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 paybook 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.”

Republicans’ control of the Wisconsin Assembly is up in the air this November, and GOP candidates in competitive districts are taking steps to convince voters to allow them to extend their 16-year streak of leadership, including by distancing themselves from Republican leaders in Washington, D.C. and in Wisconsin.

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center, told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email that the 2026 election environment is “more advantageous to Democrats than the 2024 environment was.”

Part of that environment can be seen in the approval ratings of President Donald Trump. A Marquette Law School poll released in September found that Trump’s approval has declined to 37% — down from 40% approval in July; 63% of respondents said they disapproved of the job Trump is doing. 

A recent Marquette poll found that 46% of Wisconsin voters said they would vote for Democrats in legislative races, while 42% said they’d vote for Republicans. The survey did not deliver detailed information on specific districts. 

“The party is all but certain to make additional gains,” Burden said of Wisconsin Democrats. “The question is whether the wave will be sufficient to put them over the top.”

Republicans hold a 54-seat majority in the 99-seat state Assembly. Democratic lawmakers need to hold all of their current seats in the Assembly and pick up five additional seats to flip the body, a steeper task than in the Senate where Democrats are looking to pick up at least two seats to take control.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Rep. August Tyler (R-Walworth), who is heading up the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, did not respond to requests for an interview from the Examiner. In an interview with the New York Times, Vos described Trump as a “drag” on the party and said Republicans have worked to recruit center-right candidates to run in competitive districts.

“There’s nobody in Wisconsin that I think is yearning for a hard turn left or right,” Vos told the New York Times.

Assembly GOP candidates are sending out mailers that claim that politicians in Washington — where Republicans currently control every branch of government — are “driving up costs and increasing inflation.”

Instead of embracing their party’s leadership in Wisconsin, Republican candidates are also highlighting the moments where they have disagreed with their leadership to position themselves as independent voices.

A law that expanded Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers and another measure that expanded breast cancer screenings are major reference points for Republican Assembly candidates. The bills had been held up by Vos until at the end of the legislative session. In a late-night press conference a group of Republican Assembly lawmakers — each from the most purple districts in the state and most of whom are now running for reelection — said they had convinced Vos and other caucus members to let the bills through. They also blamed Democrats for the bills almost failing.

A mailer for Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston) includes a photo of him standing at the podium in the state Capitol talking to reporters during the press conference. Snyder faces a challenge from John Kroll, a Democratic Marathon County Board supervisor. 

The image is accompanied by text that says Snyder’s work “wasn’t about the spotlight” and he will “always challenge the political leadership of either party if it’s the right thing to do for Marathon County’s families.” The same mailer pitches Snyder as an “old-school public servant” who has had “no problems bucking his own party to extend postpartum care for new mothers.”

In a Facebook post Friday, Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) said he would “stand up to anyone to get stuff done for my local community” including Republican leadership, adding that  he “did it when I fought for postpartum Medicaid expansion & Gail’s law, and I’ll do it again.” Donovan faces a challenge from Democrat Ben Brist, an army veteran. Donovan won his 2024 election in with 51.6% of the vote compared with 48.4% for his challenger

During a recent WisPolitics event, Joe Handrick, a former Republican Assembly member, said that Democrats can only flip the Legislature if Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley has a “really, really big” win against Republican Tom Tiffany. His prediction was that it would have to be a win of more than 4 or 5 points.

“If Tom Tiffany ties in the state of Wisconsin or loses by a couple of votes, the Republicans will maintain the Assembly,” Handrick said. “These Assembly Republicans outperform the top of the ticket.”

Handrick said swing voters’ interaction with Republican incumbents can help swing them their way.

“They can vote for one person for governor or president and then they’ve been voting for Assembly Republicans. The incumbents — every day when you’re an incumbent you’re helping somebody. You’re helping them with a problem with the DNR or with the driveway or helping them get their Medicaid issue resolved,” Handrick said. “Those Assembly Republicans have always done better than the top of the ticket and there’s no reason to think they won’t this year.” 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) told the Examiner in an interview that Republican candidates’ strategy to try to distance themselves from the rest of their party won’t work. She said that Democrats’ path to the majority is helped by Trump’s unpopularity. 

“Trump is deeply unpopular across our battleground districts, and that’s more than the five that we need to flip in order to gain a majority,” Neubauer said. “We have a real opportunity here to put forward a new vision. We know that it is not easy to beat long-term incumbents, but we feel that we have the winning formula this year.”

Neubauer said Wisconsinites are “smart enough to see through these half-hearted attempts by Republicans to distance themselves from their own party.” She noted that Snyder, who has been in office for nearly a decade, has often voted in line with his party.

“He, of course, has not actually fought back against the Trump administration and Republicans in Washington who are doing nothing to address the cost increases that voters are experiencing,” she said. “Pat Snyder is an establishment Republican, and I think his voters understand that, and this strategy will not work.”

“Republicans understand that people are unhappy with their party, and they are not excited about showing up to vote Republican this fall,” Neubauer said. “Pat Snyder can try to tell his voters that he’s not a Republican, but at the end of the day, there’s going to be an R next to his name, and he went right along with his party in giving a tax break to data centers, in refusing to adequately fund our schools and thereby increase their property taxes,” Neubauer said. “Pat Snyder and his colleagues across the Republican battlegrounds have been with Robin Vos every step of the way, and I do think that their strategy is not going to work.”  

 

The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee has raised $10.6 million this year to fuel the party’s efforts to keep control. The majority of the funds were donated by Diane Hendricks and Elizabeth Uihlein, billionaires who have contributed millions to help get Republicans elected up and down the ballot in Wisconsin. Hendricks and the Uihleins have also donated millions to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which has, in turn, channeled millions to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tiffany. 

The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee has reported raising more than $3.3 million this year.

Neubauer said Assembly Democrats’ formula for winning is a combination of candidates who understand the challenges of their local communities having direct conversations with voters and a “robust” paid media program.

Neubauer said that Democrats just have a “different” fundraising model. She said she expects there to be spending similar to the last election cycle when $1 million or more was spent in the most competitive seats and that money for Democrats tends to come later in the cycle. 

“Assembly Republicans have raised a lot of money from three billionaires whose financial interests are directly tied to whether Republicans control the state Assembly,” Neubauer said, adding that the ADCC has more than 2,500 donors from across every county in the state. “Our candidates and our members are on the phone every single day, calling donors to bring in the dollars that we need to get our message out. And often those dollars come in in more like $50 or $100 checks than several-million-dollar checks, so we are going to continue to work hard to make sure that we have the resources that we need to compete… I am confident that we will be able to bring in the resources that we need to communicate this year.”

Burden noted that individual Democratic candidates have in some cases outraised their opponents. He named Assembly District 88 where Brandy Tollefson, the Democratic candidate and a De Pere school board member, reported raising more than $80,000 over the year compared with her opponent,  incumbent Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere), who reported raising more than $27,000.

“Although the Republican Party has been outraising the Democrats, individual Democratic candidates have been doing well raising funds,” Burden said. “This pattern has also been happening nationally in that federal Republican Party committees have been raising more but Democratic candidates have mostly been outraising their Republican opponents within districts and states. Big donations from a few wealthy individuals are keeping Republicans more competitive this year in Wisconsin, but the money alone will not guarantee them victory.”

Here are the most competitive Assembly races to watch in the Nov. 3 election:

• Assembly District 21: The district is open following the retirement of Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, a longtime Republican incumbent. She won her 2024 term with 51.4% of the vote to 48.6% for her challenger. Democrat Daniel Bukiewicz, the mayor of Oak Creek, is facing Dylan Pfaffenbach, a Republican student at Carroll University, in November. 
• Assembly District 26: Rep. Joe Sheehan (D-Sheboygan) faces a challenge from John Belanger, a Republican and former Sheboygan alderman. Sheehan won his 2024 election with 51.5% of the vote compared to 48.5% for his opponent, who was the Republican incumbent at the time.
• Assembly District 30: Incumbent Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R-River Falls), who was first elected in 2016, faces a challenge from Kevin Knoke, a Democratic veteran and educator from Hudson. Zimmerman won his 2024 election with 54.3% of the vote compared to 45.7% for his Democratic rival.
• Assembly District 51: Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville) faces a challenge from Democrat Ben Gruber, a conservation warden in Wisconsin who is member of AFSCME Local 1215. Novak won his 2024 reelection bid with 51.7% of the vote compared to 48.3% for his Democratic challenger. 
• Assembly District 53:  Republican David Daniels and Democrat Becky Nichols, a former Menasha city council member, are running for an open seat. It’s open due to the retirement of incumbent Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah).
• Assembly District 61: Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield), who was first elected in 2022, faces a challenge from Democrat Ben Brist, an army veteran. Donovan won his 2024 election in with 51.6% of the vote compared with 48.4% for his challenger.
• Assembly District 85: Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston) faces a challenge from Democrat John Kroll, a Marathon county board supervisor. Snyder won his 2024 reelection bid against his Democratic challenger with 53.2% of the vote compared with  46.7% for his challenger.
• Assembly District 88: Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere) faces a challenge from Democrat Brandy Tollefson, a De Pere school board member. Franklin won his first term with 50.3% of the vote compared with 49.7% for the Democratic candidate.
• Assembly District 89: Rep. Ryan Spaude (D-Ashwaubenon) faces a challenge from Bobby Lindsey, a retired law enforcement professional and a Marine Corps veteran. Spaude won his first term in 2024 with 51.4% of the vote compared with 48.6% for his opponent. 
• Assembly District 92: Rep. Clint Moses (R-Menomonie) faces a challenge from Democrat Jeremiah Fredrickson, a fish farmer from Elk Mound. 
• Assembly District 91: Democratic Rep. Jodi Emerson, who was first elected in 2018, faces a challenge from Republican Bruce Stabenow, an Osseo resident and small business owner. Emerson won her 2024 election with 51.6% of the vote compared with  48.4% for her Republican challenger. 
• Assembly District 94: Democratic Rep. Steve Doyle faces a challenge from Keith Purnell, a Republican Army veteran. Doyle was first elected to the Assembly during a May 2011 special election and has been reelected since. He won reelection in 2024 by just 223 votes against the Republican candidate. The seat will be one of Democrats’ top seats to protect and the party has  already invested over $1 million in.

Wisconsin State Superintendent Jill Underly called for the state to overhaul the school funding formula in her sixth State of Education address Thursday, saying that the state “simply cannot afford to wait any longer.” 

Underly delivered the address less than six weeks before the November election, when Wisconsin voters will decide who she will be working with in the governor’s office and in the state Legislature on the next state budget. She will need their support to get the funding for the budget proposals she has begun to formulate.

The Department of Public Instruction so far has only submitted the first part of its budget request, which covered funding for libraries, support for children who are deaf and blind, public libraries, cybersecurity, technology modernization and the investigation of alleged educator misconduct. The agency said last week that it would release the second part of its request, for “categorical aid programs and other critical supports” for Wisconsin’s public schools, in November. The election is scheduled for Nov. 3. 

“The formula used for funding our schools, for years, has failed our children, schools and entire communities,” Underly said during her address. “The reasons are varied and complex, but you don’t need to be familiar with every detail of the funding formula to know that it’s simply not working. The evidence is all around us.” 

More than 75 school referendum requests carrying a total cost of $1.5 billion will go before voters in November. It’s just the latest round in a now-familiar ritual as school districts across the state  seek approval to raise property taxes to make up for a shrinking pool of  state aid. School districts that can’t pass a referendum have had to cut costs including by eliminating programs, staff and in some cases closing or consolidating schools. Districts on a streak of failed referendum requests have faced dissolution. 

Underly noted that the classrooms of the Hustisford School District “sat empty” on the first day of school this year. The district started the dissolution process after its referendum failed in April.

“Every kid felt the impact,” Underly said. “Kindergarteners, who should have been walking through the doors of the school their family chose when they made this beautiful community home, instead traveled to a neighboring town. Meanwhile, seniors who spent the past 12 years as Hustisford Falcons started their last year of school in an unfamiliar building,” Underly continued. “This is what happens when we turn our back on our schools. And when schools close, the impact doesn’t stop with students. It ripples through entire communities.”

Underly said the state funding formula “places value on the wrong things,” including enrollment, district spending and property value, instead of on student needs. 

“It fails to ask the most essential question: How much does it actually cost to educate the students who live in a district so that they have an equal opportunity to succeed? A student’s opportunity for success should not depend on their zip code,” she said. 

School funding will depend on who’s in office. Republican candidate Tom Tiffany and Democratic candidate David Crowley are running to be governor and control of the state Senate and Assembly are up for grabs. 

Some lawmakers have argued that rather than increase funding for schools the state needs to explore more school consolidation given declining enrollment. Asked about when school closure is the appropriate answer to declining enrollment, Underly told reporters she thinks “it deserves some study and conversation to figure out what’s best for kids.”

Underly pointed to the 2019 bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission while speaking to reporters. The commission, which was created by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald in 2017, developed a report offering ideas to address school funding issues, as a guiding document for what the state should be doing. She said that the reports showed that there are kids who need additional support including those in poverty and who have special needs. She said money also needs to be invested in career and technical education, mental health supports and speech and language pathology.

“All these things have been in my past budget requests, and that’s what we will be able to expect in the next one, too,” Underly said. The agency’s 2024 state budget request totaled over  $4 billion. 

Urgent, but possibly not very fast

While Underly delivered her message with urgency, the timeline for changes could look vastly different depending on who wins in November.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), who could become the Senate Majority leader depending on the results of the November elections, has said Democrats will increase school funding in the next state budget, but changing the state’s school funding formula could be a “multi-year” process. 

“We’re also looking at a long-term goal of seeing what other states are doing and how they are funding their public schools, but that’s going to take probably a multi-year task to try to figure that all out and talking to our friends in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois,” Hesselbein said. 

Crowley has been supportive of increasing school funding, including moving the state toward reimbursing districts for 90% of the cost of special education, instead of the current rate of 38% , but he has also suggested throughout his campaign for governor that there may need to be another Blue Ribbon Commission to study tax issues including school and local government funding. The last Blue Ribbon Commission on school funding took two years to complete. 

Tiffany has said he wants some increases to school funding, but also promises to freeze property taxes if elected. He hasn’t provided clarity on how much he would invest or how he would balance the two issues. Tiffany has focused on issues of accountability and ensuring “high standards” as opposed to school funding when discussing education issues.

Underly has had a strained relationship with Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee, who have declined to invite her to testify in front of the committee, and it’s unclear whether a working relationship between her and Tiffany would be an improvement. Tiffany recently described the state superintendent’s position as a constitutional office as a “problem” at a Moms For Liberty Town Hall in Richfield. He said he would use the state budget, which determines the state’s spending for a two-year period, to try to steer the superintendent  to make the decisions he wants her to make.

Underly said responding to the comments that independence is positive.  

“When you think about my office, my office is nonpartisan. It’s independent. It is not at the whim of any governor and I think that actually strengthens public education,” Underly said. “I think his comments stand on their own.”

In her speech, Underly called for people to look at the candidates’ records on school issues, not their talking points, when making their decisions at the ballot box this November. 

“We have people running for office who have spent a decade or more in government, in positions to make school funding decisions — or who have left state government for another level and now want to return — whose records include repeatedly voting against investments in Wisconsin’s children,” Underly said, apparently referring to Tiffany, who as a state lawmaker served on the budget committee before he was elected to Congress. “Past actions are the best evidence we have of what someone will do when given power again. Wisconsin does not need more people who tell us they support children while their votes tell a different story. We need people in positions of decision-making power who are pro-public school, pro-child and pro-Wisconsin.” 

Leonard Boltz, the 73-year-old who has flown Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany to events across the state, has long had ties with some of the state’s most prominent election deniers and said recently that if Tiffany loses in November it will be because of “cheating” by Democrats.

Boltz, the chair of the Langlade County Republican Party and a retired major in the U.S. Air Force, has been a regular contributor to Republican candidates and causes, state and federal campaign finance records show, but has provided personal air travel only for Tiffany’s gubernatorial campaign.

Earlier this month, Boltz was flying Tiffany from La Crosse to Wausau when a mechanical failure forced a crash landing into Lake Wausau. Both men swam to a shallow area where they were rescued and treated for minor injuries. Boltz was lauded as a hero.

Wisconsin state campaign finance records show that Boltz flew Tiffany around the state 12 times between January and June. The total value of these in-kind contributions was claimed on campaign finance filings as $2,354.

Beyond the instances in which the Tiffany campaign reported flying with Boltz, the two men appear to have both attended the same conservative events over the past year.

Flight tracking data shows that Boltz’s Beech K35 aircraft was flown to the same area as a Tiffany campaign event on at least three other occasions in July.

On July 11, Tiffany was in Door County picking cherries the same day that Boltz’s plane flew from the Door County airport in Sturgeon Bay to Antigo. On July 25, flight records show the plane flew from Rhinelander to Waukesha the same day that Tiffany appeared at an event in Pewaukee. Two days later, on July 27, the plane flew from Rhinelander to Milwaukee on the same day Tiffany held events across the Milwaukee area.

The plane was also in Green Bay the same day that Tiffany attended a Charlie Kirk memorial event there on Oct. 14 last year and landed in Baraboo the same weekend in May that Tiffany was crowned the Republican nominee for governor at the party’s convention in Wisconsin Dells.

The flight data and campaign finance records, along with public statements Boltz has made, suggest an ongoing relationship between Tiffany and an outspoken member of the election conspiracy wing of the state Republican Party even as Tiffany works to distance himself from his previous support of the ideas Boltz espouses and their originator, President Donald Trump.

Tiffany voted against certifying the 2020 election results and in May of this year, would not say whether Biden won. This month, Tiffany told Wisconsin Watch that Biden won the 2020 election, but that he would cooperate with Trump’s ongoing federal investigations into the election. 

The Examiner approached Tiffany for comment for this story at a campaign event in Waukesha County Wednesday evening. Tiffany ducked into his car while two of Tiffany’s staff members, including Alex Walker, the son of former Gov. Scott Walker, physically blocked a reporter as he asked a question.

As of publication, the campaign had not responded to a list of questions sent by email.

The Examiner reached Boltz by email and phone Thursday morning. He said on the phone he had “no comment” and hung up before he could be asked any questions.

Boltz’s support for election conspiracy theories

An Examiner review of videos of Boltz posted to the right-wing video platform Rumble show the extent of Boltz’s support for election conspiracy theories — including his support for GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde’s claim that, despite Trump’s 2024 victory in Wisconsin, Democrats somehow cheated Hovde out of a win over Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on the same ballot.

At a Republican Party of Langlade County meeting in late June, video shows Boltz saying people had been asking him how Tiffany’s campaign was going. He said the November election would come down to whether or not the SAVE Act is passed to stop “cheating.” The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act introduces a slew of proposed restrictions on voting across the country in the name of stopping noncitizens from voting. Tiffany has been supportive of the measure in Congress, which Trump strongly supports.

“What I tell people is, well, if Trump can get through some of these election integrity issues before November, I think it’s a piece of cake,” Boltz said.

“I don’t think there’s any question that Tom will win if we can stop some of the cheating. Again, we’re not going to stop it all, but if we can stop some of the cheating, I think, certainly, Tom is going to win… Cheating is all they’ve got. They’ve got to cling, they’ve gotta hang onto cheating, and they gotta get cheating. It’s the only possible way.”

At that same meeting, Boltz said he’d recently spoken with Tiffany about the party’s chances of winning this fall.

Harry Wait, a prominent Racine County election conspiracy theorist, also spoke at the county party meeting in June. Wait was convicted in May of breaking state law by impersonating voters to request absentee ballots, with the intention of trying to expose flaws in the election system. He filed the requests using the names of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason without their permission.

Wait, campaign finance records show, has made several donations of $1,000 to Boltz’s Langlade County Republican Party.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Boltz helped Terry Brand, the former chair of the Langlade County GOP and former mayor of Antigo, resurrect the county party, serving as vice chair and then chair.  He became involved in the state’s election conspiracy movement shortly after the 2020 election.

Video posted to Rumble shows Boltz appeared at a rally in 2021 outside of the Wisconsin State Capitol to call for a “cyber forensic audit” of the 2020 election. He spoke there about going to Maricopa County, Arizona, the Phoenix-area county that helped swing the state for President Joe Biden and became a target of Trump’s false claims the election was stolen from him. At the time, an IT firm with no election experience was running a widely derided audit of the election. 

Boltz said he went to Arizona with former Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls. Brandtjen, who used her position as chair of the Assembly elections committee to spread conspiracy theories and attempt to oust Meagan Wolfe from her position as the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, was kicked out of Republican caucus meetings and then lost her seat in the Assembly in a 2024 primary election. 

“I was very fortunate to be able to get out to Maricopa County,” Boltz said at the rally outside the Capitol. “My chairman, Terry Brand, and I decided that it was high time Wisconsin get out to Maricopa County…  I was able to join the delegation. Now, that worked out awfully well, because a lot of the delegation sort of got muzzled… Robin Vos muzzled most of the people that went out there.”

Boltz went on to say the state needed to have a cyber forensic audit because “there’s so much fraud in Wisconsin.” Brandtjen and former state Rep. Timothy Ramthun made similar calls at the time.

“There’s maybe more fraud in Wisconsin than there was in Maricopa County, and they had plenty,” Boltz said. “Our legislators, for the most part, with the exception of Janel [Brandtjen] and a couple others have failed us. Our courts have certainly failed us. Who’s gonna make this happen? You are. You are. We’re gonna have to force this issue. Folks, we’re gonna have to keep the pressure on our legislators, keep the letters, the emails, the phone calls coming, but really, it’s still going to be up to you, us.”

Boltz’s work also extended to electing Republican legislators who would buck the authority of Vos — who in his tenure as speaker was known for maintaining a tight grip on the actions of his caucus. The election denial wing of the party had become hostile to Vos after he fired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman from his job investigating the 2020 election and refused to support the effort to impeach Wolfe. 

In an August 2024 video, Boltz stood alongside county party chairs and candidates for the Assembly, including now-Rep. Lindee Brill (R-Sheboygan Falls) and criticized Assembly Republicans for not helping oust Wolfe. He said not supporting Brandtjen in that effort was like “going against apple pie in America.”

“That’s why these people are here,” Boltz said. “They want to change things in the Assembly. They want to be independent thinkers and not just vote Robin Vos. That’s why we can’t always be unified with the Republicans in the Assembly because they’re not real Republicans. They’re RINOs.”

The advocacy of Brandtjen, Ramthun and their allies was crucial to the creation of Gableman’s fruitless review of the 2020 election. Gableman donated $1,000 to the Langlade County party last November.

In 2022, Boltz, then the vice chair of the county party, and Brand, then the chair, also played a role in a campaign finance scheme in which about $40,000 was funneled through the county party’s accounts to the campaign of Adam Steen, an election denier who attempted several times to unseat Vos. The state ethics commission recommended that criminal charges be filed against Boltz, Brand and Brandtjen but local prosecutors declined to charge them. 

In 2023, Boltz said in an interview that he flew to Springfield, Missouri to appear with Ramthun at the “Election Crime” summit held by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist who this year ran a failed campaign for Minnesota governor. Boltz said he and Ramthun were taking the place of Gableman, who was supposed to deliver a report on Wisconsin at the summit but was unavailable at the last minute. 

On Jan. 6, 2025, Boltz appeared on the “Regular Joe” show’s “Red, Right & Wisconsin” podcast where he was introduced as the chair of the county party. Boltz talked about his work to grow the Langlade County Republican Party as well as Wisconsin’s 2024 U.S. Senate race.

Boltz said he didn’t believe Eric Hovde, the failed GOP Senate candidate, lost against Sen. Tammy Baldwin. In 2024, Hovde didn’t concede to Baldwin until nearly two weeks after the election as he questioned the vote counting process. There was no evidence of irregularities in the vote count.

“Why don’t you look to see if Hovde really did lose? I don’t believe he did,” Boltz said. He added that Peter Bernegger, a prominent purveyor of election conspiracy theories in Wisconsin, did not believe Hovde lost either. At Brandtjen’s invitation Bernegger made several appearances before the Assembly elections committee to give testimony containing numerous debunked claims about the 2020 election.

“You know we still have Democratic clerks in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine,” Boltz said on the Regular Joe podcast. “Those Democrat clerks are a problem and they have proven themselves to be a problem.”

This year, on May 13, Tiffany donated $475 to the Langlade County Republican Party. On the same day, records show, the party gave a “gift” of $3,000 to Bernegger. 

In April, Gableman, Bernegger and Wait all appeared as speakers or special guests at the Langlade County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln-Reagan-Trump dinner.

Since 2010, Boltz has given more than $35,000 to county chapters of the Republican Party, the state party and candidates including Scott Walker, Rebecca Kleefisch and Brad Schimel. He’s also donated to several state legislative candidates including Brandtjen, Brill and Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee). 

Federal campaign finance records show that Boltz has donated more than $7,000 to the national Republican Party and federal candidates for office. That includes $1,500 in donations to Tiffany’s previous congressional campaigns and a $1,000 donation this year to the campaign of Michael Alfonso, the Trump-endorsed candidate  running for Tiffany’s 7th Congressional District seat. He’s also given to the presidential campaigns of both John McCain and President Trump.

About a month and a half out from the midterm elections, gubernatorial Republican candidate Tom Tiffany is taking some small steps to distance himself from President Donald Trump and the rising gas prices that are resulting from the war in Iran. Meanwhile, Democratic candidate David Crowley is seeking to highlight Tiffany’s history of loyalty to the two-term president. 

Tiffany and Crowley made comments about gas prices, the Iran war and Trump’s recent media bans while talking to reporters at the Wisconsin Counties Association on Tuesday after pitching local county officials on why each is the right candidate to lead the state.

Tiffany , who is endorsed by Trump, told reporters that he thinks it is “time to “wrap up” the war in Iran, even though he has voted in Congress against measures that would have directed Trump to end the military engagement and respect the constitutional warmaking authority of Congress. Most recently, Tiffany did not join the seven House Republicans who broke ranks last week and voted to stop  Trump’s war with Iran unless Congress approved further action.

Trump pondered on Monday whether to “annihilate” Iran while addressing the United Nations General Assembly.

Tiffany explained that he voted against the measures ending the conflict because he believes the “president has that authority, and so he should exercise that authority.” 

Congress holds the sole power to declare war under the U.S. Constitution. 

“The president has final say in regards to this, but I just believe that we should be exiting Iran,” Tiffany said. “It’s time to move on. We’ve degraded their nuclear facilities. We degraded their military. Most of their ships are on the bottom of the ocean. Time to come home, take care of business here in America.”

The Iran war has driven diesel prices to a record high average of $6.51 per gallon this week with the Midwest outpacing the rest of the country. In Wisconsin, the average prices of a gallon of diesel hit $6.56 on Monday, according to AAA.

Asked whether the gas prices will hurt Republicans in the midterms, Tiffany said “we’ll see what happens” and said the U.S. needs to work to become energy independent. He argued that Crowley would not help the issue given his support of “net zero.” 

“No diesel fuel, no gasoline, no crude oil. Do you think he’s gonna fix the problem? Clearly he won’t,” Tiffany said. 

Crowley has been targeting Tiffany on the issue this week, visiting a farmer in Baraboo to talk about the issue and releasing an ad that blames Tiffany for contributing to the rise in diesel and gas prices.

“Tiffany has proven with every vote that he works for Donald Trump and the billionaires trying to buy this election, not for the families, farmers, and small business owners paying the price at the pump,” Crowley said in a statement. “Five times he has had the chance to end the war that’s driving our prices up, and five times he’s chosen Trump instead. Tom Tiffany’s only loyal to Trump — not us, Wisconsin.” 

Tiffany said he would not restrict media access on a state level. The Trump administration banned three media outlets, CNN, Politico and MS Now, from covering him in the White House. The outlets are suing, and other major outlets are boycotting by halting TV coverage of the White House. 

While Tiffany said he believes in a free press, he also immediately turned to criticize “slanted” media outlets and told a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that despite his belief that her outlet is “slanted,” he would “continue to allow” her to cover him.

“I did not deter anyone here from joining us today and I don’t plan on doing that. I believe in open free press that they be able to ask us questions,” Tiffany said. “The principle that I live with is that I just expect all of you to be fair, and as long as you’re fair in your writing, I always welcome the press here. It’s when the press is slanted, that’s what’s frustrating,” he said, echoing Trump’s criticism of much of the U.S. media.

“Even when the press has been slanted, as we’ve seen with the Journal Sentinel… we still have them here today,” Tiffany added.

Crowley said he would “absolutely not” implement any statewide media ban as governor and said he was glad to see major outlets supporting the other outlets by boycotting coverage.

“We want to make sure that we have the freedom of the press. I think it’s extremely important,” Crowley said.

Two Waukesha County Republicans are asking voters to reelect them to the state Legislature in November while simultaneously campaigning to become the county’s next executive in a December special election. 

Paul Farrow, who had served as the Waukesha County executive since 2015, was a former state lawmaker and previous chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, died in July after a two year battle with a rare and aggressive abdominal cancer. Tom Farley, who previously worked as the county’s lead attorney, was sworn in to serve as the interim county executive on July 30 after being nominated by the county board. 

The race to serve the last few months of Farrow’s four-year term has so far attracted the attention of two longtime GOP lawmakers who are also currently running for reelection to their respective seats: Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) and Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield). 

But the lawmakers concurrently running for two offices sets up a tangle of filing deadlines and election dates. The deadline to file nominating signatures to get on the special election ballot is Oct. 20 and if they both gain access, a primary election will be held Nov. 17 — just over two weeks after they’ll both be on the ballot in the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

Kapenga announced his candidacy on July 13 in an interview with conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell.

“Usually, you get excited about announcing, but this is just unfortunate,” Kapenga said, adding that he was praying for Farrow’s family. 

Neylon announced his campaign in early September. Neylon, who said Farrow was a mentor of his, said he spent time grieving and then mulling the decision. 

“I believe our families deserve leaders who put community first and show up, listen, work well with others, and deliver results to protect the values that built this place, and I think that, given my experience, my background, that I’m the right person for the job,” Neylon told the Wisconsin Examiner. 

After the special election, a regular election for a full term as the county executive will happen in April 2027. 

Both will appear on ballots in November in races for their respective legislative seat. Within 60 days following the certification of the election as county executive, a lawmaker would need to resign from their position. State law prevents legislators from serving in the Legislature and as a county executive. 

Kapenga and Neylon’s decision to seek the job outside the Legislature follows a wave of Republicans opting to not run for reelection this year, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). Though state lawmakers regularly run for open county executive seats. 

Kapenga or Neylon’s departure from the Legislature would be one fewer Republican with legislative experience and would trigger the need for a special election to fill the seat.

Farrow was a state senator when he ran in 2015 and his election created a vacancy that Kapenga filled by winning a special election for the Senate seat that July. Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley, then a state Assembly member, was elected to be Milwaukee County executive in May 2020, and former Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard ran to be Dane County executive after deciding not to run for reelection. 

With control of the Senate and Assembly at stake in November, the possibility of a legislative vacancy adds another variable for the next legislative session.

Kapenga did not respond to requests for an interview from the Examiner, but during his interview with O’Donnell, he said he expects another Republican to be elected to his seat if he wins the special election and resigns. 

“It’s almost statistically impossible unless somebody really makes a major mistake in this seat to lose it to a Dem so that risk is very low,” Kapenga, who won his last reelection effort unopposed, said.

Kapenga is facing a challenge for the state Senate seat from Mike Van Someren, a Democrat and attorney from the Town of Delafield, in the race for state Senate. 

Van Someren has knocked Kapenga for campaigning for county executive while running for the state Senate, saying in a video posted to TikTok that “it’s clear we’re both out there working for the job we really want.” 

“So in this instance, I just want to wish both luck,” he said.

The Examiner spoke with Neylon about his campaigns. He said he is focused on winning reelection to the Assembly and then will turn his focus to the county executive race.

“It’s going to be a sprint,” Neylon said of the turn around time between elections. “There’s not a lot of people paying attention to the county executive race right now when you have the general election on the horizon. People are talking about the governor’s race. People are talking about the majorities, and I’m part of that.”

In the race for the Assembly, Neylon faces a challenge from Democrat Stephen Tryon, an author. He won his 2024 election in a 59.1% to 40.9% vote against his Democratic opponent. 

Neylon said wants to help Republicans keep their majority as Assembly Democrats are seeking to flip five seats and put Republicans out of power for the first time in 16 years, but that he also has unfinished business in the Assembly that he’d like to work on.

“When I left Madison at the end of last session, I didn’t leave thinking it was over,” Neylon said. “I think it’s actually a positive thing, not something that I’m going to apologize for.”

With Vos and other GOP leadership retirements, Neylon said he wants to be involved in choosing a new leader for Assembly Republicans. He said there is also some legislation that he would want the opportunity to propose, including on AI and regulating Flock license plate readers. 

Neylon said it was a difficult decision, but there wasn’t much strategic thought put into running for both seats. He said he sees an opportunity in the county executive role and thinks he is best suited for the job due to his ability to listen to people and work collaboratively. 

“At the end of the day, the ultimate consideration was, do I want to do this? And I do,” Neylon said. “I think that when you look at the opportunity that Waukesha County Executive presents to be able to be an advocate and a leader in a community that I love, that I care about, that I want to protect for my kids to make sure that they have the same opportunities that we do. It just felt like I had to raise my hand and step up, and I felt a sense of commitment and responsibility to do so.”

Kapenga is known for being a staunch conservative and fiscal hawk, who wants to cut taxes and reduce government services. He has at times been the lone “No” vote on bipartisan legislation, including a law to provide additional coverage for breast cancer screenings. He’s also been part of hardline Republican intraparty feuding that led to legislation failing or Republican leaders turning to Democrats for help getting bills across the finish line.

One issue that has defined the race so far is taxes. Waukesha County is one of two counties in the state that do not impose a local county tax on top of the state sales tax of 5%. During his tenure, Farrow had proposed a plan to implement a sales tax to avoid steep cuts in services. It was withdrawn in January 2025.

Neylon and Kapenga have said they are opposed to implementing a sales tax. 

“Things cost more. Based on the last budget projected deficits into the future at the current levels of spending, so there’s been an interest in looking at different ways to increase government revenues,” Neylon said. “I think we need to be more innovative about the solutions we’re offering to people instead of always just going back to we need to raise tax.”

Neylon said he wouldn’t look to shared revenue from the state to help with the county’s fiscal issues, however, he said he would lobby state lawmakers to allow the county to keep more revenue from fees that currently go to the state. 

Neylon has said he would also bring his focus on regulatory reform to county government, including to rising housing costs by looking to ease zoning and permitting rules that he says slow construction. He has spent much of his legislative career focused on rulemaking, including as the the lead author of the REINS Act, the Walker-era law that requires state agencies to halt the rulemaking process for any proposed administrative rule estimated to cost $10 million or more. He also served as the chair of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rulemaking.

Kapenga, who has worked as a certified public accountant, told O’Donnell that his experience would help provide a different perspective to county government. 

“I think it really works well with the challenges that we’re facing as we go forward,” Kapenga said.

Kate Murrain, a realtor and mother of two Middleton-Cross Plains School District students, said she has a couple of questions before she makes her mind up whether to vote for the district’s $118.5 million referendum request. 

Murrain told the Wisconsin Examiner that she wants to see a side-by-side comparison of budgets, one of if the referendum passes and one if it fails. Her questions reflect the competing concerns that surfaced in a recent public discussion of rising property taxes and the school district’s troubles meeting rising costs. 

“At this point, without any information and being as educated as I need to be I would vote no,” Murrain said, adding she noticed that the meeting was attended by a relatively small group of neighbors who appeared to be pro-referendum. “I was surprised. I expected to walk into 100 people having questions to get better educated. I’m just shocked that this is the turnout.”

Murrain was one of about 20 who gathered in the performing arts center of Middleton High School on Sept. 17 to listen to district leaders explain the request and take questions. The district is holding at least four of these sessions open to the public leading up to the Nov. 3 election.

Middleton’s request is part of a wave of more than 70 school district referendum requests this fall seeking $1.6 billion in support from property taxpayers. Under Wisconsin’s school funding system, there is a cap on how much school districts can bring in through a combination of state aid and property taxes. To exceed the caps, Wisconsin school districts have to go to voters for approval. 

Among the requests 17 are for one-time building costs, eight are recurring, to provide permanent support for operating costs, and the remaining are non-recurring, slated to help with operating costs but for a set number of years.

By the end of the year, the total number of referendum requests appearing on spring and fall ballots will total more than 150. Eight of the school districts asking voters for more money in November are trying for the second time this year after a spring request failed. 

In April, 75 referendum requests went before voters. According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, 46 of those passed — a 61.3% approval rate. The Policy Forum found that a similar result in November would represent “a substantial decrease from the 70.1% approval rate in 2024” and the “lowest approval rate of any even-numbered year since 2010, when voters approved 52.7% of referenda.”

The Middleton-Cross Plains School District request is the second largest referendum ask  on ballots in November behind Green Bay Area School District, which is seeking $158 million over four years and is currently a party in a lawsuit suing the state over the school funding formula.

Middleton is considered “property rich,” meaning it gets less state aid than other school districts and relies more heavily on property taxes for its budget. According to school leaders, about 80% of the district budget comes from property taxes. The other 20% comes from state aid. 

The request would be split to provide $24.9 million in year one of the referendum. That amount would continue the funding the district is currently receiving through a 2022 nonrecurring referendum. The next three years the funding would rise by about 3% each year to account for inflation, so $27.9 million in year two, $31.1 million in year three and $34.6 million in year four.

Bob Hesselbein, the school board president, told the Examiner that the district considered about six different referendum scenarios.

“Like a lot of districts within Wisconsin since 2010, we have been forced to find operational funding with our own community because the state each year is giving us in real dollars less in buying power,” Hesselbein said. “We recognize with the economics going on now in the country, we didn’t want to ask for more because everyone’s hurting.”

The district conducted surveys while working to develop the question. In one survey of about 1,800 community members, 66% said that they would probably or definitely vote for a 2026 referendum. Those who opposed the referendum cited property-tax fatigue, spending reductions and a preference for state level solutions. 

Hesselbein said the district hasn’t had a “No Vote” committee form. In other districts, “No Vote” and “Yes Vote” committees will form and can come into contention with one another as residents concerned about rising property taxes are pitted against those who want their schools to be able to meet costs.

One attendee at the recent meeting in Middleton asked for clarification on the actual cost to individual taxpayers of the referendum and said he was worried about how the additional taxes would affect seniors on a fixed income.

An explanatory page provided by the district shows that property taxpayers could expect to pay no additional money in the first year, $21 in the second, $40 in the third and $59 in the fourth. However, the numbers are pegged to $100,000 of property. The district said it provided the information in the form it did so individuals could do the math easily depending on the cost of the house. 

“Who has a $100,000 house in Middleton?” the attendee said. “I’d rather see the average house in there, so people can get a feel as to what you’re looking at.” 

The average cost of a house is $500,000 in Middleton, meaning in the second year of the budget an average homeowner could expect to pay an additional $105 in property taxes in the second year of the referendum.

“You’re going to be squeezing me,” the attendee said. “You want to keep everything status quo. There’s room to cut.” 

If the referendum fails the district will have to cut its budget by about 20%. 

Whether the referendum passes or not, the district plans to cut $5 million from its budget, though conversations are just beginning on where those cuts will come from. 

“We’re going to probably find ourselves cutting some of the enhancements to education, not the meat of what we do here,” Hesselbein told the Examiner, adding that it likely wouldn’t mean layoffs, but retirements may mean conversations about dividing work among current employees instead of a new hire. 

The same retiree who spoke up about the cost of the referendum asked why the district wasn’t turning to state lawmakers. 

“I called Sen. [Dianne] Hesselbein’s office last year, and asked, what have you done to get more money?” he said. “I got the typical political run around.”

Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers tried to pass a deal earlier this year that would have tapped the state surplus to give schools some additional funding and send rebate checks to property taxpayers. The bill failed in the Senate, where most Democrats opposed it, saying it didn’t do enough to help schools or spend money responsibly, along with a couple of Republicans, who opposed the spending. 

Since then, progress on school funding changes have been stalled as most politicians have turned their attention to the upcoming elections. 

Bob Hesselbein, who is married to the Democratic leader of the Senate, said he had some inside information for the disgruntled taxpayer at the Middleton meeting.

“I happen to know Sen. Hesselbein pretty well,” he said, drawing a few chuckles in the room. 

“You can yell and swear all you want,” he added. “In Dane County, we have very pro-education representation in both our Assembly and our Senate. Unfortunately, they’re a minority within the state of Wisconsin, and until the rest of the cities, Wisconsin, come to that realization that their public schools are being damaged, we can’t expect anything different from our local politicians, because that’s the constitutional laws of our state.”

Sen. Hesselbein has said that Democrats will pass legislation to fund public schools in January. 

“We are going to be fully there for our public schools, especially when it comes to special education reimbursement,” Sen. Dianne Hesselbein said at a press conference last week. “One thing that school administrators are telling us all across the state — principals as well — that they want to see something they can count on and they want to rely on it.” 

Sen. Hesselbein said that her caucus has started having conversations over the summer about what needs to happen, including putting more money into special education and general aid. She said Democrats are also looking at other states to understand how the school funding formula could be changed.

“We’re also looking at a long-term goal of seeing what other states are doing and how they are funding their public schools, but that’s going to take probably a multi-year task to try to figure that all out and talking to our friends in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois,” Hesselbein said. 

Meanwhile, school districts continue to rely on taxpayers to help them meet costs. 

Jim Coursey, treasurer of the Middleton school board, explained the stakes to Murrain. 

“If we were to lose that 20% of the budget, there will be no question that classrooms will be impacted, that’s too much,” Coursey said. “That’s going to lead to larger class sizes because it’s going to lead to a reduction in the number of staff that we’re going to be able to have supporting. It’s going to lead to elimination of programs.” 

Murrain, who said she values the education her children are receiving, remained unconvinced.

“I don’t know, it’s tough… I would need to see exactly where those funds are being allocated,” she said.

Both the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Wisconsin Senate have said of their efforts to win control of the chamber that their candidates are staying focused on issues close to home. However, this week the focus of the race for the 17th Senate District turned to a country 6,000 miles away: China.

The race in Wisconsin’s 17th Senate District, a key district that will help determine control of the body, pits Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), the incumbent in the race, against Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon), a two-term state representative. Marklein was first elected to the seat in 2014 after serving two terms in the Assembly and has served for the last two sessions as the co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which drafts the state budget.

The subject of China entered the race when the Jacobson campaign began running an ad last week that claimed Marklein had “invested thousands of dollars in Chinese corporations” while voting against a “measure that would have made Wisconsin buy more American made products.” The ad displays an image of Marklein’s face beside the Chinese flag. 

“While Marklein was making money off of his Chinese investments, he was stealing money from American workers like me,” a man dressed as a construction worker says in the ad. “Someone who sold us out like that should never be in the state Senate.” 

The ad led to Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), head of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, to call a press conference to defend Marklein Tuesday. Testin called the ad “deceptive” and a “sick smear campaign.”

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center, told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email that it’s “quite unusual for China or another other foreign country to be much of an issue in a campaign for a state legislative seat.” 

Burden said the “focus on China in the 17th district is a kind of proxy for other issues,” including concerns about politicians “enriching themselves unethically because of investments” as well as worries about the construction of new data centers that some Wisconsinites see as drain on resources and harmful to the environment in addition to being related to U.S. AI developers’ competition with China. 

The ad, however, is seeking to tie some of Marklein’s prior reported investments to his lack of support for a Democratic bill in 2013 that would have required state and local contracts to give preference to materials manufactured in the United States.

Wisconsin public officials and candidates are required to file a Statement of Economic Interests under state law to disclose financial relationships and prevent conflicts of interest. 

According to his 2022 statement of economic interest, Marklein had over $50,000 in a WisdomTree Emerging Markets Fund as well as between $5,000 and $50,000 in investments in the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Fund. According to Sofi, investing in emerging market funds means owning shares in companies from India, Brazil, South Africa and China with the latter representing a large portion of many emerging market index funds.

Marklein’s most recent statement of economic interest included no emerging market funds.

In his press conference defending Marklein, Testin appeared to think the ad was related to investments made through the Wisconsin Retirement System, saying Jacobson, and every state employee, has similar investments. (The Wisconsin Retirement System is not prohibited from making investments in businesses in China, though Republicans have proposed barring the State of Wisconsin Investment Board from doing so in the past.)

Testin said Jacobson was “trying to be tough on foreign adversaries now that it might be politically beneficial for her.” 

“The truth is that Jacobson could have spent months standing up to our nation’s adversaries like China, but when she had the opportunity to support meaningful legislation that would protect Wisconsin from foreign influence, she voted no,” Testin said, referring to bills that would have restricted business with China. 

Testin proposed and Marklein co-authored a bill that would have barred Wisconsin agencies from contracting with certain foreign businesses, including China. Two other bills would have prohibited China from buying Wisconsin land and prohibited the University of Wisconsin system from providing study abroad and research there.

“Jacobson has no backbone, only a slick eye for political gain. She’s quick to point a finger at people like Sen. Marklein when it benefits her, but when she has the chance to help Wisconsin, she’s only interested when there could be gains for her,” Testin said. 

Jacobson voted against the two bills that passed the Assembly. Both were vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers. The issue has also come up in the race for governor, with Republican candidate Tom Tiffany saying he would have signed at least one of those bills as governor.

Burden said connecting politicians to China could “tarnish” their reputations. According to a Nov. 2025 Marquette Law School Poll, 65% of Americans held an unfavorable view of China and its leader, President Xi Jinping, while 19% said they had a favorable view of China. 

Burden said of Jacobson’s ad that “a connection to Marklein’s potential support for Chinese businesses and government is a way for her to point out to voters without a strong partisan preference why he should be defeated.”

Will Karcz, a spokesperson for the State Senate Democratic Committee, said in a statement to the Examiner that the ad was meant to provide voters in the 17th with “the truth of Howard Marklein’s personal foreign investment history.”

“Howard has repeatedly voted against protecting Wisconsin manufacturing while cashing in on tens of thousands of dollars he invested in Chinese-owned corporations,” Karcz said. “He got rich on the backs of Wisconsin workers. Jenna Jacobson is running to make Wisconsin stronger while Howard has spent the last 10 years putting his bottom line ahead of his constituents.” 

Whether the message resonates with voters is unclear. 

Todd Allbaugh, a former Republican who grew up in Richland Center and formerly worked for Sen. Dale Schulz, told the Examiner in an interview that he was confused when he saw the ad about a week ago. He lives in Madison, but still has family in the district. 

“I’ve seen this ad now probably somewhere around 20-ish times. It was baffling,” Allbaugh said. He said he didn’t understand what it was trying to get at until he looked it up using Claude, the AI assistant developed by Anthropic. “If you have to go to Claude to figure it out, it probably isn’t a really effective ad.”

Allbaugh acknowledged that Marklein has some advantages in the race given his status as an incumbent. Marklein won his 2022 race with 60% of the vote, though the district has changed considerably under the new maps. It now represents Iowa, Lafayette, Green, Crawford and Grant counties as well as parts of Dane County. 

“I know the 17th Senate District pretty much like the back of my hand because it’s home,” Allbaugh said. “With the newly drawn maps it’s certainly become more competitive for Democrats, probably the most competitive in a very long time.” 

Allbaugh said that he thinks Marklein is “scared for his political life,” as he is suddenly running in a competitive district and that can be seen in his campaign. One of Marklein’s recent ads positioned him as a bipartisan “bridge builder” and as “your man in the middle” and highlighted tax cuts that have been made while he’s been in office as well as some investments that have been made into local EMS and into the Lone Rock Bridge, which opened this year after two years of construction. 

In Allbaugh’s opinion, Jacobson’s campaign should focus on local issues that Marklein has had some say over. He noted the closure of the UW-Platteville Richland Center campus and the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County campus that have happened while Marklein has chaired the Joint Finance Committee as well as the struggle that public schools in the district have had. 

“I think she’s a super strong candidate. She’s affable. She is enormously more likable and connects to people better than Howard Marklein, and I would if I were advising them, which I’m not, I would lean into that,” Allbaugh said. “Be authentic instead of listening to consultants with boilerplate things that they’re using in the other races. It doesn’t seem like a smart use of money when there are so many more easily understood issues that are particular to the 17th Senate District.”

Jacobson’s economic statement of interest from 2022 and 2024 does not list any emerging market funds.

Her 2024 statement lists an investment in the American Funds The New Economy Fund. According to the Capital Group website, it is mainly invested in the U.S. though it has a mix of investments abroad. About 15% of the fund is in Asia, including China.

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.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is challenging state laws that restrict abortion access, arguing they unconstitutionally infringe on Wisconsinites’ right to “liberty and bodily autonomy.” 

Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Wisconsin, said during a virtual press conference Thursday that the case seeks to address a “powerful promise” in the state Constitution. The Wisconsin Constitution states that “all people are born equally free and independent and possess inherent rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The organization is seeking to establish a constitutional right to abortion with the suit. 

The lawsuit was filed Thursday by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in Dane County Circuit Court on behalf of its staff and patients against Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, the state Medical Examining Board and the Board of Nursing. 

It challenges two restrictions in Wisconsin law: one that requires that only physicians provide abortion care and one that requires patients to wait 24 hours between a consultation appointment with a physician and an abortion appointment with the same physician. 

“In this case, we ask our Court to recognize what we believe that promise means — that our constitutional freedom includes the ability to make deeply personal decisions about our reproductive healthcare without unnecessary government interference,” Atkinson said. 

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, access to abortion has been in flux in Wisconsin. Planned Parenthood first ceased providing abortion services due to an 1849 law interpreted as a near-total abortion ban that was later declared invalid by the state Supreme Court. It again paused abortion services in Wisconsin due to federal changes included in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” law, though it has since resumed those services. 

“Whether you can receive healthcare shouldn’t depend on what happened in court that morning. It shouldn’t depend on whether your appointment happens to fall before or after the latest political fight,” Atkinson said. “We cannot continue allowing access to essential healthcare to be this fragile, and that’s why today isn’t simply about defending what we have, but about moving forward… There’s an entire generation of young people growing up who have never experienced reproductive freedom that many of us once took for granted. We have an opportunity to change that trajectory.” 

This is not the first time Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has sued to establish a constitutional right to abortion. 

It previously sued to establish a constitutional right to abortion in a challenge to the 1849 law.  The case was dismissed by the state Supreme Court after it overturned the 1849 law in a different lawsuit on the basis that the law was invalid due to subsequent laws that had been passed to regulate abortion, including the ones now being challenged.

“None of our courts have decided whether or not the Wisconsin Constitution, in fact, protects this fundamental freedom,” Atkinson said. “We believe it does.”

The new lawsuit argues the restrictions unconstitutionally limit access to healthcare. 

“Through this case, we are asking Wisconsin courts to recognize that these restrictions conflict with the freedoms and protections guaranteed to each of us under our state’s Constitution, and if we are successful, this will be a generational step forward for reproductive freedom in Wisconsin,” Atkinson said. 

There are a handful of state laws that require a physician to provide abortion care including one that says it is a Class I felony for anyone who is not a physician to perform an abortion. Atkinson said there are other healthcare providers who could safely provide abortions including advanced practice nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives. 

The 24-hour waiting period, which requires a delay between a face-to-face consultation with a physician and the induction of an abortion, was implemented in 1996 under a law signed by Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Allison Linton, a board-certified OB-GYN, the Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and plaintiff in the lawsuit, said during the press conference that the restrictions may be presented as medically necessary, but they are not and can be a hindrance to patients accessing care. She said she sees patients every week who struggle to make time for two separate trips to the office for care. 

“They tell us, ‘I don’t have another sick day. I just started this job. I’m afraid I could lose my job if I ask for more time off. I don’t have someone who can watch my children again. I have to get home,’” Linton said, adding that she has cared this week for patients who traveled from Texas and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “These burdens fall especially hard on people who already face barriers to healthcare — people who work hourly jobs, people with limited financial resources, parents who need childcare and patients who have to travel long distances to reach us.” 

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has three clinics in the state that provide abortion services — in Milwaukee, Madison and Sheboygan. According to the complaint, Planned Parenthood sees patients five days a week at its Madison and Milwaukee centers. However, due to restrictions that require patients to undergo a physical exam and ultrasound, receive information and provide consent, the facilities only offer medication and procedural abortions two to three days per week on average. The Sheboygan location provides a limited number of medication abortion appointments about one day a week.

Michelle Velasquez, the chief strategy officer for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said a successful lawsuit would not necessarily mean there would be no limits on abortion access in the state. 

“Many other states have state-recognized constitutional rights,” Velasquez said. “We see those states still involved in litigation as their state legislatures pass different laws related to abortion, and so the limits of that constitutional right would very much still be in play and dependent on the type of review that would be applied to this right, and then, of course, testing various laws that may be passed in the future up against that state constitutional right. I would anticipate that if the state courts in Wisconsin do in fact affirm that there is this fundamental right to bodily autonomy that an entire sort of new body of law will develop over time.”

The lawsuit comes as control of Wisconsin’s governor’s office and the Legislature is up for grabs, though Atkinson said the fact that it’s an election year did not play a role in the suit. 

“To have the elections be a calculus in when we file a lawsuit, just underscores how normalized it is to have abortion and politics mixed together. The reality is abortion is healthcare. People need access across the state, and for too long, women have had incredible barriers in the state of Wisconsin because of politics,” Atkinson said.

Wisconsin’s abortion laws could change depending on how the elections go. Democrats, if they gain control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office, hope to advance legislation that would roll back restrictions. 

One proposed bill from Democrats, which Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) recently promoted on X, would roll back a number of restrictions including the provider ban, the 24-hour waiting period, an ultrasound requirement for women seeking an abortion and healthcare coverage restrictions.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, celebrated the lawsuit in a statement, saying it is “a reminder that Wisconsin must elect a governor who will protect reproductive rights and keep politicians out of private medical decisions.”

A group of about 11 Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Lindee Brill (R-Sheboygan Falls), Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Birchwood) and Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee), condemned the lawsuit in a statement, saying that it is an attempt to “usurp the duty” of the state Legislature. 

“If pro-abortion radicals want to change the law in Wisconsin, they should go through the legislative process,” the lawmakers said. “However, Planned Parenthood has not deigned to proceed that way due to their impatience and desperate urge to encourage a culture of death.” 

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, said in a statement that he would “uphold Wisconsin’s current laws” if elected. Tiffany previously supported legislation to restrict abortion access during his time in the state Legislature and in Congress. He voted in 2015 while in the state Senate for the state’s ban on abortion after 20 weeks. In Congress, Tiffany cosponsored a bill in 2023 that would have made it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

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.

A televised debate between gubernatorial candidates David Crowley and Tom Tiffany has been set for Wednesday, Oct 21. The one-hour debate will be held on the Marquette University campus without a live audience at 7 p.m. two weeks ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. 

The Democratic Milwaukee County executive and Republican congressman from the Northwoods are vying in the first open race since 2010 to become the state’s next governor. WISN-12 reporters Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan will moderate the debate, which will cover topics including cost of living, taxes, immigration enforcement, data centers and election security.

It will be streamed on the WISN website and streaming app and also be made available statewide on its partner stations in Green Bay (WBAY), Madison (WKOW), Wausau (WAOW), Eau Claire (WQOW) and La Crosse (WXOW). 

The candidates have been invited to two other debates including one hosted by WTMJ-TV on Oct. 8 and one hosted by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Oct. 9. The candidates have not agreed to participate in those.

The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee approved the release of nearly $10 million in PFAS settlement funds to the Department of Natural Resources Tuesday, concluding a years-long process to offer help to residents of Marinette County whose drinking water was contaminated with PFAS chemicals

In June 2026, the Marinette County Circuit Court approved a settlement in the State of Wisconsin v. Tyco Fire Products LP. The agreement marked one of the first efforts to hold polluters accountable for PFAS “forever chemical” contamination in Marinette. 

Under the settlement, Tyco agreed to provide safe drinking water to households including by installing new deep wells, maintaining associated treatment of new and existing wells and providing bottled water or treatment to households without a deep well. 

Tyco also agreed to provide more than $9.9 million to the state’s PFAS fund, which was established in the state’s 2023-25 budget and holds funding for the mitigation of PFAS contamination. The settlement did not specify how the funds should be used, but a legislative committee had to sign off before the DNR could use them. 

The DNR held two listening sessions in Marinette to get input on how to use the settlement money and used the feedback to come up with a plan, which includes using the funds for activities that provide safe drinking water and health information to impacted residents.

Settlement money in the state of Wisconsin has to be approved for use by the Joint Finance Committee under state law. Gov. Tony Evers had urged the budget committee last month to release the funds so they could be put to use as soon as possible. 

“I’m glad that these critical investments will be getting out the door to get PFAS out of our water for good and ensure every Wisconsinite has access to clean, safe drinking water,” Evers said in a statement after the committee voted. “This is a big step in the right direction, and the DNR will continue to collaborate with local leaders and communities to ensure we get these funds out the door and to the impacted communities to address their most urgent needs in a timely fashion.”

The committee unanimously approved the release of the funds to the DNR’s general program operations appropriation in 2026-27 to provide PFAS-free drinking water and health information to residents of the City of Marinette and the Town of Peshtigo affected by PFAS contamination. 

The transfer of the funds to the general operations will allow for “expeditious allocation of the settlement funds to the impacted community in accordance with preferences expressed by local residents,” according to papers prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. 

Between $6 million and $9.2 million, or about 90% of the funds, will be used to provide safe drinking water to owners of private wells contaminated by PFAS. Up to $1 million will be used for private well testing, up to $7 million will be used for deep well installation and up to $1.2 million will be used for in-home PFAS treatment installation. Some of the funds will also be used for long-term operations and maintenance, though that cost is to be determined. 

Between $20,000 and $50,000 will be used to offer blood serum testing for PFAS to residents of the city of Marinette. 

Between $500,000 and $750,000 will be used to support a community liaison consultant to help residents access settlement funds. Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Gillett), who voted for the release of the funds, expressed concerns about the use of funds for that purpose. 

“We’re talking about 500 people, and we’re going to be paying upwards of that amount to essentially fill out your forms,” Wimberger said. “The bulk of what you’re doing is great. You got to deal with these immediate problems with the wells which it focuses on, but there are also long-term problems up there, which is keeping biosolids out of the environment to begin with.” 

Biosolids are the byproducts of municipal wastewater treatment utilities that are sold or given away to farms to be used as fertilizer. The DNR grants permits that allow for the spreading of them, but biosolids from places with PFAS contamination in the water are contaminated and could pollute the water near the field where they’re spread. 

As Evers and lawmakers, including Wimberger, have worked on PFAS issues, Wimberger expressed concerns about farmers being held responsible for spreading PFAS through contaminated biosolids. The issue created gridlock that held up funding to address PFAS contamination for years. 

“I hope that in the future, you at least focus a little bit on maybe some treatment plants located at the landfill site, so it doesn’t get into the municipal treatment facilities and onto our farms,” Wimberger added.

Wisconsin lawmakers who have sought to address child safety online told the Wisconsin Examiner on Thursday that a settlement worth up to $17.1 billion between the owner of Facebook and Instagram and most states in the U.S. is a win, but that it leaves a lot to be done to protect kids.

Wisconsin was one of 47 states involved in a lawsuit, filed in 2023 against Meta, that alleged that the social media giant purposely designed its platforms with addictive features, knew it was exposing children to serious mental harms and intentionally misled the public about the safety of those platforms. 

Wisconsin is set to receive between $219 million and $313 million from the settlement, depending on whether other social media companies agree to the terms. The company in its settlement did not admit to wrongdoing.

For years, concerns about the safety of children online and efforts to protect their mental and physical health have been bubbling up. Wisconsin has adopted laws to ban cellphones during class time and recently expanded its Wisconsin’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Rep. Lindee Brill (R-Sheboygan Falls) and Rep. Renuka Mayadev (D-Madison) were part of a group of lawmakers tasked with studying ways the state could protect children online during the 2025-26 legislative session. The task force resulted in an array of proposed bills aimed at addressing the issue, though many — including barring addictive features online for young users, age verification requirements, prohibition against chatbots for children without safety features and mental health warning on social media — did not become law.

“It’s unfortunate that it got to the point that we’ve seen children lose their lives, go through mental health situations,” Brill said. “I believe these platforms understood what they were doing was damaging to children, so while it’s a win, it’s unfortunate that we had to reach a settlement to get this taken care of when this wasn’t addressed previously.”

Mayadev said Meta “capitulated” with the settlement and that “it’s about time” something was done.  

“Young people are feeling more than ever lonely, have had increased suicide ideation, have had more anxiety and eating disorders. We’ve just seen the tremendous detrimental effects of social media,” Mayadev said. 

Both lawmakers said that the settlement is just a start.

During a Wednesday press conference, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said the settlement is the largest Big Tech settlement in the history of the country and the largest state consumer protection settlement since the settlements with Big Tobacco in the 1990s. 

According to the New York Times, the Meta settlement’s base cost will be $12 billion, but an additional $5 billion will be paid by Meta if other social media companies also agree to pay in $5 billion. The company has also agreed to the two-hour limit on screen time for children, though it could be decreased to a one-hour limit if other companies agree to the same.

Kaul said the next step is to determine where the funding should go. 

“What I’m going to be doing is everything I can to put these funds toward keeping kids safe in Wisconsin,” Kaul said. The funds, he added, could go towards initiatives such as crisis intervention services, after-school programming and digital wellness use and mental health programming.

Brill noted that while the settlement seems like a lot of money, it is only a small portion of what the multi-trillion dollar company brings in each year.

“I don’t think we can put a worth on the number of children and the damage it’s caused, so while we should celebrate it, I think it’s a cautious celebration because there’s so much work to do and so much loss that came in the meantime,” Brill said. 

Brill and Mayadev said they’d both like lawmakers to be involved in conversations over where the funds are allocated.

Kaul said the most important piece of the settlement is the sweeping safety changes Meta has agreed to make to its platforms. 

“I hope they can set a new standard for the entire industry so that kids who are using social media can stay safe and remain healthy as they’re online,” Kaul said. 

Changes include stronger age verification of users between the ages of 13 and 17, mandatory pauses at 15 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes, limiting screen time for teenagers up to 17 for two hours a day, restrictions on access at night and an elimination of push notifications during school hours. 

“We’re gonna see stronger, more friendly, user-friendly parental controls in place as well, so parents are going to be able more easily to play a larger role in limiting their kids’ use of these platforms,” Kaul said. Beauty filters — which distort a user’s face in real time to change its shape or add makeup — will also be limited. 

Brill said she thinks a key part of the settlement is that the company appears to be keeping “parents in the driver’s seat .” She said she will be interested to see whether the other companies agree, however. Some of the work, she said, will be continuing to push for state-level laws that can address the issue, which she described as nonpartisan. Brill does not face a challenger in her bid for reelection this year. 

“I met some of the families who have had things happen with their children, and it’s absolutely devastating, and it doesn’t matter which way your house votes; it affects everybody,” Brill said. “We’re just seeing the mental health of our state and our children, being so affected by this, so my hope is we can make a smart decision with [the settlement funds], and that we can, as a Legislature, continue to move forward and introduce great legislation to a governor’s desk that’s willing to work with us on it.”

Mayadev said she doesn’t think  the settlement’s guardrails are sufficient.

“Why would we trust the company who has put our children in harm’s way to come up with the solution to protect them?” she said. “No parent — and I’m a parent — should feel like ‘OK, well now let me just hand over the phone and the social media apps because Meta and the other big tech CEOs are gonna care for my children.’”

Mayadev said that ideally regulations on companies would be put in place on a federal level. She said legislation would ensure it is the company’s obligation to make sure platforms are safe rather than burdening parents. She said that “children are bright” and can likely find ways around some of the changes that are being discussed. 

“At the federal level, we need our congressional folks to act because then we’d have uniform guardrails, guidelines for everybody in the United States to adhere to and to protect children,” Mayadev said. “If Congress continues not to act, we’re going to have to do it at the state level, and then what the problem with that is, it’s piecemeal. What we do is different than Minnesota, which is different than Michigan or Ohio.” 

The state of Wisconsin collected $23.13 billion in taxes in the 2025-25 fiscal year, a 3.4% increase from the prior year, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the Department of Revenue.

The amount collected was $450.8 million above the $22.6 billion that the DOR projected the state would collect earlier this year, a 2% gain. 

The state brought in $231.3 million more than expected in income taxes as well as $79.9 million more than expected in the general sales and use tax and $83.9 million more than expected in the corporate income tax. 

The higher than projected revenue could grow the state’s budget surplus to over $3 billion in a critical election year and ahead of the next state budget process. Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated in January that the state would finish the 2025-27 biennium with a nearly $2.5 billion surplus. 

State Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), who co-chairs the Joint Finance Committee, said in a statement that he is “not surprised” by the latest numbers. 

“I have been watching the revenue numbers each month and they were indicating we would have a larger surplus than originally thought,” he said, adding that he is disappointed lawmakers could not pass a bipartisan agreement negotiated by Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers earlier this year. 

Following the initial projection, Evers and GOP lawmakers negotiated a $1.8 billion school funding and tax cut deal that would have provided additional special education funding to schools, property tax relief through the school tax credit, $600 rebate checks and the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime. The deal failed in the state Senate in May.

“Our families and taxpayers could use the relief now,” Marklein said.

Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, said in a statement that he would be open to returning to session to do something with the surplus soon.

“If  we can reach an agreement that delivers meaningful tax relief for Wisconsin families and can pass both houses, I’m ready to get it done,” he said. 

Without further action, the surplus will be dealt with by the next governor and state Legislature. Control of both are up for grabs in November. 

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, said in a post on social media that the growth in the state’s budget surplus is a sign that Wisconsin residents are being overtaxed. He claimed that his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, would keep the surplus in Madison and “make government bigger.” 

“I’ll send every dollar of the surplus back to you and deliver permanent tax relief for working families,” Tiffany said. Tiffany lobbied Republicans in the state Senate to vote against the earlier deal, which contributed to its defeat.

Crowley said in a statement about the surplus that he would “consider the long-term investments we can make and work with the legislature to bring costs down for all Wisconsinites.” 

“What I won’t do is defund our schools, our healthcare system, or the basic services working families rely on like Congressman Tom Tiffany has done his entire political career,” he said.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley polled slightly ahead of Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in the first Marquette Law School poll conducted since the primary earlier this month. The poll results were released Wednesday.

The poll was conducted from Aug. 12, the day after the primary, through Aug. 20. Surveyors interviewed 891 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points. The likely voter sample was 738, with a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

With less than three months until the midterm election Nov. 3, the candidates have been criss-crossing the state to get their names out to voters and win over support. 

 Crowley pulled in support from 49% of  likely Wisconsin voters, while Tiffany had 44%; another 7% of likely voters said they were undecided. Among registered voters, Crowley and Tiffany were tied at 44%.

The poll found a Democratic advantage among those who are certain that they’ll vote in November, with  84% of Democrats reporting they were certain compared with 82% of Republicans.

“You could either come away with a modest Crowley advantage, by about five points, or a dead tie, depending on whether you’re looking at everybody that’s registered to vote or looking at those absolutely certain to vote,” poll director Charles Franklin said.

The poll showed that 98% of likely voters who were Democrats planned to vote for Crowley, while 91% of likely Republican voters said they planned to vote for Tiffany. 

The biggest percentage of undecided voters were independents: 30% of independents who said they were likely to vote were undecided. Among registered voters, undecided independent voters jumped to 47%.

Among likely voters, Crowley had an advantage with independent voters. About 55% said they supported him, while 16% said they would support Tiffany.

Following the divisive and chaotic primary campaign, Crowley called on Democrats to unify to win in November and campaigned with state Rep. Francesca Hong, who finished a close second in the primary.  

“It’s interesting that the Democrats do appear to be completely unified behind their candidate and Republicans, quite unified, but not quite as much as Democrats,” Franklin said. 

Tiffany and Crowley will be working to win over undecided voters and flip people to support them over the next 10 weeks, especially as Wisconsin’s statewide races are typically decided by close margins. In 2018, Gov. Tony Evers defeated Gov. Scott Walker by about 30,000 votes.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley told reporters Tuesday in Madison that he would not vote for a change in the state Constitution to prohibit using the partial veto to create or increase a tax or fee. 

Voters in November will have the final say on the constitutional amendment proposal that could further limit Wisconsin’s uniquely strong executive partial veto power. The proposal was introduced in reaction to Gov. Tony Evers’ 2023 state budget partial veto that extended annual school revenue limit increases for 400 years.

The Milwaukee County executive, who has won the endorsement of Evers, said he would “absolutely not” vote for the amendment. He said that what Republicans in the Legislature are “trying to do is just rig the system.”

The partial veto power has been a recurring issue throughout the Evers’ two terms in office. He often used it in creative ways to shape policy sent to him by Republican lawmakers, who in return worked painstakingly to make their legislation veto-proof. 

In 2023, Republicans were shocked to find that Evers had used the power on the state budget to increase school districts’ ability to raise property taxes. Republicans and their allies have often referred to the governor’s action as implementing a “400-year tax increase,” though the veto did not automatically mean taxes would increase. The increase in revenue limits allows schools the option to bring in additional revenue through property taxes or state revenue, though Republicans have declined to provide funds to backfill the revenue limit increases. School boards still have to opt in to increase property taxes. 

That use of the veto pen was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2025 as constitutional, which led to Republicans’ decision to put the issue up to voters. Constitutional amendment proposals in Wisconsin must pass two consecutive sessions of the state Legislature before they go to voters for the final say. 

Crowley, who previously served in the state Assembly while Democrats held a minority of seats, noted his time in the state Legislature.

“What I’ve seen from the Republican-controlled legislatures is that, anytime that there’s a stop gap on all the policies, dangerous policies, that they want to push through, they want to eliminate the power of the governor,” Crowley said. 

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, has made repealing the veto alongside freezing property taxes a central promise of his campaign. It was one of the points in his housing plan and one of the points of his affordability plan released on Tuesday. 

Tiffany said in a statement about his plan that “Wisconsin families work hard for every dollar they earn, but government at every level keeps taking more” and that “property taxes are too high, utility bills have soared and everyday purchases cost more.” He criticized Crowley for supporting a sales tax increase in Milwaukee, which was implemented to help address financial challenges in the state’s largest county, and recent property tax increases in the county. 

Tiffany told the Wisconsin Examiner in a statement that he plans to vote for the constitutional amendment and promised not to use the veto pen to increase taxes or fees.

“No governor should have the power to raise your taxes with the stroke of a pen,” Tiffany said in a statement. “David Crowley opposes this referendum because he wants the authority to raise taxes on Wisconsin families statewide, and that should scare every taxpayer who has paid attention to his record in Milwaukee County. Crowley has never met a tax hike he didn’t like, and now he wants a veto pen to make it even easier to take more of your money. We’ve already seen the damage this kind of unchecked power can do. It’s how Wisconsin got stuck with a 400-year property tax increase.”

Crowley said Tiffany has “done absolutely nothing to lower costs here in the state of Wisconsin.” 

“[Tiffany] has not grown a backbone. He has not stood up to this particular president, and he hasn’t authored one particular bill that’s actually helping out Wisconsinites. Unfortunately, he has been carrying the water of Donald Trump,” Crowley said. 

Crowley also said he would use the partial veto power as governor to ensure that “there’s no harm being placed or forced on Wisconsinites.” 

If passed, this would not be the first time the Wisconsin executive veto power has been restricted. During his first term in office, the state Supreme Court limited  the governor’s veto power after a lawsuit challenging his vetoes on the 2019 state budget.

The executive partial veto power has also been previously been restricted through constitutional amendments. In 1990, voters approved prohibiting the “Vanna White” veto, eliminating single letters within words, and in 2008, voters approved eliminating the “Frankenstein veto” — the ability for governors to create new sentences by combining parts of two or more sentences. 

Voters will see the question on their ballots on Nov. 3: “Shall section 10 (1) (c) of article V of the constitution be amended to prohibit the governor, in exercising his or her partial veto authority, from creating or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee?”

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comment from U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany. 

Out of the 98 state legislative bodies across the U.S., the Wisconsin Senate has been deemed the “most flippable” by Wisconsin Democrats. Still, Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) told the Wisconsin Examiner that he sees a definite path for Republicans to maintain their majority.

“We have our chessboard fully laid out. I don’t think there’s any question that, you know, this cycle, it seems as though our backs are against the wall,” Testin said. 

Testin is leading the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate (CERS), which is the campaign arm of the Senate Republican caucus, as Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) decided to retire this year. 

Senate Republicans currently have an 18-seat majority, meaning that they only have room to lose one seat this year. Four seats have been identified by Democrats and Republicans as essential to determining control:

• Senate District 5: covering Wauwatosa and other parts of Milwaukee County. State Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) and Republican Mike Roberts are vying for the seat that is currently represented by Sen. Rob Hutton, who opted not to run for reelection. 
• Senate District 17: A southwest district covering Iowa, Lafayette, Green, Crawford and Grant counties as well as parts of Dane County. Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) faces a challenge from Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon). 
• Senate District 21: Incumbent Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) is retiring this year, leaving open the southeast district that includes part of Racine and Milwaukee Counties. Democrat Trevor Jung, the former Racine transit and mobility director, is running against Republican businessman Jim Croft.
• Senate District 31: Sen Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) is seeking another term in office and faces a challenge from Republican Michele Magadance Skinner, an Eau Claire County board member. The district covers Eau Claire County and parts of Dunn, Trempealeau and Chippewa counties.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) expressed confidence in her party’s effort to take over the chamber during a press conference after the August primary, saying that Senate Democrats flipped four seats in 2024 and her caucus expects to do the same this year. “I think we’re going to be able to do it with David Crowley leading the way,” she said. 

There are a few factors that have contributed to Democrats’ confidence. 

The midterm election environment is expected to be friendlier to Democrats with a Republican in the White House, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. President Donald Trump’s popularity has steadily declined in Wisconsin since he took office for his second term, according to Marquette Law School polling. 

A recent Marquette poll found that 46% of Wisconsin voters said they would vote for Democrats in legislative races, while 42% said they’d vote for Republicans. The survey did not deliver detailed information on specific districts.

Democrats also got to work early, immediately after the state budget was finished last year, hoping to take advantage of new, more favorable voting maps.

“We had these maps early,” Hesselbein said. As a result, campaigns got started sooner than they had in past years.

Senate Democrats are targeting two districts that went for Trump in 2024. Democrat Charly Ray and Republican Erik Severson are competing in Senate District 25, an open district that encompasses Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Washburn, Iron, Sawyer, Polk and Burnett Counties. In Senate District 29, which includes Marathon, Wood, Portage and Waupaca Counties, Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee), who was elected to the seat in 2022, is facing a challenge from Democrat Gillian Battino, a retired radiologist. 

Republicans didn’t know until this year how many of their incumbents would run for reelection — one-third of the caucus ended up deciding to retire including Sen. Van Wanggaard in SD 21, Sen. Rob Hutton in SD 5 and Sen. Jesse James, who had previously planned to challenge Smith. 

Testin said the environment around the races “means we have to work overtime between now and November to help our candidates get across the finish line and do what we can to contrast our candidates versus the Democrats in the key races.”

Testin said this may be the year that not having incumbents in a seat could turn into an advantage, noting that there’s been “sort of an incumbency malaise that we’ve seen in the electorate” and Republican Senate candidates are being encouraged to stay “hyper focused on local and state issues”, including affordability issues and lowering property taxes, and to avoid “getting wrapped into the national narratives of what’s happening out in D.C.”  He said their candidates are relying on a good “ground game” to protect their seats and candidates have strict metrics for doorknocking and are on track to get to 15,000 to 20,000 doors in the key seats. 

“So far our candidates have done exactly that,” Testin said. 

“We have our budget set for our key races,” Testin added, noting that it could be anywhere from $1.5 million to $2.5 million allocated to the competitive seats. “Based on what we’re able to raise, we are going to make adjustments on the fly as needed, and as things sort of evolve on the ground and things change as they always do in campaigns, you have to be nimble and flexible.”

According to July reports, the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate has raised nearly $5 million this year and had $5.3 million on hand. The bulk of that fundraising came from billionaires Diane Hendricks and Elizabeth Uihlein, who each gave $2 million.

Testin said he is proud that the Republicans have been able to outraise Democrats so far and they are running ahead of where they were in 2024 when it comes to fundraising, but he is expecting money to flood into the state now that the primary is over. 

“These races are expensive. It costs a lot of money to get our candidates’ message out there, to get them up on air to do digital ads, radio, direct mail, and that’s just the sad reality,” Testin said. 

When it come to the Uihleins and Hendricks, he said they’ve been strong supporters of the caucus and “despite the criticism leveled against those individuals, what never gets a light shined onto it is the money that comes in from states like Illinois, New York, California, billionaires and multi-and mega-millionaires from the liberal elite who have flooded Democrat coffers for years.”

The Republican Senate committee is also working closely with its Assembly counterpart, which is being led by Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August: “I often joke that — we speak on the phone more often than we speak to anyone else,” Testin said.

“This is what’s sort of unique, as opposed to previous cycles, where we have historically sort of operated in our own silos,” Testin said. “We are working hand in hand to ensure that there is no daylight between us,” he said, including “coordinating as best that we can with their candidates in the key seats that overlap ours.” 

Senate Democrats’ recently filed a lawsuit against  Skinner, who is running in Eau Claire, over questions related to her residency, attempting to get her removed from the ballot in November.

The effort was blocked by a Dane County judge this week. State Senate Democratic Committee Executive Director Andrew Whitley said in a statement that questions still remained, but the issue would be left up to voters. 

Testin said ahead of the hearing that the effort smelled of “desperation.”

“You would think if they would spend more time propping up their own candidate and his record and track record, that they’d be able to highlight that. But they haven’t been able to,” Testin said. “From our standpoint, we are in the driver’s seat between now and Nov. 3.”

The Wisconsin governor’s race is expected to have some influence on downballot races. Testin said Republicans were “salivating” at the prospect of running against State Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, who narrowly lost the primary to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Her loss, Testin said, makes the job of Republicans a little bit harder.

Crowley faces Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

“Full disclosure, I mean, I consider David Crowley a friend of mine,” Testin said, adding that they were freshmen in the state Legislature at the same time. “Obviously, I don’t agree with him politically.” 

Testin said Crowley will have to grapple with controversies during his tenure as Milwaukee county executive, including a lapse in an employee health insurance contract and projected future budget deficits. He also mentioned comments that Crowley made minimizing his differences from Hong. 

“I think that’s going to be a real problem for them because the Democrats in these key seats are going to have to answer for some of those policy positions,” Testin said, citing “some of these radical policies that have been pushed by the DSA.”

Testin said a potential Crowley governorship is part of the reason it’s crucial that Republicans hang onto the state Senate. 

“It’s so crucial and important that, at the very least, if Tom Tiffany were to fall short in his bid for governor — which I don’t think he will — that at the very least, that we have a backstop in the state Senate as well as the state Assembly, to have a counterbalance to any of the proposals that would come out that administration,” Testin said.

A Dane County judge denied Wisconsin Senate Democrats’ request Thursday that Michele Magadance Skinner, a Republican state Senate candidate and Eau Claire County Board member, be tossed off the November ballot.

Skinner, who currently serves as an Eau Claire County Board member, is running against Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) for Senate District 31, a key seat that will help determine control of the Senate next year. 

The lawsuit was filed against Skinner this week by the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee (SSDC), the campaign arm of the Senate Democratic caucus, based on questions about her residency. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, which had previously dismissed a complaint about Skinner, was also a defendant in the suit. 

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost said at the close of the hearing he would deny the temporary injunction as the plaintiffs had not provided sufficient evidence that Skinner is not a Wisconsin resident.

“This does appear likely to be her primary residence,” Frost said, “which would mean that… she is eligible to vote here and therefore eligible to run.” 

David Hollander, the attorney for the SSDC, and Matthew Fernholz, Skinner’s attorney, questioned the state Senate candidate on a number of issues, including tax records, homes in Georgia and Florida, and voting records.

Skinner defended her status as a Wisconsin resident, detailing her history in the state from birth through school and throughout her career. She said that she moved around while working as a TV reporter in Georgia and Minnesota before becoming a founder of a recruitment firm after moving back to Wisconsin. 

Skinner said she has lived primarily in Altoona since 2000 with one exception. She described her current residency across the year as “seven months in Wisconsin, in Altoona, and five months elsewhere.” The five months, she said, is split between Florida and Georgia. 

“It goes back and forth and is really dictated by events, weddings, family events, birthdays, holidays,” she said. 

The exception Skinner referred to was when she registered to vote on Nov. 18, 2021 in Georgia and voted on Jan. 5, 2021 in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections. She said that the election was “in the news.”

“I’m a former journalist. People were talking about it,” she said. 

Skinner said she was considering changing her residency due to COVID-19 pandemic: “The home there is bigger, has a larger yard. It’s more rural and Dawson County afforded more ability to be outside and Wisconsin at that time had some pretty stringent COVID restrictions, so we went down to Georgia.”

Skinner said that she didn’t ultimately switch her residence from Wisconsin to Georgia because COVID restrictions were eased in 2022, and she said that she has voted in Wisconsin elections consistently since 2022. She was elected to the Eau Claire County Board in April 2024. She also ran a failed campaign in 2024 challenging state Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) for her seat in the Wisconsin Assembly.

“Georgia was my COVID home. Wisconsin has always been and will be my other home,” Skinner said.

Skinner also denied that she is the owner of a home in Dawsonville, Georgia or in Florida. She said both are owned by her husband. 

“My name is not on the deed. His name is on the deed only,” Skinner said. “I’m his wife… I have access to it and I keep some of my stuff there. It’s my husband’s home and I do have a key.” 

Skinner was also questioned on tax credit claims. She claimed a Wisconsin lottery and gaming tax credit in 2020, right before registering to vote in Georgia. Her husband claimed a homestead property in Georgia in 2025, which Hollander argued could only be claimed if Georgia was the principal residence for both him and Skinner.

Hollander argued after the close of questioning that Skinner had not shown her Wisconsin residency. 

“There’s nothing before you, your honor, other than ‘I say I’m a Wisconsin resident, and so therefore, I’m a Wisconsin resident. It’s just her word,” Hollander said, adding that if he were defending his own residency he would provide a lease, mortgage, utility bills, public library card or other documents. “We live in this digital world where it’s really easy to find things that have your address on it.” 

Fernholz, Skinner’s attorney, noted that the lawsuit was aimed to “disenfranchise one of the two major political parties after the primary.” He noted that after the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s deadline to finalize the ballots has passed there is no opportunity for Republicans to put another candidate on the ballot. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is required to certify the list of candidates to appear on the general election ballot “no later than the 4th Tuesday in August,” which would be Aug. 25. In the lawsuit, the SSDC argued the Court could order Skinner be removed from the ballot as late as Sep. 2. 

Frost cut Fernholz off before he finished his arguments to say he’d be denying the request. 

“Skinner, not unlike many Wisconsin residents in their retirement years, is a multi-state person, meaning that she spends winters outside of the cold and the snow of Wisconsin,” Frost said. 

Frost said the evidence seems to show that “Skinner consistently has elected and has the intent that Wisconsin is her residence. That her husband has consistently said Georgia is his residence doesn’t change that,” Frost said.

“It might make her likely to have questions asked about her property taxes or her husband to have questions asked about his,” he said, adding that that was not the issue at hand. 

When it came to her voting records, Frost said he did “think it’s a little suspicious.”

“Perhaps she faked being a Georgia resident for purposes of voting in a unique election after having just voted in Wisconsin,” Frost said. “But there’s no evidence to contradict what she said, which is it was that period of COVID.”

Andrew Whitley, the executive director of the SSDC, said in a statement that the group disagreed with Frost’s decision and has questions about whether the couple completed their taxes properly,  but he said the decision whether Skinner should serve in the state Senate is now up to voters. 

“Now it’s up to the voters to decide – someone who carelessly maneuvers around the law or a lifelong public servant who has fought his entire career to lower costs, fight corruption, and prioritize working families. The choice is easy,” Whitley said.

Michele Magadance Skinner issued a statement after the ruling: “Today’s ruling in Dane County court was a testament to the important role the justice system plays in our democratic republic. I am thankful that the judge saw through the political games and blatantly false smear campaign conducted by Jeff Smith and his liberal allies. Tactics by Mr. Smith and SSDC have proven this adage to be true: ‘never wrestle with pigs – they have fun and you get dirty.’”