On January 7, 2019, Tony Evers will be sworn
into office as Wisconsin’s 46th Governor. Mandela Barnes will be
sworn in as Lieutenant Governor.
Josh Kaul will be sworn in as Attorney General and Sarah Godlewski will be
sworn in as State Treasurer. Congratulations to our newly elected leaders!
Gov. Evers, Lt. Gov. Barnes,
AG Kaul, and Treasurer Godlewski, all endorsed by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, ran on
a vision of creating a better Wisconsin for working families. We look forward to working with the Evers Administration to
lift up working people by raising wages, restoring worker rights, strengthening
our public schools, investing in roads, bridges, and infrastructure, and
protecting affordable health care for all.
In 2019, Gov. Evers will get to
work rebuilding Wisconsin’s middle class. The best way to strengthen our middle class is to
strengthen the voice of working people. Strengthening
collective bargaining rights in all sectors levels the playing field for
workers and brings balance to our economy.
The activism of working
families played a major role in electing new leaders for Wisconsin. Together, we knocked on doors, made phone calls and had
thousands of conversations about the need for change in Wisconsin. The backbone
and unique advantage of our Labor 2018 campaign is that working people trust
our unions. Voters trust unions as a vital source of political information. We
earned that trust and built on it, mobilizing our members to the polls.
Thank you for your work in
lifting up the voices of working families in our democracy. Together, we will
hold politicians accountable to working people in order to continue the fight
for social and economic justice for all people.
In Solidarity,
Stephanie Bloomingdale, President
Dennis
Delie, Secretary-Treasurer
Weekly News from
Your Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair
2018: A Year to
Remember
What
a year it’s been! I can't stress this enough -- we Wisconsin Democrats have come a long way.
We started out 2018 with a bang by electing Patty Schachtner to the state Senate (a 17 point flip for that
district). A few months later, we sent Judge Rebecca Dallet to the Supreme Court -- the first time a non-incumbent
liberal justice had been elected in decades. And of course, in
November, we won every
statewide race on the ballot, re-elected our Senator Tammy Baldwin and even
flipped an Assembly seat once held by Scott Walker!
As
2018 comes to a close, I can’t help but be humbled by the work and dedication of our Wisconsin
Democratic family.
After shocking losses in 2016, many thought Wisconsin would be a
red state for the foreseeable future. Pundits said our Senator
Tammy Baldwin could lose and that Scott Walker’s re-election was a
given.
But you didn’t give up hope. You believed a better future for our state was
possible. In the months
leading up to November, you put in the hard work to make it happen,
whether you knocked doors, made phone calls, chipped in a few
dollars, called your legislators, or even ran for office. Our Party
owes its strength to the energy of our grassroots organizers and
activists. You helped make it
happen, and I couldn't be more appreciative.
In
2019, Wisconsin will begin a
new chapter as
we inaugurate a new slate of Democratic leadership. With Tony Evers
as Governor, Mandela Barnes as Lt. Governor, Josh Kaul as Attorney
General, Sarah Godlewski as Treasurer and Doug La Follette as
Secretary of State, we
will finally have the ability to lead with our Wisconsin values. After 8 years of Scott Walker’s “divide and conquer”
politics, we will treat each other with respect and reach our hands
across the aisle to get work done. We will focus on issues we know
are affecting everyday Wisconsinites -- health care costs,
education funding and deteriorating road quality. We’ll make sure
everyone has a seat at the table as we build a better future for Wisconsin together.
This
holiday season, I feel hopeful and grateful. Hopeful because
our Democratic leadership has an exciting opportunity before them
to make real change for the people of Wisconsin. And grateful for
your hard work that got us to where we are today.
We won’t be slowing down in 2019. Wisconsinites will have
the opportunity to elect an independent justice to the Supreme
Court in April, and if we’re successful, we'll be one step closer
to finally eliminating conservatives’ majority on the court. There
will be many important local races, from Madison and Milwaukee
mayor to school board races across the state. And of course,
Republicans in power will need to be held accountable.
In these final days of 2018, I hope you’ll step back and
appreciate all the good we've done this year, and what a difference
the Wisconsin Democratic family has made. Whether you’re with
family or friends, I hope you are able to find some peace and
warmth this holiday season. We have much to be grateful for, and much to look
forward to.
-Chair Martha
Laning
From State Senator Janet Bewley
Don’t Buy the Snake Oil
Without the other provisions of the ACA, a law requiring insurance plans to
cover pre-existing
conditions, by itself, is almost meaningless.
I
thought the days when shameless con men could get away with peddling snake oil
as a health care tonic were long over. Unfortunately, some of my
Republican colleagues are trying to revive that tradition. Earlier this
week the Senate voted in the middle of the night (well, early morning) on a
bill that pretended to protect people with pre-existing health conditions.
Neither
Assembly Bill 365, as amended by the State Assembly nor the Senate Republicans
substitute amendment would have protected people with pre-existing conditions
if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is overturned. Without the other
provisions of the ACA, a law requiring insurance plans to cover pre-existing
conditions, by itself, is almost meaningless.
Nothing
in the republican’s proposals would prevent insurance companies from imposing
annual or lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits provided under the
plans they sell. Nothing in these proposals would require insurance
companies to cover the medications that people with pre-existing conditions
depend on, or limit the amount they could set for co-pays and
deductibles. The only thing these proposals offer is false hope. I
voted no.
Minutes
before that vote, Democrats presented an amendment that would have provided
genuine protections. Republicans refused to even take it up. And
now they are running around pretending that somehow democrats are responsible
for their failure to pass their hollowed out version of a pre-existing
conditions exclusion. They are as shameless as those old time snake oil
peddlers.
The
protections that people with pre-existing conditions need were in the
Democratic amendment, and every Democrat voted for it. Every Republican
voted it down. They voted against genuine state level protections
for those with pre-exiting conditions. Then they defeated their own
half-hearted measure. But they found the votes to keep the greatest
threat to those with pre-existing conditions, their own ACA lawsuit,
alive.
The
only reason a bill banning pre-existing condition exclusions would be needed at
the state level is if the ACA were overturned by the pending lawsuit that
Wisconsin’s outgoing Attorney General joined. The man who defeated him
ran on a promise to pull the state out of that lawsuit.
Instead
of listening to the voters, the republicans who control the legislature used
their lame duck extraordinary session to overturn the will of the voters and
passed a bill that prevents our new Attorney General from pulling Wisconsin out
of the lawsuit. Taxpayers will be forced to pay for the lawsuit they
voted to end.
So
don’t fall for the hype you might be hearing. Don’t be fooled into buying
what my republican colleagues are trying to sell. They are the ones who
voted to put insurance company profits ahead of health of the people of the
great state of Wisconsin. There’s nothing but false hope in their
half-empty bottle of snake oil called AB 365.
From State Senator Janet Bewley
If They Had
Done Their Jobs, They Would Have Kept Their Jobs
Instead, one month after the people of Wisconsin rejected the divisive agendas of outgoing Governor Walker and Attorney General Schimel, legislative Republicans spent the final throes of this session doubling down on their record of failure.
They held an unprecedented lame duck session, extraordinary only for its failure to do anything for the people and taxpayers who paid for it.
Did they come in to deal with Wisconsin jobs at Kimberly Clark, the whole point of this session in the first place? No.
Did they come in to make good on Governor Walker’s promises to people with preexisting conditions and their families? No. They proved those promises empty, and worse.
After seven years of railing the nation in private sector job creation, legislative Republicans decided to make WEDC - an agency that has proven itself unable or unwilling to count jobs, a permanent source of hefty handouts at your expense.
After working tirelessly to take protections away from people with preexisting conditions, Republicans offered ineffective protections with one hand while the hand behind their back guaranteed their ability to continue the greatest threat to people with pre-existing conditions: Republicans' costly and anti-Wisconsin lawsuit to repeal the ACA.
Then they created a blank check so they can hire a legion of high-priced attorneys at your expense to file endless lawsuits. Then they created a whole new bureaucracy in a legislative committee to create more red tape, delays and cost.
This was another act of a seven year pattern of GOP politicians putting their own jobs ahead of the people who vote, and pay, for them. They’ve granted themselves powers the constitution gives to the executive branch, and thanks to the heavily-gerrymandered districts they drew for themselves in 2011, they won’t be giving back that power anytime soon.
Unfortunately, it's the taxpayers of Wisconsin who have to live with, and pay for, the consequences of this contemptible pettiness.
From the Wisconsin AFL-CIO
The people went to the polls in
November and voted for a new direction in Madison, not a repeat of the Scott
Walker dirty tricks playbook. Yet, immediately after Tony Evers was elected
Governor, Republicans in the State Legislature revealed their plans to hold a
special legislative session to take away critical pieces of the new Democratic
governor's authority before he takes office.
A special session is a period
when the legislature meets and passes bills outside of a normally scheduled
legislative session.
Republican legislators even want
to change long established election dates and add an additional statewide
election that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars just to give their
hand-picked conservative justice a better chance at winning a Supreme Court
election.
TAKE ACTION NOW to stop the
GOP lame duck power grab:
1. CALL 866-832-1560 and tell your legislators you oppose the lame-duck special
session power grab.
3. Share the call-in number
to your social media pages.
Republicans aren’t looking to help
Wisconsinites in this special session, but to rig our democracy to their own
unfair advantage. Senate
Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) plainly stated the
motive for changing the election date is to give a hand-picked conservative
judge a 'better chance' at election.
Republicans in the
Legislature need to stop playing politics. Voters went to the polls and spoke loud and clear that we want
a new direction in Madison, not the same old political games from Scott Walker.
Instead of being sore losers, the legislature needs to start solving
Wisconsin’s problems. Wisconsinites want our elected officials to work together
on the issues that matter to working families: creating good jobs, fixing a
rigged economy that favors the wealthy, protecting affordable health care, and
strengthening our middle class by strengthening union rights.
Take action now to stop the
special session power grab today. CALL 866-832-1560 and tell your legislators you oppose the lame-duck special
session and want our elected officials to work together with our newly elected
Governor on solving real issues facing working families.
In Solidarity,
Stephanie Bloomingdale, President
Dennis Delie, Secretary-Treasurer
Bottom of Form
Joel
McNally: Walker’s horrendous Foxconn deal looks even worse
It probably didn’t seem that way at the
time, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker may have been fortunate the election
ending his political career took place when it did. Just a week later, a major
national announcement revealed the horrendous $4 billion deal Walker negotiated
with the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn was by far the most astronomical
taxpayer giveaway in U.S. history producing the fewest jobs.
If voters had received such glaring proof
of political incompetence before the election, Walker’s narrow defeat could
have been a massive landslide even if he escaped getting tarred, feathered and
chased out of the state with pitchforks.
The Tuesday after Election Day was when
Amazon announced the grand-prize winners of the largest economic development
jackpot in American history: New York, Virginia and Tennessee would gain 55,000
high-paying Amazon jobs in exchange for more than $2.4 billion in state
subsidies.
It didn’t take long for Wisconsin taxpayers
to realize exactly what Amazon’s announcement meant for them. They’d been taken
to the cleaners by Walker, President Donald Trump and Terry Gou, Foxconn’s
billionaire chairman. Walker’s deal with Foxconn provided $4 billion in state
and local taxpayer subsidies in exchange for an actual guarantee of only 3,000
jobs paying an average of $53,000 a year in a Mount Pleasant electronics plant.
Compare that to the enormous number of
higher-paying jobs costing far less for the winners of the great Amazon
lottery. Amazon split 50,000 headquarters jobs averaging $150,000 a year with
25,000 going to New York, which bid $1.5 billion in direct state subsidies, and
25,000 to Virginia bidding only $573 million in direct subsidies plus
infrastructure, transportation and educational improvements. Nashville, Tenn.,
was a surprise last-minute addition, winning an Amazon operations center
providing 5,000 new jobs in exchange for $102 million in state subsidies.
Economic experts who track politicians
frantically throwing enormous bundles of cash at multibillion-dollar corporations
in exchange for jobs question whether such one-sided deals ever pay off for
taxpayers. Wisconsin’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated state
taxpayers wouldn’t recoup their obscenely high cash payments to Foxconn for a
quarter-century. Economists thought New York’s $1.5 billion for 25,000 Amazon
jobs already was a gross overpayment. That puts Wisconsin’s $4 billion to
Foxconn for fewer jobs than Nashville got for $102 million on another planet
somewhere.
“The Foxconn deal is one of the all-time
historically bad tax giveaways by any state,” said Jeffrey Dorfman, an
economics professor at the University of Georgia, “whereas the Amazon deals
look more like an average bad tax giveaway to a big business.”
Walker outrageously exaggerated the jobs
from Foxconn from the day in July 2017 he joined Trump in the White House for
the honor of being selected to pay Chairman Gou billions of dollars to
manufacture electronic LCD screens in Wisconsin. The three celebrants — Walker,
Trump and Gou — all had a history of promising unbelievable jobs numbers that
failed to materialize.
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Walker rhetorically added 10,000 to the
3,000 jobs Foxconn actually was required to provide contractually. Trump and
Gou backed up that dubious claim with vague references to one day possibly
providing “up to 13,000 jobs.” Or possibly not.
Many state taxpayers immediately were
concerned they might actually be subsidizing jobs for residents of Illinois
with the border only 20 miles away. Despite the billions in state tax dollars
going to Foxconn, Walker’s agreement didn’t require preferential hiring for
Wisconsin residents.
Weekly News from Your Wisconsin Democratic Party
Chair
Republicans trying to get rid of checks and
balances
·It
hasn’t even been a week since the people of Wisconsin chose Tony Evers as
their new governor, yet legislative Republicans are already
trying to override the will of the people.
Robin Vos,
like the typical career politician he is, has threatened to take up
legislation to rip certain executive powers away from the governor’s
office in order to subvert the will of voters. He and his Republican
colleagues are desperate to cling to power, even if it means gutting our
constitution and separation of powers.
Wisconsinites
left behind the politics of divide and conquer when they elected Tony Evers and
Mandela Barnes to be their governor and lt. governor.
Wisconsinites want their leaders to address the issues facing their families
and communities, like our rising health care costs and crumbling roads.
Instead, Vos has chosen to pick petty political fights over addressing real
issues.
On Baraboo
I
want to address a photo that was circulating around the Internet this
week. You probably already know what I’m talking about -- the photo was
of a group of high school students at Baraboo High School performing what
was clearly a nazi salute. I don’t want to repost this image as it is an
ugly, outrageous display of hate.
I appreciated this article written by Monnica
Hesse of the Washington Post on the subject, particularly this quote:
So, to the Baraboo superintendent: If your defense is,
“We’re a hate-free environment,” but there’s a photo of 60 of your
students Sieg Heil-ing on the steps of the county courthouse, then
maybe you should consider the possibility that you are, in fact, a
hate-filled environment. You should also consider the possibility
that a useful response wouldn’t be to deny it but rather to
interrogate it. Maybe something like: Our students did an awful
thing. We’re trying to figure out why, and how we can have the
conversations to help make sure they never want to do it again.
There is no room for
these displays of anti-Semitism and white supremacy in our communities. We need to be better
than this. It is on every single one of us to create a climate of love
and acceptance where these acts of hate are not tolerated. Until we
as Americans acknowledge the hate that lives in our communities and
work to change that climate, we will continue to see hateful acts
like this. So let’s lead by example and show our children and young
people through our actions that hate has no place here in Wisconsin.
Governor-elect Evers launches transition site!
You can check out the
happenings of our new administration at Governor-elect Tony Evers's new
website: www.evers.wi.gov! Tony and
Mandela want to hear from you -- so please, share your comments with our
new administration (or even apply for a job!) at www.evers.wi.gov today!
