If Tom Tiffany loses in November, it’s not irrational to think he might try to overturn the election results. On Nov. 4, the day after the election, Tiffany might repeat the same, old, tired argument he made when he tried to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania and said that, if he’d had the chance, he would have voted against certifying the results in Wisconsin. Tiffany might again accuse Dane County election officials as being “unscrupulous.” He might say that Milwaukee County allowed “hundreds of thousands of illegal votes to be cast and counted.” 

Tiffany only recently admitted that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and has said he supports an FBI probe into the 2020 election results in our state. 

Mayor Cavalier Johnson has offered Tiffany an open-ended invitation to observe Milwaukee’s elections procedures himself. “I invite you to see our election operation, to talk to officials who conduct our elections and scrutinize, first hand the extensive security and accuracy in place.”  Unsurprisingly, Tiffany has not accepted this offer. 

When Tiffany welcomed FBI agents this spring to investigate Milwaukee election officials, it wasn’t just to sow doubts in the 2020 election or to ensure election integrity. The real goal was to set the stage in case he loses in November. Then, he might  ask Donald Trump to help overturn Wisconsin’s election.

When facing this very real impending emergency to November’s election, what are Wisconsinites to do? Noted decent human being Mr. Fred Rogers has this advice.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

So who are our helpers? Let’s start with the people you already know. Once you begin to ask around, you will discover that you know several helpers who volunteer at the polls in every election.  Personally, I attend weekly church services at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee. A high percentage of our congregants volunteer at the polls. If you ask more than one of them, you hear a consistent story. 

Election volunteers care deeply about ensuring  free and fair elections and they do it year after year. They receive extensive training to carefully follow transparent procedures. They are given advice such as, “It is better to go slow, ask questions and get it right.” Additionally, there are so many people involved at the polls and so much transparency that, once you are a part of it, you have full faith in the integrity of Milwaukee elections. So ask around. Share these helpers’ stories before our city’s integrity is questioned this November. Want to join their ranks? They will gladly put you to work.

But what are we to do on Nov. 4? Luckily, you will always find people who are helping.  This winter, our city faced a real threat from federal ICE immigration agents. Before the victories of everyday helpers in Minneapolis, it was reasonable to believe that level of federal overreach would spread to our city. We know this because of the treatment of our neighbor Yessenia Ruano and the detainment of Elvira Benitez-Suarez and Salah Sarsour. Masked ICE agents detained at least 39 of our neighbors in July.  The ICE Out MKE coalition stood up on those dark days and those Milwaukee helpers are still here. I trust the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County, Souls to the Polls, Milwaukee Turners, and Voces de la Frontera. Wisconsin has plenty of non-partician, non-for-profit helpers and these are just a few.

Your relationship with the nonpartisan not-for-profits that are working to defend our democracy will need to be deeper than digital. Go to a meeting and find out now which local helpers will be your trusted voice. Empowered with this connection, on the day after the election, your plan should be to listen to follow the guidance from these groups and join the organized, active citizens who are standing up.  

Most importantly, don’t relax into believing that Tiffany and Trump are interested in anything but autocracy. The dance of democracy is not choreographed by a single caller. It is not a solo act. It depends on all of us moving together.

A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released on Oct. 13 found that an error by pilot Leonard Boltz was the cause of the plane crash with Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany.

Last month, Tiffany was flying with Boltz from La Crosse to Wausau when Boltz’s plane suffered what was subsequently described as a “mechanical failure.” Boltz crash landed the plane into Lake Wausau and the pair swam to a shallow area where they were rescued. Both sustained minor injuries. 

Tiffany, who had taken at least 12 flights with Boltz over the course of his campaign, praised Boltz during a press conference the day after the crash.

“It took some real expertise to be able to land that plane as he did,” Tiffany said.

The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board remains ongoing, but the preliminary report stated Boltz told his aviation mechanic after the crash that the loss of engine power was due to his delay in switching fuel tanks and not turning on the electric fuel boost pump.

According to the report, Boltz had flown throughout the day, first flying from Langlade County, where he chairs a local Republican party, with a full load of 70 gallons of fuel. While flying from La Crosse to Wausau and preparing to land, the report states that Boltz “observed a higher-than-normal engine exhaust gas temperature.”

According to the report, Boltz did not refuel the airplane at La Crosse before the flight departed for Wausau, and he stated that he had selected the left main fuel tank for both flight legs except for when he briefly selected the auxiliary tanks while in cruise flight before switching back to the left tank.

The report states that all the fuel tank caps were found secure in a postaccident examination. The left main tank had no fuel while the right main tank and both auxiliary tanks were full of fuel.

The report states that the Beech K35 plane was “substantially damaged” in the crash into Lake Wausau.

For weeks, a stream of ads has attacked Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic candidate for governor, for allowing  access to tablets in the Milwaukee County Jail. In some high-profile cases, incarcerated people used the tablets to harass people on the outside. The ads, which recycle footage of a disgruntled local judge, have kept Crowley on the defensive while casting his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, as a protector of crime victims. 

The ads focus on individual cases of people using their jail-issued tablets to harass witnesses and victims. Many feature Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski, who asked,  “Why is the sheriff’s office handing laptops and iPads to defendants?” Borowski was presiding over a hearing involving Thomas Zollicofer, who is accused of killing three people in a spree. Zollicofer used his tablet to tell a witness to “stop lying,” WISN 12 News reported. Some of the ads also mention Ameir Jones, who is also accused of homicide and of attempting to call a victim in his case over 1,500 times, with prosecutors saying 300 of those calls were answered.

Over a short span of time, the anti-Crowley ads have made tablet access a big issue in the governor’s race. Late last week, Crowley suspended instant messaging on digital tablets at the Community Reintegration Center. The facility, formerly known as the House of Correction, is under more direct oversight by Crowley and the county board than the jail, which is overseen by the sheriff’s office. 

On Monday Brian Schimming, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, issued a press release accusing Crowley of protecting himself from a scandal. “This program should’ve never been allowed in the first place, and Crowley resisted ending it for months after victims were threatened and laws were broken,” said Schimming, going on to call Crowley “a craven politician who only cares about his own political future, not the safety of our state’s citizens.”

Milwaukee-based Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), which supported Crowley when he re-entered the race for governor and won the primary race, expressed disappointment at the suspension of messaging services. “We have to be careful in giving in to the narrative of Republicans and their methods to make incarcerated people as uncomfortable as possible,” their statement warned. The group added that “this form of communication seems to be the best and safest form that there is currently.”

As the political controversy over tablets grew, the sheriff’s office attempted to clear the air. Joshua Briggs, director of the Milwaukee County Jail, said that the devices are not iPads but a “generic tablet.” Briggs explained that the tablets cannot be used to make calls out of the jail, and are not connected to the internet. The devices use a network maintained by the vendor, ICSolutions, which allows for keyword flagging and other guardrails. Briggs estimated that 98% of the people held in the jail use the tablets responsibly.

The ads don’t mention that Republican-dominated counties including Waukesha and Ozaukee also give people housed in their jails access to tablets. 

The tablets are important, advocates say, because they allow incarcerated people to maintain connections with loved ones and others on the outside. 

“I understand what it means to have a connection to home,” Marianne Oleson, co-executive director of Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing, told the Wisconsin Examiner. Oleson, who spent four years in prison before being released in 2017, explained that tablets give incarcerated people access to recovery resources, employment preparation, parenting classes, and other rehabilitative services. 

Tablet use  has become commonplace in jails and prisons. “This technology is being used on a significant scale,” Oleson said. “Edovo reports that its educational platform was available in 1,483 correctional institutions across 47 states in 2025, with participants completing 46 million hours of learning. Those are the provider’s reported numbers, but they show how much programming can be delivered through these tools.”

Shannon Ross, a founding member of Justice Forward, wrote in August in an op ed for Wisconsin Watch that tablet-type devices are used in 48 state prison systems, the federal prison system and in county jails nationwide. “Correctional officials have credited tablets with reducing violence and disturbances inside correctional facilities,” Ross wrote. “Some jurisdictions have reported declines of up to 40%, and the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons described the agency’s tablet program as reducing administrative burdens and allowing staff to focus more on institutional safety, not as a security risk it was forced to accept.”

“Providing tablets is an established practice today,” Oleson told the Examiner. “Wisconsin DOC says that each person residing in an adult facility will be issued an ICS tablet as its transition moves forward. Ozaukee County’s own website says that personal letters, pictures and drawings are delivered digitally through tablets available in all living units. This is happening across jurisdictions, regardless of politics.”

Other criminal justice advocates raised similar points about the use of tablets in jails and prisons. “Allowing tablets inside jail facilities is particularly important because it allows more in-depth communication with family and friends,” BLOC said in a statement to the Examiner. “Inmates can see messages and pictures from their families and loved ones. It enables them to maintain a closer connection than that of regular phone use. Sometimes, persons in custody need their families to advocate for them for their health, treatment and more that the jail staff cannot assist with immediately.”

Oleson was also disappointed by Crowley’s move. “My reaction to Crowley’s decision is concern for the people and families who are losing legitimate communication because of someone else’s misuse,” she wrote. “Victim harassment and witness intimidation are serious, and they must be addressed. We support holding people accountable for that behavior and holding facilities and vendors accountable for enforcing protections.”

Roy Rogers, a minister, board member of the Wisconsin Justice Initiative, and leader of the Onesimus Group of Milwaukee, wrote in a statement to the Examiner that electronic communication is one of the main ways his ministry can keep in touch with incarcerated people. “For us, a message is an opportunity to encourage someone, share our faith, or help them think through their next steps,” wrote Rogers. “For families, it means maintaining a connection with a parent, spouse, or child. We say ‘reentry begins with relationship’ because those connections need to grow before someone comes home.” 

Rogers said that he cares about the safety and security of victims. “No one should have to fear threats or harassment through this technology,” wrote Rogers. “My understanding is that Crowley’s action pauses messaging at the CRC until stronger safeguards are in place, rather than eliminating tablets altogether. My hope is that those protections allow safe communication to continue. These tools have a meaningful place in family connection, ministry, daily facility operations, and preparation for reentry.”

“If a suspension is necessary while those changes are made, there should be a clear timeline and an explanation of what must happen for access to resume,” wrote Oleson. “I am concerned when the needs of incarcerated people and their children become talking points in a political campaign. These decisions affect real families. They should be guided by evidence, safety, and what will help people return home successfully.”

 

Clarification: An earlier version of this story used the words “cancellation of jail tablets” in the headline to describe Crowley’s decision to disable the use of the messaging feature on jail tablets in Milwaukee. The article makes clear that it was the messaging feature, not the tablets themselves, that was suspended, so the headline has been updated to clarify that fact.

 

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore came to Wisconsin looking for some company. 

Moore, the first Black governor of Maryland and the only Black governor currently serving in office, traveled to Wisconsin on Friday to campaign with Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. The two made campaign stops in Beloit, Racine, Kenosha and Milwaukee.

If elected, Crowley will be the first Black governor of Wisconsin. Moore told a group of about 120 gathered in a room in New Zion Baptist Church in Beloit that they have the opportunity to make history. However, he also said that’s not the reason Crowley should be elected.

“David understands that making history is not the assignment,” Moore said. “Making child poverty history is… Making history is not the assignment. Making pathways to work, wages and wealth for all of our citizens, and not just some, is. Making history is not the assignment. Getting this dark money out of politics — it is.”

Moore, who is only the third Black governor elected in U.S. history and a former U.S. Army  captain and paratrooper with the 82nd airborne division, came to Wisconsin riding a wave of popularity. Polls show he is leading his Republican opponent by nearly 30 points in his own reelection campaign. That’s, a different reality than in Wisconsin where Crowley is maintaining a slight lead over Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany by a margin in the low single digits. 

The crowd that gathered in Beloit to hear from Crowley and Moore was excited. One woman wore a colorful shirt with President Barack Obama’s face on it and was excited about getting her picture taken with both Moore and Crowley. Obama endorsed Cowley just the day before Moore’s visit. 

Beloit is the home of Diane Hendricks, one of three billionaires contributing millions of dollars  to try to elect Crowley’s Republican opponent, Tom Tiffany.

During his Beloit campaign stop, Crowley criticized the amount of money being spent in the election, saying it could be used to help fund public schools, ensure childcare is affordable and expand Badgercare.

“All that money we’re seeing being spent and dumped into these elections. We could be solving the very issues that we’re talking about,” Crowley said. 

Crowley told reporters that having Moore campaigning with him would “help get us over the finish line and bring more people into the fold.” There are three weeks left until Election Day. 

New Zion Baptist Church Pastor James M. Ivy told the Examiner that the church was happy to open its doors for Crowley and Moore, believing that Crowley will be “what’s best for our city” and “what’s best for our state.”

Ivy said Crowley has impressed him as a candidate because he is “very connected to our story” and “not backed up by billionaires,” noting his support for people who are struggling including policies to improve access to jobs and housing and address homelessness.

At the end of the rally, Ivy told the crowd that they need to do everything they can to help get Crowley elected. 

Moore told reporters that Crowley is “the right candidate for the right moment” and that’s why he wanted to travel to the Midwest to help. 

“I believe in David Crowley,” he told the crowd, “I respect people who are public servants who understand that public service is not for private gain. I respect people who understand that public service is about what are you going to do to be the legacy for those who will come after you… We have seen how David has risen to the occasion time after time. We have seen that he is willing to fight for families like yours and families like mine time after time. We have seen that he has never compromised his values, that he is willing to take on anybody, that he understands.”

Moore told attendees that he couldn’t “stress enough” the importance of who the governor is, especially given the current occupant of the White House. He said that “who you have in that statehouse matters” when there is an “overreaching and unchecked federal executive.” He noted that governors play a role in many significant decisions, including certifying elections and signing state budgets. 

Of Tiffany, Moore said that people have watched him “cosign on some of the most destructive policies” and vote for President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” which included deep cuts to healthcare as well as supporting Trump’s war in Iran. 

Quoting Maya Angelou, Moore said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” The crowd repeated the phrase. “Here’s what I know, and here’s what I believe, Wisconsin,” he added, “you cannot send Tom Tiffany to the governor’s mansion.” 

Moore told reporters that he has known Crowley for a few years and was introduced to him by outgoing Gov. Tony Evers during Evers’ first term. Evers became a mentor of Moore’s when he was first elected, he said. 

Moore said after Evers introduced him to Crowley, “We just struck up a quick and early friendship.”

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about, not just the race, but also about a transition — how do you think about governance,” Moore said. 

“This stuff happens fast,” Moore said, adding that he thinks Crowley is uniquely prepared given his experience as the Milwaukee County executive. “These are serious times. These are times when we are watching a federal administration that has systematically attacked the relationship between the federal government and the states. … David is walking into this with a very sober understanding of what awaits, but also with a very optimistic view as to what can get done in this moment.”

During his second term in office, Trump has been in conflict with Democratic governors, including last week with Moore. Trump traveled to Baltimore to announce a multibillion dollar submarine manufacturing investment and requested that Moore be removed from the event’s speaking list, even though Moore helped negotiate and secure the deal.

Moore said that in dealing with the Trump administration, he is focused on protecting his constituents. 

“I’m a soldier by nature, and I’m a soldier by training. That’s what I do. While I will work with anybody — and this is the advice that I would give to David as well — I will bow to nobody,” More said. “Whenever the president or anybody thinks that a prerequisite of our relationship is being subservient to them, they will learn from me, they got another think coming.”

Former President Barack Obama endorsed Democratic candidate and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in the race for Wisconsin governor in a video posted to social media Thursday.

Crowley faces Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November in what is anticipated to be a close race in one of the most purple states in the country. If Crowley wins, he’ll be the first Black governor of Wisconsin and only the fourth Black governor elected in U.S. history.

Obama, who was elected the first Black president in 2008, said in the video that he hasn’t known many leaders like Crowley. 

“David’s life story is about overcoming adversity, and his life’s work is about bringing people together,” Obama said. Crowley, a father of three daughters, grew up in Milwaukee, the son of an electrician and a service industry worker. Both of his parents struggled with addiction and mental health issues. While growing up on Milwaukee’s North Side, Crowley and his mother were in unstable housing conditions and faced eviction three times. 

Crowley’s childhood has shaped his career in politics. He started out working as a community organizer and aide to former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold before running and winning a state Assembly seat. In 2020, he ran for Milwaukee County executive, becoming the first Black person to hold the position.

“Like me, David started out as a community organizer, and he happens to be a girl dad, too,” Obama said, noting that Crowley’s daughters have gone to public school. 

Obama added that Crowley has helped create jobs and balanced budgets as county executive.  

“As governor, David will fight to make Wisconsin more affordable, so that you’re paying less at the pump, at the doctor’s office and less at the end of the month. There is nobody better to lead Wisconsin forward, so vote David Crowley for governor,” Obama said.

Obama carried Wisconsin twice, when he was elected president in 2008 and again in 2012 when he was reelected, by margins considered large for the swing state. 

Crowley said he was “deeply honored” to have Obama’s endorsement and that the former president is “someone who defines what leadership is — fighting for everything possible to make life better for everyday Americans.” 

“Thanks to President Obama, millions of Americans were able to get healthcare, millions found jobs, and now he’s passed the baton to a new generation of leaders like myself who want to make Wisconsin and our country the best place to call home,” Crowley said. “I know with President Obama’s support, we can win this election and move Wisconsin forward.” 

President Donald Trump endorsed  Tiffany early during the Republican primary, helping to clear the primary field for the 7th CD congressman. 

In his January endorsement, Trump praised Tiffany for having “always been at my side.” 

Tiffany said then that he was honored to earn Trump’s endorsement. “Just one year into his second term, wages are rising, gas prices are down, our economy is growing and our border is secure,” he  said at the time. 

Since then, gas prices have risen due to Trump’s war in Iran, with diesel prices hitting a record high, averaging $6.22 a gallon in Wisconsin, according to AAA.

Trump’s popularity has also fallen, with 60% of registered voters disapproving of him in the most recent Marquette Law School Poll.

Trump highlighted his endorsement of Tiffany on Wednesday in an announcement that he’d be giving the state nearly $18 million in disaster aid. He said that he had recently spoken to TIffany and reiterated his “Complete and Total Endorsement” for the Republican candidate.

It is still weeks until the Nov. 3 midterm, but the early returns are in for Donald Trump, who wants voters to pretend he is on the ballot.  

Trump is at his lowest point ever in Wisconsin, with 60% of registered voters disapproving of him, 53% strongly, Marquette University polling says. 

Yet Tom Tiffany, Trump’s endorsed candidate for governor and a 100% supporter of his policies — which almost all poll even worse than Trump himself — is virtually tied with Dem David Crowley.  A good chunk of the electorate has not yet made the Tiffany-Trump connection. That may be the deciding factor over the home stretch.

Trump’s Iran war and its impact on skyrocketing gasoline and diesel prices are widely unpopular, and Tiffany has repeatedly voted to support the war and to leave  Trump unchecked.  One new Crowley TV spot takes Tiffany’s voting record  head-on, calling Tiffany “loyal to Trump, not Wisconsin.”  Trump is toxic.  Crowley is not just  running against “three billionaires” who have bought Tiffany with over $45 million — the majority of the money raised by the Republican gubernatorial  campaign.  Diane Hendricks, along with Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, are Trump’s billionaires. 

When Trump lost the 2020 election, the Uihleins provided millions of dollars to political groups that helped organize and promote the events of Jan. 6, 2021. And prior to the violent insurrection that day, Trump accomplice Tiffany  signed on to a brief to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, voted against certifying the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and said he would have opposed the will of Wisconsin voters and invalidated our state’s electoral votes, too.

This week, in an interview with WLUK in the Fox Valley, Tiffany was asked if he’d be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump. Tiffany’s response: “They should check Tom Tiffany’s record.” 

Tiffany’s record in Washington is one of rubber stamping everything Trump has done to make things worse for Wisconsin. One hundred per cent of the time. Tiffany has supported Trump’s chaotic trade wars and reckless tariffs that have devastated farmers and raised the cost of groceries. He voted for healthcare cuts and rising insurance premiums for working families to pay for…you guessed it — tax breaks for Trump’s billionaires. 

Craig Gilbert, longtime Journal Sentinel political reporter who analyzes, interprets and explains polls, put it this way in his piece based on the latest MU poll: “Trump disapprovers” — those who disapprove of Trump — are a key voting bloc.

Tiffany now gets 11% of those voters.  Gilbert says he needs 15 to 20% to get to a majority on Nov. 3.  Crowley has a big lead among independent voters, but Tiffany is chipping away at that with his negative TV onslaught funded by the Trump billionaires. 

The MU poll shows 81% of independents disapprove of Trump, and even 62% of non-MAGA Republicans disapprove.  Those voters will be the target audience as Election Day approaches. 

As I was writing this, as if to underscore my point,  the Crowley campaign just launched a hard-hitting TV spot that makes the connection between Tiffany and Trump.  The subject line on a Crowley fund-raising email today is “100 percent of the time.” You can expect to hear a lot more about Tiffany and Trump between now and Nov. 3.

Voters don’t need to pretend Trump is on the ballot. For Wisconsin voters who will decide the outcome of the governor’s race, he is. 

The flyers that arrived in mailboxes in Oneida County, Wisconsin, just days before the April 1, 2014, county board elections, were nothing if not alarming. “Some County Supervisors have a Dam Plan which is much more than Water Over the Dam,” they warned. “Their plan would ELIMINATE DAMS!*” 

Underneath this incendiary accusation, in tiny type, was this asterisked elaboration: “*During the amendment process to the county master plan, Supervisor Martini proposed the removal of dams in Oneida County. The proposal did not advance.” The flyers, otherwise identical, each bore the names and photos of one of the four county board candidates who would heroically “Stop Their Dam Plan!”

Dams are critical infrastructure in northern Wisconsin, essential for lakefront homes and resorts, boating, fishing and other outdoor recreation. To seek their wholesale eradication, as Oneida County Board Supervisor Bob Martini allegedly did, is akin to proposing the expulsion of the Green Bay Packers. A 2013 report counted 42 dams in Oneida County, about half described as large, and half as small, some privately owned and some owned by utility companies, towns, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the county itself. 

In the April 1 election, two targeted incumbents were defeated. Martini lost badly to challenger Robb Jensen, 213 to 128 votes, and Supervisor Candy Sorensen lost to challenger Lance Krolczyk by fewer than a dozen votes. A third incumbent, Bob Mott, beat a challenger by a narrow margin, while a fourth targeted candidate, Alan VanRaalte, won election to an open seat.

In February 2015, I wrote a two–part report on this matter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, now Wisconsin Watch, where I worked as a writer and editor. I noted that both Martini and Sorensen blamed the flyers for their defeats, and all four targeted contenders said the representations in the flyers were false. 

Martini, a former rivers protection coordinator for the state DNR, told me he had “never made an amendment or proposal to remove dams in Oneida County” and does not support a policy of doing so. He noted that counties don’t even have this authority, adding “It’s just wrong to lie to try to get elected.” Sorensen said that, during her time as a county board member, “there has never been any discussion or plan on removing Oneida County dams.” Mott and VanRaalte likewise denied any knowledge of a dam-removal plan, with VanRaalte exclaiming, “I live on a lake that’s created by a dam!”

What makes this story significant 12 years after the fact is that the flyers were produced with input from a Republican state senator who went on to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and is now his party’s nominee in the race for Wisconsin governor. His name is Tom Tiffany.

Tiffany’s explanation

When I interviewed Tiffany in 2015, he admitted to me that he helped craft the wording of this flyer, as well as another flyer aimed at boosting the candidacies of the same four candidates by accusing the county board of wanting to sell a county building at a substantial loss. He told me he was acting not in his capacity as a state senator but as a resident of Oneida County: “I care about my county. It’s important to be engaged.”

Tiffany provided a convoluted explanation for why the mailing, disclaimed by all four targeted candidates, was somehow still true. He argued that besides playing an “instrumental” role in past DNR dam removal projects, Martini served on the board on the River Alliance of Wisconsin, which Tiffany said is “associated with” a national group called American Rivers, which has “a bias toward removing dams.” The folks at the River Alliance said the two groups had no formal ties.

Tiffany also claimed that, during discussions on a county land-use plan, Martini had offered “some wording that was favorable to dam removal when possible.” Jensen, the challenger who beat Martini, also latched onto this thin reed for alleging that some board members had a plan to eliminate the county’s dams, saying a draft land-use plan favored by Martini included this language: “Support dam/drainage way repair and removal where appropriate.” Martini said he had no role in crafting this language, which was removed when some towns objected.

In a recent email exchange, Martini elaborated on the allegation that precipitated his electoral defeat: “The flyer said there was a plan to remove all the dams in Oneida County. There was no such plan. Even if there was a plan I would have opposed it on several grounds.” He went on to list some examples of dam-removal efforts he opposed during his time at the DNR.

DOJ investigation

In August 2014, a group formed in response to the flyers, Citizens for Democracy in Oneida County, filed a complaint against Tiffany and others with the state Government Accountability Board, an entity which at that time oversaw state election laws. The complaint alleged more than 70 violations of state elections laws, most dealing with whether the mailings met requisite disclosure rules and reporting requirements. It also accused Sen. Tiffany of causing “the dissemination of improper campaign information.”

The GAB declined to investigate, saying it defers to county district attorneys to investigate and prosecute such matters. And so the group sent its complaint to then-Oneida County DA Michael Schiek, who forwarded it to the state Justice Department, then headed by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel. “We have received the information and it is under review,” DOJ spokeswoman Anne Schwartz told me in January 2015.

Recently, in response to an open records request and some prodding, the DOJ released to me its 91-page file on the case and associated documents. These records show that Special Agent Loreen Glaman was assigned in April 2015 to investigate the allegations, She interviewed at least a half-dozen people, including all four of the candidates the flyers were meant to assist. Tiffany himself does not appear to have been interviewed, but his role was described by Jensen, who “explained that Tom Tiffany approached him and suggested a mailing” and “assisted in designing the flyer.”

On July 15, 2015, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey M. Gabrysiak wrote a “closeout of investigation” memorandum to Assistant Attorney General Roy Korte. The memo says the investigation found that while “some of the conduct in question appeared to constitute technical violations of the state’s election laws,” none appeared to be deliberate. Specifically, Gabrysiak concluded the flyers’ almost microscopic and bizarrely misspelled disclosure — “Authoized and pad for by candidate” — fell short of what the law requires, which is to include the name of the candidate or committee in this wording.

But Gabrysiak said the more significant allegations reported by Citizens for Democracy in Oneida County “lacked merit,” calling the one exception regarding requisite disclosure “minor” and “likely attributable to a lack of knowledge regarding campaign law or simple inadvertence.” He shrugged off the complaint’s allegations of untruthfulness, saying “Whether false statements have been made in campaign fliers is a subject of debate.”

Nonetheless, Gabrysiak recommended and ultimately sent warning letters to the four candidates, saying they “failed to properly name the sponsoring candidate or committee as required by law.” The letters said that while this failure was likely not intentional, the candidates would not be given “the benefit of the doubt as you were in this situation” should they again run for office. “This letter is meant to put you on notice that you will be expected [to] make yourself familiar with, and comply with, all applicable campaign laws and that failure to do so will subject you to criminal prosecution.” 

Far from the truth

What is most remarkable about this episode is the vastness of the gulf between the truth and what was stated in the flyers that Tiffany instigated and helped craft. While it may not rival other concerns about Tiffany, including his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, Tiffany’s actions in connection with these flyers raise serious concerns about his honesty and integrity. 

The record shows that Tiffany set out, with some success, to kneecap candidates for local office with the blatantly untrue accusation that they had a “plan … to ELIMINATE DAMS” in Oneida County. And he stuck to this fabrication even after it was pointed out that none of the targeted candidates favored any such thing.

At the time I wrote about this episode, I remember being shocked by Tiffany’s apparent disregard for the truth, which I considered extraordinary. It was my impression, based on decades of reporting, that people in public office rarely say things that are flat-out and demonstrably untrue, as Tiffany did in this case. There is — or at least there was, back in the days before Donald Trump — too much danger that outright lies will be exposed and consequences will ensue. And indeed, the wounds opened by Tiffany’s conduct prompted some members of Oneida County to file a complaint that led to official investigation, however unsuccessful it proved to be.

In his current campaign for governor, Tiffany has also displayed a predilection for dishonesty. For instance, Tiffany has sought to distance himself from Trump’s wildly unpopular war in Iran, saying it’s time to wrap things up, when in fact Tiffany has voted five times against resolutions to end the war. 

Tiffany, to his discredit, has recently been airing an ads blaming Crowley for allowing a county jail inmate to download child pornography. It features Crowley’s face alongside text that proclaims “Used the tablet to access child pornography,” as though it were Crowley who was doing the accessing.

But even this ad is arguably more defensible than the flyers that Tiffany devised in 2014; the county jail does have a program to provide tablets to inmates, some of whom got busted for misusing the privilege. The fairness of blaming Crowley for this is debatable, but at least the criticism is based on something that actually happened, unlike the plan to eliminate dams.

I suspect the current ads were created with input from campaign professionals who are mindful of just how far they can push the boundaries of campaign speech, while the 2014 flyers reflected Tiffany’s own unchecked inclination to deceit. Maybe that’s why he is no longer interested in trying to defend them. Tiffany’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly referred to the war in Iran as the war in Iraq. We regret the error.

Wisconsin’s race for governor is tight with Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley up in the most recent Marquette poll over Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany, but down in fundraising.

“Why on Earth would anyone contribute that amount of money?” Crowley said, addressing supporters at an event on the north side of Madison Wednesday evening, the deadline for campaign finance filings. “Because they know that Congressman Tom Tiffany is willing to sell the state of Wisconsin, our precious state, to the highest bidder.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany’s September campaign finance report showed that he raised over $26 million between July 1 and Sept. 23, bringing his fundraising total for the year to over $39 million.

Of the money raised since July, over $24 million — or 93% — came from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The party, which under state law is allowed to transfer an unlimited amount of money to candidates, reported raising $29 million during the period. Billionaire donors Diane Hendricks and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein contributed $27.6 million of that amount.

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), a former opponent of Crowley, joined the event with Madison’s Northside Action volunteers to tell supporters that Crowley “needs your money.” 

One attendee brought up a recent ad from Texas Senate candidate James Talarico in which Talarico calls his Republican opponent Ken Paxton to propose a debate. Like Paxton, Tiffany has declined a few debate offers — although unlike Paxton, Tiffany has agreed to one debate, to be hosted by WISN-12 on Oct. 21.

“Talarico’s got a lot more money than me,” Crowley said in response. 

While talking to another supporter, Crowley threw up  his hands and shrugged his shoulders, declaring  Tiffany “doesn’t have to fundraise because billionaires.”

Tiffany also reported spending nearly $19 million, leaving him with $12 million on hand. 

Dane County Executive Melissa Agard told the Examiner that she doesn’t think Tiffany’s fundraising dominance will carry him to victory, noting that Elon Musk’s attempts to “buy” a state Supreme Court seat in 2024 did not work. 

“We’ve seen in Wisconsin billionaires try to come in and buy election results, and folks in Wisconsin have woken up to that. It’s not going to work. We take care of each other,” Agard said.

Crowley told the Examiner that he is trying to focus on growing “people power” instead of focusing on “money power.”

“We didn’t get anywhere near $26 million dollars,” Crowley said of his fundraising.

Crowley’s campaign reported raising $10.2 million during the period. He spent $7.8 million and ended with $2.8 cash-on-hand. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin contributed $2.7 million of that total. The state party received two $1 million donations during the fundraising period, one from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and one from Lynde Uihlein.

He added that Tiffany’s $24 million “coming directly from three billionaires means that the rest of this state and those that he reached out to only donated $2 million, which lets me know that folks don’t believe in his leadership,” Crowley said. “They don’t believe that he’s going to do right by this state, and so we’re going to focus on people power, because that’s what trumps money power any day.”

A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Crowley leading Tiffany among likely voters 49% to 46%, with 5% of voters undecided. 

“There’s been very little movement. These are, I think, obviously, inside the margin of error,” poll director Charles Franklin said. He noted that Crowley’s lead was slightly smaller than it was a month ago, especially among people who said they were likely to vote. Crowley’s support has dropped among independents, more of whom have developed a negative impression of him as the campaign, and a negative advertising blitz, have continued. But, Franklin noted, independents have also not moved to Tiffany. “It’s not yet boosting Tiffany a lot.” 

Among registered voters Crowley led Tiffany by only one point — 46% to 45%.

The number of voters who said they thought favorably of Crowley dropped dramatically, with 13% more respondents seeing him unfavorably than favorably, compared to 4% more favorable than unfavorable in the previous poll. Franklin said much of the change came from Republican voters.

“People have gotten to know him some over this last month, though a quarter say they still haven’t heard enough, but of those people who’ve learned something about him, many more have formed an unfavorable opinion in this month than a favorable opinion,” Franklin said, adding that Tiffany’s favorability fell from -4 to -6. “He’s become just slightly more unfavorable, but very little change relative for him. A lot of change for David Crowley.”

Scot Ross, a longtime Democratic strategist, said he would rather be Crowley than Tiffany in the race, given the friendlier atmosphere for Democrats in the midterms, but he warned that the Marquette poll is a sign that the Republican candidate’s messaging is landing. 

Ross said Tiffany and Republicans have been “lambasting” Crowley with ads that are “98%” negative, while Crowley and Democrats aren’t effectively showcasing Tiffany’s support for President Donald Trump. 

“Tom Tiffany is 100% tied to the most unpopular elected official in American history, and I don’t think Democrats and their allies want to let this get away from them by not properly prosecuting the case against Donald Trump and Tom Tiffany,” Ross said. “And I do think that there has been a lack of advertising on the larger Democratic side attacking and tying Trump and Tiffany together.”

Trump’s approval among Wisconsinites fell to its lowest level in the poll at 38% and 60% said they didn’t approve of the job he was doing. Tiffany was viewed unfavorably by 45% of people. 

Ross said the expected Democratic wave that is being shown in polling doesn’t “exist because of the good things necessarily that the Democrats are doing.”

“It is because, in every possible way, the corruption, the incompetence, the self-dealing of the Republicans under Donald Trump has turned off the American people,” Ross said, adding that Crowley needs to be on television and doing more media that ties Tiffany to the president.

California fundraising

Crowley recently returned from a trip to California for a fundraiser with former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in Wisconsin in 2024, and actor Sean Penn. People who attended the event gave contributions of between $500 and $20,000. Crowley’s fundraising in California follows a trend as Democrats travel to the West Coast to seek money, illustrated by a recent analysis by the L.A. Times of congressional campaigns.  

After the trip, Crowley told reporters that he would be open to campaigning with Harris and “anyone who is willing to focus on lowering costs for working families.” 

Asked about the shift in his favorability in the recent Marquette poll, Crowley said, “Well, when you have $15 million being spent on you.” 

“The Republican playbook is to lie, distract, and to defy, and we’re going to bring more people to the table, and that’s what this campaign is focused on,” Crowley said. “Making sure that we can lower costs for our working families, that we can provide and expand childcare and healthcare.” 

Crowley also said his campaign has been working to tie Tiffany to Trump, but that he is more focused on issues closer to home.

“I think that when people see the wave that happens across this entire country, it only has a ripple effect here in the state of Wisconsin, national politics has not really moved voters here in the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley said. “What’s going to move folks in this state is focusing on Wisconsin values.”

But for one Wisconsin resident at the Crowley event, national issues are part of why he is leaning toward Crowley. 

Soham Bhatnagar, a 22-year-old who lives in Verona, said he learned about the Madison event online and decided to hurry over when he got off work early. He identifies as an independent and said he appreciates hearing from political candidates “no matter their persuasion.” 

“At the beginning of the race, it was honestly a true toss-up for me,” Bhatnagar said. 

“As the war has drawn on and the prices have gone on … when you have the congressman who’s not seeming to in a meaningful way break with anything, I believe that in itself injects a national element into this.” 

Erica Bartsch, a mother from the northeast part of the state who posts on social media, supported state Rep. Francesca Hong in the primary, then turned her attention to trying to get people to vote for Crowley. Her advocacy turned to pleading in some of her recent videos as she asked where Crowley has been and urged him to get in front of voters more often.

“We need him to be accessible to the people. How can the people see where he’s at if it’s not even on his website?” Barsch said in one video, noting that she and many Wisconsinites would not be able to pay $20,000 to attend an event like his recent fundraiser in California. 

Hong, who narrowly lost to Crowley in the primary, has been travelling the state to persuade people who voted for her to support Crowley in the general election.

Crowley’s campaign website does not currently include a “Meet David” page, which previously included a list of events where people could meet the candidate. His campaign says the website is being updated. 

His website does include a link to volunteer opportunities, including knocking doors and phone banking, but not a list of events where people can meet Crowley.

Crowley is also traveling across the state, including attending Oktoberfest Parade in La Crosse, the Jackson County Fall Rally in Black River Falls and a community pig roast in Kenosha. Some of  his appearances are not  advertised ahead of time on his website or through social media. The Madison event was advertised not on Crowley’s website, but on the Northside Action Team’s Facebook page. Crowley also has scheduled appearances this week at the Public Market in Milwaukee and in Mauston.

The campaign and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin report attempting to contact more than 500,000 voters since the end of the primary. Crowley’s field campaign is coordinated with the state party.

Bartsch said Hong’s campaign helped bring out people who aren’t always engaged in politics and Crowley could do more to reach those voters and bring Democrats together.

“David Crowley has the plans and policies that can make people’s lives better,” Barsch said. “He just needs to get out and connect with the people on the ground to show that — to show how much he cares about Wisconsinites,” Bartsch said.

The poll found that Crowley is the choice of 98% of Democrats who favor socialist candidates, while 92% of those who do not favor socialists also support him. It also found that 44% of independents favor Crowley, while 18% support Tiffany. Another 38% of independents are undecided. While Crowley is ahead of Tiffany with independents, his support among independents recently fell by 11 points.

Agard said time is running out before the election. 

“Everyone wants to have more face time with the candidate,” Agard said. “At this point, the countdown is on. We’re literally talking days now until our election and some people have already cast their vote, but there are only so many hours in a day. I look forward to more opportunities like this, where David is coming into town and is able to mix and mingle with ordinary people, but also, I encourage people to be curious and do their homework.”

The Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, has been a reliable ally of President Donald Trump in Congress. He objected to the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, voted repeatedly against reining in Trump’s war in Iran, supported the massive healthcare cuts that are hitting rural Wisconsin particularly hard, and cast the deciding vote in the House for a measure that, had it not stalled in the Senate, would have banned all AI regulation by the states for the next 10 years.

But recently Tiffany has softened his tone, distancing himself from some of Trump’s most unpopular positions. Just this month he conceded that Biden won the 2020 presidential election and said it’s time to wind down the war in Iran. He also claims he wants to “preserve Medicaid for our most vulnerable” and is campaigning on preventing AI data centers from eating up Wisconsin’s farmland.

A recent text to voters from the Tiffany campaign strikes a friendly, moderate tone, declaring “it’s time to fix problems.”

“When I’m governor, we’ll raise academic standards. We’ll make health care more transparent, stop Wall Street from buying our homes, and lower property taxes. Kids who can read, prices you can see, and a home you can own. That’s a Wisconsin that works for everyone, and that’s the commonsense governor I’ll be.”

But this week, the mask slipped. 

On Thursday, Tiffany’s campaign blocked two reporters from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel from covering a campaign event. Taking a page from Trump, who yanked White House press credentials from CNN, POLITICO and MS NOW this week because he doesn’t like their reporting, Tiffany and his campaign staff called the Journal-Sentinel’s coverage “slanted” and said only journalists who produce what the campaign deems “balanced” coverage will be allowed to report on his candidacy. 

Tiffany’s effort to keep out journalists whose reporting he doesn’t like violates the same constitutional principle protecting the free press that a federal judge cited when he ordered the White House to restore press passes to the three news outlets Trump banned.

When he was asked about Trump’s White House press ban earlier this week, Tiffany claimed to be a believer in an “open, free press” and said he was not planning to restrict journalists’ access. But, as Henry Redman reports, his campaign not only blocked Journal-Sentinel  reporters Mary Spicuzza and David Clarey from covering Tiffany’s event Thursday, it followed up with a personal attack on Spicuzza from the campaign’s official  social media account, calling her a “liberal activist” and doubling down on the Trump-like threat to ban journalists whose stories Tiffany doesn’t consider “balanced.”

Those stories likely include Spicuzza’s report this week on campaign finance records showing that three billionaires are responsible for about two-thirds of the campaign cash Tiffany has raised so far. 

Spicuzza’s serious, factual journalism raises real questions about whose interests Tiffany would represent as governor — the millions of ordinary Wisconsinites whose problems he says he wants to solve, or his three ultra-rich donors, Diane Hendricks and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein — two of whom live in Illinois —who have given him close to $10 million. Richard Uihlein’s Restoration of America PAC has separately spent another $11.3 million to boost Tiffany, Spicuzza and her colleague Eva Wen report. All that money has given Tiffany a massive financial advantage in the governor’s race, they point out.

By banning journalists and ducking multiple debates, Tiffany reinforces the impression that he prefers to remain in a bubble with like-minded Republicans and high-dollar donors, instead of making himself available to the public and the reporters whose job it is to shine a light on public officials and keep voters informed. That does not bode well for a potential Tiffany administration.

In addition to Tiffany’s Trump-like aversion to criticism and his attacks on a widely respected reporter, his coziness with the conspiracy-minded fringe elements of the Republican party are cause for concern. 

This week, Examiner reporters Redman and Baylor Spears published an investigative report on Tiffany supporter Leonard Boltz, the pilot who crashed while flying Tiffany in a private plane earlier this month. Boltz, the chair of the Langlade County Republican Party and a retired major in the U.S. Air Force, has spent a lot of time flying Tiffany around the state in his small, private plane during the current campaign season. He is also deeply involved in promulgating election-related conspiracy theories and, Spears and Redman report, has said that if Tiffany loses in November it will be because of “cheating” by Democrats. 

Unlike Tiffany, Boltz does not present as a friendly, folksy rural Wisconsinite. Nor has he backed away from the more paranoid edges of MAGA world. In a video of a speech he gave to the Langlade Republican Party in June, linked in Redman and Spears’ story,  he paces and rants, spewing dark warnings about cheating Democrats whom he says are engaged in rampant voter fraud. He gave that speech in front of a poster proclaiming the heroism of Harry Wait, the Racine County election conspiracy theorist who was convicted of breaking the law by impersonating Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason to request absentee ballots in their names. Boltz, like Wait, wanted to drive Vos out of office for not doing enough to overturn the 2020 election results. 

It’s sobering to contemplate the possibility of a governor of Wisconsin who is close to the most out-there conspiracy theorists in the state party and who has championed their preposterous claims. 

It’s even more concerning if that governor considers himself above scrutiny by the press. When Spears and Redman traveled to a Tiffany campaign event this week to try to get a comment from Tiffany for their story about Boltz, a campaign staffer intervened physically to block the question and adopted an aggressive posture that appeared to be designed to intimidate them. 

That’s not an atmosphere consistent with press freedom, democracy, or a healthy Wisconsin.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin, is skipping multiple debates with his Democratic rival, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. 

Asked why he decided to break the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s 36-year streak of hosting gubernatorial candidate debates, Tiffany said, “We agreed to do one debate. In my experience in Congress as well as the state Legislature, doing one debate is sufficient.”

That’s absurd. In this high-stakes election, as Wisconsinites confront skyrocketing costs, healthcare cuts, struggling public schools, questions about election integrity, the threats posed by artificial intelligence and data centers, among many other issues, a single one-hour forum hosted by WISN on Oct. 21 cannot possibly cover their concerns in depth.

Another planned debate, hosted by the Milwaukee County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, featuring questions gathered from mayors and community leaders around the state, was also called off this week after Tiffany indicated he would not participate.

The jilted hosts expressed their dismay in a joint statement, saying they are “deeply disappointed” and hope that the next governor will take seriously the local government issues the candidates will not be discussing on the debate stage Oct. 8.

The loss of these debates means Wisconsinites won’t have the opportunity to get answers to real people’s questions. Instead, they’ll have to settle for scripted talking points and millions of dollars in depressing negative ads.

The moderator of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association debate, journalism professor Jill Geisler, has for years helped gather questions that are important to voters in different parts of the state. “We had someone who came from a community that had been using bottled water because of PFAS … we had someone asking about climate change’s effect on the wild rice harvest in Wisconsin,” she says, recalling some recent debate questions.

“I do think that we’re living in a more siloed era where people prefer to speak through the channels that they know are friendliest to them,” says Geisler, a professor at Loyola University Chicago. “I think what I worry about is that people think of truly well researched debates, you know, where people are asking researched questions, evidence-based questions, that that’s some kind of gotcha trap, and it’s not, you know, it is simply not that.”

The WBA team had already been hard at work planning the debate logistics and gathering issues important to local communities across the state when the debate was canceled. Before every debate, a point person does copious research on each topic, its history, legal background and the candidates’ positions and voting records. “Then we lock up for the last two days to workshop the questions,” Geisler says. After the debate, WBA publishes its questions online with links so people can read more about the issues. “We put all that out there because we think that we can’t cover it all in an hour,” Geisler says. “And people might want to do their own research, but they could see what we used.”

The broadcasters and the local government officials who were painstakingly putting together questions were planning to ask the candidates not just what they have to say about hot-button issues, but what specifically each would do as governor to address SNAP cuts, rural hospital closures, the childcare shortage and other urgent matters confronting Wisconsinites.

All of this serious, in-depth discussion has now been lost.

As President Donald Trump’s approval numbers crash and once-safe Republican congressional districts appear to be in play, Tiffany might want to avoid tough questions about his record of supporting Trump between 93% and 100% of the time while in Congress.

He seems to be leaning on an ad campaign to recast himself from MAGA warrior to folksy midwestern moderate, while relying on his supporters to attack his opponent. 

“In Wisconsin and other states, it is more often Republicans than Democrats who avoid debates,” says University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden. “There are sometimes exceptions, as when Mandela Barnes resisted doing more than one debate with Ron Johnson in the 2022 Senate race, but it tends to be GOP candidates who are distrustful of journalists or being they have something to lose by taking part.” 

“The irony is that candidates who lost probably could have helped themselves with additional debates,” Burden adds. “Barnes’ narrow loss to Johnson might have been turned into a victory had there been another debate or two. Tiffany is currently trailing in the polls and might also benefit from more face time and opportunities to question his opponent.”

While Crowley is slightly ahead in the latest polls, Tiffany is outspending his Democratic rival on advertising by a margin of  3-to-1, according to J.R. Ross of WisPolitics. Republicans and the outside groups that support them are outspending Democrats by more than $8 million. 

Even that huge financial advantage might not be enough to help Tiffany overcome his record of voting for and defending Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, his support for the U.S. military entanglement in Iran and all the other Trump policies dragging down Republican politicians across the U.S.  

It will be interesting, in the single candidate debate next month, if the candidates are pressed to talk about data centers and Flock cameras — two issues where Tiffany has, interestingly, moved to capture some of the energy that animated supporters of Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist candidate Crowley narrowly defeated at the end of the chaotic Democratic primary. Crowley has not taken as strong a stance as Hong opposing either AI data centers or Flock surveillance. Tiffany’s position sounds more assertive, but his record is complicated, since he voted for Trump’s ban on AI regulation in Congress and seems more concerned with blocking wind and solar development that might fuel data centers than the data centers themselves. On Flock, it would be interesting to hear him square his support for local law enforcement with his proposal that local government be forbidden from using state revenue for Flock contracts. 

None of those nuances are going to get much airtime. Instead we will have the barrage of political advertising by shady groups, featuring grainy images and ominous music, shedding more darkness than light. 

“To have something that isn’t about sloganeering … to try to have civil discourse … I think that’s what we’ll have less of,” says Geisler.

For most of us that’s a big loss.

Another planned debate between Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has been canceled as Tiffany declines to participate in more than one debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. 

The planned debate was jointly sponsored by the Milwaukee County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, TMJ4 and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was to be held at the UW-Milwaukee campus. 

“We are deeply disappointed that scheduling did not work out to make this happen,” the organizations said in a statement. “We hope that Wisconsin’s next governor will make local government a significant focus of his administration.” 

TMJ4 reporter Charles Benson said in a post on X that Tiffany had indicated he would only do one debate and Crowley was not available for the original date proposed by the channel, though his team was interested in finding another date for the debate. 

This is the second debate to be canceled after Tiffany declined to participate. The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, which has hosted gubernatorial debates since 1990, canceled its proposed debate two weeks ago. Tiffany told conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell that he didn’t agree to the debate because he thought one debate was sufficient. 

“I had no time. There was lots of negotiations going on behind the scenes,” Tiffany said. “One debate is sufficient to be able to cover the issues that need to be covered.”

Crowley’s campaign manager Garren Randolph said in a statement that Crowley was looking forward to the debate. He criticized Tiffany, saying he is “refusing more debates because he doesn’t want to face voters and answer tough questions about his record of supporting an endless war that’s resulting in record high gas and diesel costs, as well as voting for every single one of Donald Trump’s tariffs that are crushing Wisconsin farmers and manufacturers, and driving up costs on everything from groceries to the new shoes parents are trying to buy for their kids as they go back to school.”

The Examiner has reached out to the Tiffany campaign for comment. 

Both candidates plan to participate in an Oct. 21 debate hosted by WISN-12. It will be moderated by WISN-12 reporters Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan and will cover topics including cost of living, taxes, immigration enforcement, data centers and election security.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley vowed Monday to pass a slate of measures to cut down on corruption in government with proposals he said would prevent elected and public officials from profiting from their positions. 

Crowley, who is running against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, said he would include the policy items in the upcoming state budget if elected governor. Election Day is Nov. 3.

“State elected officials… are there to serve the public to do a public service, not to just sit in public office. They are there to use their offices to help people. That could be anything from helping get a pothole filled to securing legislation for a new healthcare facility,” Crowley said during a press conference outside the state Capitol. “It should not be a vehicle to get rich by gaming the system. We see that running rampant in Washington right now, while Wisconsinites are facing higher costs on everything from gas to groceries to their health care.”

Crowley said the proposals would demand transparency and accountability from elected officials in the face of Congress not taking similar steps.

Two of the proposals would seek to bar politicians from being able to make money from knowledge they acquire through their public work. Crowley wants to ban politicians from trading individual stocks and require public officials who already own stocks to place then in a mutual or index fund or blind trust so they don’t have specific knowledge of the individual stocks they own. Another proposal would prohibit elected officials from participating in prediction markets and prohibit public employees from using insider government knowledge to personally profit.

“Prediction markets should be used for things like sports — not profiting off of our politics,” Crowley said. “Our political system is already overrun with dark money from billionaires. We don’t need to give them or others any reason to make more money off of their money by trying to further influence our elections.”

Crowley also said he would seek to prohibit members of the Public Service Commission from working for utility or energy companies for two years after leaving office. PSC commissioners are responsible for regulating public utilities including electricity, natural gas, water and telecommunications. 

Wisconsin law currently only bars former commissioners from testifying before the PSC for a year after leaving office. 

Crowley said he wasn’t worried the restriction would discourage prospective commissioners. The governor is responsible for choosing appointees to the Public Service Commission and appointees are subject to confirmation by the state Senate. 

Crowley did not point to any specific examples, but said the proposal is meant to prevent conflicts of interest. 

The final policy would prohibit the deletion of documents and correspondence by state legislators. 

Lawmakers in Wisconsin have had an exemption since 1961 from a law that requires a broad array of public officials to keep their records of communication and other official documents related to their work. The exemption allows legislators to delete emails and destroy records as long as they have not yet been requested under the public records law. 

Crowley said changing this will ensure that “journalists, the courts and most importantly you, the public, can see how their elected officials are or are not serving them.” 

Outgoing Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic lawmakers have previously sought to close the loophole, though the proposals have gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“We have seen lawmakers try to hide how they spend taxpayer dollars on things that absolutely in no shape or form serve the public,” Crowley said.

Crowley said the proposals would help restore trust in the government. 

“We need these laws on the books because the system as it is today does not work for working Wisconsin families,” Crowley said. “They see politicians across the state and in Washington doing better than them. They’re doing fine, and in many cases, they’re thriving, and how can that be when diesel right here in the state of Wisconsin is nearly $6 a gallon?… It’s because of legalized corruption.”

Tiffany said in a statement that he has not traded any stocks while serving in Congress. He said he agreed there should be strong policies implemented to “to root out fraud and corruption at every level of government” but said he would go further than Crowley. 

“We should modernize OpenBook Wisconsin so taxpayers can easily search how their money is being spent, set clear response-time standards for open records requests, create agency dashboards that disclose contractors and violations, and strengthen ethics rules to prevent legislators from subcontracting for lobbying entities. As governor, I’ll also audit all of state government to uncover waste, fraud and corruption and make sure taxpayers are getting the results they deserve,” Tiffany said.

The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation has canceled its gubernatorial candidate debate planned for this month. 

The organization first announced that it planned to host an October debate between the Republican and Democratic nominees in April. It has hosted debates in the Wisconsin gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races since 1990.

Both Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic candidate, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate, were invited to participate, but the debate has now been canceled since both candidates did not accept the invitation. Tiffany has said he was only agreeing to one debate because it is “sufficient” for the race.

“Based on legal precedent, for the foundation to air a debate, multiple candidates must participate. Two invitations were sent and both had to be accepted in order to have a debate,” WBA said in a statement. “That did not happen.”

Tiffany told conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell on Tuesday that he would likely only participate in one debate. 

“I had no time. There was lots of negotiations going on behind the scenes,” Tiffany said. “One debate is sufficient to be able to cover the issues that need to be covered.” 

According to WBAY, Crowley was planning to participate in the debate and said in a statement that he looked forward to “continuing the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s more than 30-year tradition of putting candidates directly before voters statewide.”

Both candidates have agreed to an Oct. 21 debate hosted by WISN-12. It will be moderated by WISN-12 reporters Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan and will cover topics including cost of living, taxes, immigration enforcement, data centers and election security.

Tiffany said that he watched how the reporters conducted the Democratic primary debate as well as others over his career in politics. 

“I think they are very fair and they set up for what appears to be a good [debate],” Tiffany said. “It’s only going to take one debate to get the information out there for the people of Wisconsin… I just always look for fairness in reporters.”

“We look forward to debating Congressman Tiffany on October 21 and speaking directly with Wisconsinites about why David Crowley is the right choice to deliver for working families and serve as a governor for all Wisconsinites,” the Crowley campaign said.