to our state and our country. Give them a flyer to help sharpen the contrast between the candidates. And provide them with additional reasons to support Judge Crawford in this race. The links will open PDFs which you can save to your computer and then add as an attachment to emails and/or texts you send. Send the documents to at least 5 friends and colleagues. Then ask them to send the information on to at least 5 more people.
  
  
• Sign up to join Indivisible Wisconsin's virtual texting party on Thursday, March 27 at 6pm Central Time. (Grassroots North Shore is an Indivisible group so sign up as one of us.) This textbanking opportunity is only open to Wisconsin Indivisibles, so you can engage key voters across the state on why you're mobilizing for Susan Crawford. No previous experience required — we'll provide a quick training before getting started!

I know you already know this, but I need to remind everyone again:MyVote.WI.gov is the place to go to check your registration status, find your early in-person voting location and your polling place — if you insist on voting on Election Day; and see a sample ballot for your community and the ward you live in. With a sample ballot, you can then do your own research about candidates, like those running for school boards, about which Grassroots North Shore may not have much information.

And if you're looking for even more information about why you need to vote FOR Susan Crawford and AGAINST Musk/Schimel, I have you covered. In the last few days, three reputable news outlets — the AP, the New York Times, and Mother Jones — have published articles to explore why Elon Musk is dumping $20 million into the race. The AP article's headline —The year’s first major political test in Wisconsin becomes a referendum on Elon Musk — pretty well sums up the gist of the piece. Musk is quoted at his online get-out-the-vote event on Monday, March 24: "It might not seem important, but it’s actually really important. And it could determine the fate of the country." It turns out that protecting a gerrymandered congressional map, currently in place, is of utmost importance because if the state had fair congressional maps, MAGA could lose the House of Representatives.

The New York Times takes a different angle. Its headline reads Why Elon Musk and Tesla Have a Legal Bone to Pick With Wisconsin. The article notes that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is likely to get a lawsuit Tesla filed just days before Musk began shoveling money into the race. It's a long piece detailing the state law that prohibits car companies from owning dealerships or in other ways making direct sales to customers. The case is currently in a court in Milwaukee County.

Mother Jones has the most revealing discussion. "Musk’s fear is that the [Wisconsin supreme] court, if it retains a progressive majority, will strike down the congressional lines that give Republicans a 6-2 advantage in the US House delegation." But it's not just the skewed maps in Wisconsin that trouble him. What's the underlying issue? A Democratic majority in the House "would allow Democrats to scrutinize the unprecedented role Musk is playing in shredding the federal government, accessing sensitive personal information on millions of Americans, and the $38 billion in federal funding his businesses receive." Personal power and of course greed are the key motives here: "Musk was essentially admitting that his spending spree in Wisconsin has nothing to do with the state itself, and everything to do with protecting his own power."

Although attending one ahead of the election is not a substitute for taking other actions — canvassing, talking to/emailing/texting friends, family and like-minded colleagues — there are a number of rallies taking place in the area that you could and should go to.

Join Judge Susan Crawford (12:00pm at 8405 W Lisbon Ave, Milwaukee), Working Families Power, SEIU Wisconsin, Women's March, and the Committee to Protect Health Care for a reproductive freedom rally with Judge Susan Crawford! The freedom to make decisions about our own bodies is on the ballot – we need a state Supreme Court justice who will protect our reproductive rights and freedom. RSVP.

Birds on a Wire is staging several outdoor gatherings. You don't need to sign up. Just show up. With your own signs — Birds on a Wire uses 20x30 foam boards from Dollar Tree — but the organization also has signs you can use. Here's the schedule:
        Friday, March 28, 4:30-6:00 pm, 76th St. & Morgan Ave. in Milwaukee;
        Sunday, March 30,12:00-1:30 pm, 84th St. & Layton Ave in Greenfield;
        Brewers Opening Day (a huge opportunity), Monday, March 31, 10:30am-12:30pm at Milwer Park Way and National Avenue. Street parking is available at SEIU, 633 S Hawley Rd. From there you can shuttle to the rally. Wear your Brewers gear. Bring signs or use the organization's.

It's time to show some real muscle. Jamelle Bouie has an interesting piece in today's New York Times: Trump and Musk Are Suffering From Soros Derangement Syndrome. Bouie has concluded that Trump and Musk simply don't believe (or purport not to believe) that real people — not actors or paid provocateurs — actually oppose what they are doing. Trump and his allies, he writes, are persuading themselves that their "opponents, somehow, do not really exist." We need to show them otherwise. And the only way to do that is to turn out in massive numbers for the nationwide HANDS OFF RALLIES on Saturday, April 5. See more information in our Events list below. But you can sign up here.

Because pretty much the entire newsletter today has been taken up with action items, I don't feel the need to include a special section for them. So I'll end with yet another egregious Executive Order Trump issued yesterday, this one aimed at voting rights. Josh Marshall (TPM) published an essay this morning about the feckless response of Democratic leadership and much of the press, but the occasion for penning this piece in the first place is this Executive Order pretending to undermine voting rights across the entire country. If you haven't seen or heard much news about this, it's because there's so much gasping about the Signal chat security breach and the lies — under oath no less — told about it.

But Marshall correctly points out that "presidents have little to no power over election administration. States administer American elections, for state and federal office. Congress is empowered to create certain baseline rules for how states administer elections, in addition to those enumerated in the Constitution. But that’s the federal role — a critical fact under present circumstances. Elections are administered by state officials and they are part of a separate, untethered sovereignty. The U.S. president can’t fire a governor or a mayor, ever. He doesn’t just lack the authority. He lacks the power. The real issue is going to come when the president tries to use his unauthorized power to extort compliance by withholding money."

If we are not yet at that moment, it is just seconds away. I'm planning to go to the April 5 HANDS OFF rally at the Federal Building and Courthouse in Milwaukee, with my walker. Come rain or come shine. I hope all of you will resolve to go also. Again, here's the link to sign up.

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.