La Crosse Talk PM WIZM

A few days from committee week, Mac Kiel joins first, to discuss some upcoming items on the Judiciary and Administration Committee, as well as a bit of a homeless update. After that, Amber Peterson joins as a write-in candidate running for La Crosse School Board. 

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William Garcia, the Democratic Party chair for both La Crosse County and the 3rd US House District, in studio to discuss accusations that the Democratic Party is recruiting candidates to run for La Crosse County Board. Before that, however, I rant a bit about partisanship in nonpartisan races and WIZM's Brad Williams joins to talk about the Biden campaign's reelection co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, stopping in La Crosse. 

Began the show talking about the end of the spring election cycle coming Tuesday and how both La Crosse County political parties have gotten involved and if there's a way to keep politics out of the nonpartisan races. 

After that (5:40), Williams joins to discuss Landrieu's visit to the bus barn and the oddity that this is the third visit by prominent Democrats, including President Joe Biden in 2021, to the bus barn. The other visit was from transportation secretary Craig Thompson back in May.

And, lastly (20:20), Garcia joins, responding to accusations made the day before on WIZM's La Crosse Talk, from La Crosse County Board member Dennis Jacobsen, that the Democratic Party recruited and helped a candidate run against him and others. Garcia recently discussed, on the Democratic Voice podcast, his view of the differences in spring election involvement between the La Crosse County Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

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La Crosse County Board candidate Kristie Tweed kicks off the show Tuesday and Jake Williams, a write-in candidate for La Crosse School Board wraps up, as we’re a week from the spring election voting cycle ending.

Tweed, running in District 24 against Kevin Hoyer, dropped in studio to talk about why she’s running for county board, how she wants to get the word out on all the things the county can offer that people might not know about, and some of the issues the county has or is dealing with — ATVs on roads, roads in general and the Hillview Healthcare Center revamp.

After that (18:25), Jake Williams joins to get the word out that he’s running as a write-in candidate for school board and what his priorities are, his feelings on the big issues right now with the district — including the upcoming November referendum.

Williams is one of many write-in candidates, while two are actually on the ballot — Tim Alberts and Adam Manka. There are three open seats for La Crosse School Board, where people can cast a vote for one, two or three candidates.

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Wisconsin state Sen. Brad Pfaff in studio discussing work that Legislature — that's out of session the rest of 2024 — could be doing, work he is doing, like Lansing bridge repair updates, and what needs to happen with EV charging stations.

Got into it first with Pfaff (7:40) on the Senate being out of sessions for a few weeks now and just what kind of work there is to do. The Legislature is adjourned for the year. Lawmakers won't be making any laws. So, any work being done now, there's no guarantee that legislators up for re-election would even be in Madison next year to use knowledge gained now to pass laws next year.

One of the things Pfaff did talk about he's working on is the Lansing bridge repairs (8:50) and getting an update from the Iowa DOT and Wisconsin DOT on how that's going. 

As for what the Legislature needs to do yet (13:14), Pfaff said Badgercare expansion, his bill capping insulin prices at $35, codifying Roe v. Wade and getting rid of the state's 175-year-old abortion ban law or helping with childcare (23:15).

Lastly, we talked about the state passing legislation last week to use $80 million in federal funds to being creating an EV charging network at businesses. But, does that do enough? Mentioned to Pfaff that EVs are better utilized at homes and for people who rent, landlords have little incentive to install EV chargers, so renters waste time and money having to charge their EVs somewhere else.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio discussing the US House passing $1.2 trillion to keep government open, right before vacation, and how politicians and candidates use social media fairly unproductively — like making NCAA picks.

Began the show right there, to a degree, and how Instagram is not showing political posts anymore, unless you go through five sub-menus to turn that option back on.

After that, a lot of US House talk, with Green Bay GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher retiring early now for to “spend time with family,” and how the politics surrounding Republican Mike Johnson’s ability to keep his House Speaker seat.

Ended the show talking about politicians on social media and how it’s more of the magazine US Weekly “they’re one of us,” versus them posting about substantive issues they’re governing bodies are dealing with, how they’re voting or would vote and their thoughts on those issues. 

Republican US Senate candidate Eric Hovde posted a video about his NCAA Tournament picks. The AP decided that was worth a story because he didn’t pick a Wisconsin team — though, he didn’t troll all Democrats by picking a California team, either.

That is just one example of how politicians are on social media showing us they’re human but really not informing the public on their stances for the seats they hold or want to hold in much of a substantive way consistently.

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A two guest Thursday, as we discuss some big events surrounding the Hunger Task Force of La Crosse, before one of the many write-in candidates for La Crosse School Board joins to talk about his priorities.

First off, Shelly Fortner, the executive director for the Hunger Task Force talks about two big March events — 95.7 the Rock’s .01K down Pearl Street that raised $4,381 and the upcoming Food Drive Friday by Interact students from Central, Logan, Aquinas, Onalaska and West Salem. 

The St. Patty’s Day event last weekend saw about 350 “runners” show up to race 32.8 feet to raise money for the Hunger Task Force. Over 19 years of the event, over $100,000 has been raised. 

Food Drive Friday will happen from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. March 29 — Good Friday — at the Valley View Mall parking lot. The students who run iFeed in November asked Fortner if there was something they could do heading into summer, and this is it. 

After that, Jeremiah Galvan joined to discuss the La Crosse School Board. Only two candidates are on the ballot for three open seats, so around a dozen people are now running write-in campaigns hoping to get on the board.

One of the big responsibilities of the next school board will be the passage of a November referendum to renovate State Road Elementary with eight new classrooms and a gym, as well as build a new elementary school at the Hogan Administrative Center site. The cost for both projects is about $54 million.

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Political scientist, economist and small business owner Adam Murphy joins to talk about the news how Wisconsin is funding an EV charging network, the US House's ban of TikTok and running the government like a business. Murphy owns Big Bang, LLC, out of Milwaukee. 

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School District of La Crosse superintendent, Dr. Aaron Engel, in the WIZM studio Tuesday for La Crosse Talk PM, discussing the newest referendum plan, lunch debt, are there too many administrators and if school starts too early in the day.

Began the show talking a bit about a huge concert that happened right after the show, but then got into a text question (5:30) on if the school district has too many administrators and is their pay more than what teachers make.

After that, we discussed the school lunch debt situation in the district (11:45) and how it’s ebbed and flowed the past year. We also talked about the state or feds coming in and making school meals free again. The state has a budget surplus of between $4 billion and $7 billion but Engel said that one-time money wouldn’t be ideal for a school meals plan.

But, in terms of using budget surplus money, it would work well in terms of the district trying to update consolidate its building plans.

The second half of the show (20:10) consisted of the La Crosse School Board’s decision to add to the referendum question that’s going on the November ballot to consolidate elementary schools, as well as build a new one at the Hogan Administrative site. The plan to renovate State Road elementary, while closing Emerson, Spence and Hintgen and build a new elementary would cost around $53.5 million — which is about $44 per $100,000 in property value. 

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Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings in the WIZM studio Monday for La Crosse Talk PM discussing some of the bills passed in the final session, including one that has La Crosse roots. We also talked how she's getting to know her new district. 

One of the bills we discussed that Billings got passed, after years of work, is named Steve's Law, after Steve Johnson. He was a Coulee Region native who lost his sight as an adult and passed away in 2019. The law helps those with disabilities make outdoor recreation more accessible.

Billings will also have a new district upon winning in November, so she talked a little about getting to know those voters by telling a story about Deke Slayton, as she went to the 100th birthday celebration in Sparta a few weekends ago.

We also discussed a couple of funning things, like whether men ever put their coats over puddles for women to walk over, do men still lead when dancing and how we don't need wait staff singing happy birthday at a restaurant. 

Oh, and how Billings is about to see her first NBA game — the Timberwolves-Cavs on Friday — so we played her some Anthony Edwards highlights. Later in the evening Edwards had what he called the best dunk of his career and also dislocated his finger — so we may have jinxed Billings' first game.

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UW-La Crosse political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in studio talking about conspiracy theorists running for office — Aaron Rodgers for VP — the House banning TikTok, Eric Hovde’s new plan running for US Senate in Wisconsin and a pizza flavored beer.

Began the show a bit on the conspiracy theorist running for office, in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running for president and picking possibly Aaron Rodgers or Jesse “the Body” Ventura as his vice president. 

Then we got into (12:30) another candidate running for office in Eric Hovde, Republican for US Senate in Wisconsin. The controversy has been how “Wisconsin” is he, as we talked about in the past, but now he’s donating his salary if elected. So, we discussed how dumbed down these campaigns have been so far and if they’ll actually start talking about issues that affect people. 

In the second half of the show (24:00), we began with two Friday news dumps — one involving Boeing and another on Mike Pence not endorsing Donald Trump. But that led to a conversation about a TikTok ban, and how money in politics is affecting all of these things — Boeing making big contributions, Congress investing in TikTok competitors, a billionaire invested in TikTok looking to give money to Trump’s campaign. 

Ended the show (35:40) talking about New Belguim making a pizza flavored beer and then continued the conversation (37:30) about RFJ Jr. possibly picking Rodgers as his running mate.

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