Final push to the midterms

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“He’s appeared before Congress and talked about how requirements need to be tightened up for these various programs. I’m going to do that as governor. I mean accountability is a big part of our agenda to make sure that all agencies are audited and make sure that no one is stealing from the taxpayers.”

– Tom Tiffany, on appearing at a campaign event with Brett Favre, who was at the center of a six-figure welfare fraud scandal in Mississippi

Sprint to Election Day

At the top of the ticket, the race for governor is reaching a frenzied pace. Both candidates got some out-of-state assistance recently, Baylor Spears reports. Last week on Friday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, currently the only Black governor in the country, campaigned with David Crowley. Both men targeted the influence of money in politics as they campaigned in Beloit — the home of Republican billionaire mega-donor Diane Hendricks.

On Tuesday night, Republican Tom Tiffany appeared at a rally with former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, who discussed his football past while encouraging the attendees at the Waukesha event to get out and vote. But, Spears reports, the event brought some awkwardness to Tiffany’s campaign messaging about fraud in government programs when he appeared on stage with a man who was previously entangled in a six-figure government fraud scandal in Mississippi.

In the 3rd Congressional District, Democrat Rebecca Cooke is running for the second time against Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden. Henry Redman reports on Cooke’s efforts to pick off rural voters in the western Wisconsin district and the parade of Trump administration officials Van Orden has welcomed to the district as he fights for reelection by tying himself as closely as possible to the unpopular president.

As part of a series of policy proposals unveiled in recent weeks, Crowley announced his plans for regulating artificial intelligence, Spears reports. Crowley said he’d sign a bill to repeal sales tax subsidies for data center construction and released an 11-point plan for protecting children and the elderly from AI misuse.

Throughout the campaign, Tiffany and his Republican allies have regularly highlighted the Milwaukee County Jail’s provision of tablets to inmates to use for messaging and reading, which Crowley approved as part of the county budget. Republicans have highlighted a series of high profile incidents in which the tablets were misused, but Isiah Holmes reports on the reality of the technology, its use in jails across the state and why advocates say it’s important for incarcerated people to have a connection to home.

Viewers of last week’s Packers-Bears game might have seen the Trump administration’s advertisement promoting, well, Trump. Gunn reports on a lawsuit from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and other groups to stop the White House from using taxpayer funds to air the partisan ads.

Justice and labor

After the long and winding saga to close the troubled Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons, Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday got a tour of a new juvenile facility meant to house 32 boys in the Milwaukee area. Holmes reports on the tour and how officials hope the center’s location on Milwaukee’s north side will better serve kids from the area who now won’t be shipped across the state after getting in trouble.

The National Labor Relations Board has alleged that Rogers Health violated federal laws when it fired six Wisconsin-based employees amid a contentious union drive, Gunn reports.

Opinion

This week, the state Department of Public Instruction announced that 62% of Wisconsin school districts will receive less money in state general aid this year than they did last year. In a commentary, Editor-in-Chief Ruth Conniff writes that the state’s current $3 billion surplus has been created on the backs of the state’s schools — which she argues is a poor policy choice made by the Republican Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers, who tried and failed to push for more school funds but is now calling the surplus “damn good news.”

John Imes writes about We Energies recent proposal to construct a new natural gas-burning power plant in Wrightstown. He argues that Wisconsin’s utility regulators don’t have to treat these proposals as inevitable and can instead chart a new course toward more sustainable energy creation.

By Jan. 1, 2028, Medicare will start using competitive bidding for ostomy supplies, usedpatients who have gone through special surgery that requires their waste to collect in a pouch outside their body. Eau Claire resident Scott Wuerch, an ostomy patient, says the policy is misguided and will only lead to higher long term costs.

PLUS:

Berman, Cooke outraise their GOP incumbent opponents

Elections Commission to send clerk guidance on law enforcement at polls

Pilot error was the reason for Tiffany plane crash, according to preliminary report

Milwaukee County covers Flock cameras, moves away from controversial tech

DNR issues notice of violation to Enbridge

More from Washington:

Immigrants from Ukraine, Sudan could soon lose protected status

Trump back on the road as analysts see more congressional races shifting in Dems’ favor

California sued by Trump administration over demand to purge 20,000 voters from rolls