Since launching their campaigns for Wisconsin governor, both Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley have touted the concept of local control.
Each argues that communities deserve “a seat at the table” in matters of commercial and industrial land use, but their records as public servants illustrate contrasts about when competing local and state interests should carry the day.
“I want to get Madison out of the way where it makes sense,” Tiffany told attendees of the annual Wisconsin Counties Association conference in September. “Local officials understand their communities, and state government should be working with them rather than creating additional obstacles.”
Yet Tiffany is an architect of some of the most consequential environmental regulatory rewriting of the past 15 years, stripping municipalities of several powers to regulate shoreland development and mining in their own backyards.
Crowley has worked with the state to address Milwaukee County’s budget issues. Just a few years ago, Milwaukee County was heading for a “fiscal cliff,” the culmination of a decades-long pension scandal.
Without state intervention and the “tools to raise additional revenue and fund local priorities,” the county would face “tough decisions,” Crowley wrote in 2022. The following year, the Legislature authorized Milwaukee County to increase its local sales tax rate by almost half a percentage point.
Neither candidate has offered many specifics in their campaign pitches, and neither campaign responded to requests for comment.
But their policymaking records offer some clues.
During Tiffany’s time in the Wisconsin Legislature and Congress, he has conveyed a general desire to get the state and federal government “out of the way” of local decision-making. Crowley’s time as a county executive and state Assembly member highlights his support for public spending on property development and the creation of minimum environmental standards to protect public health.
Local control and mining operations
Crowley has argued for “a case-by-case” treatment of mining projects without staking a claim over the industry’s merits.
Still, he continues to push for amassing consensus and would not rule out allowing new mining permits before consulting with local communities.
In January, when a PBS reporter asked him to explain how he would respond to new mining permit requests, Crowley said he would convene a work group of experts to obtain the best information possible.
“It’s about working with the local municipalities, working with the groups and the stakeholders that are on the ground,” he said.
Comparatively, Tiffany’s time in the Wisconsin Senate from 2013 through 2020 saw him take up the mantle of getting the miner, emblazoned on the Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, back to work. He ushered in several bills intended to loosen restrictions that businesses said stymied economic growth.
The first of several successful proposals started with the 2013 reworking of the state’s iron mining law, which instructed regulators to start the mining permitting process on the presumption that some environmental damage to wetlands is a necessary operating condition of the industry.
Supporters maintained the reforms assured developers they could expect regulatory certainty and expeditious review of new projects.
A few years later, prompted by a bill Tiffany co-authored, the Legislature lifted the state’s moratorium on sulfide mining, which can release toxins, and stopped requiring companies to prove they could successfully operate and close sulfide mines elsewhere in the United States or Canada without polluting the environment.
Tiffany also sought to curb local authority too when regulations posed risks to obstructing economic development.
Two 2013 bills proposed restricting local governments’ ability to regulate nonmetallic mining, including frac sand operations, and would have prohibited them from creating water quality and air quality standards, permits, restrictions and monitoring requirements.
Tiffany told Wisconsin Watch at the time that some local units of government are “trying to establish mini-DNRs,” by conducting their own air and water testing. “That’s the purview of the state,” he said.
The contentious proposal didn’t make it to the chamber floor for a vote.
Local control and land acquisition
In 2015, Tiffany co-sponsored legislation that took the opposite view on local control in the context of land acquisition.
Republicans and Democrats have long clashed on how to finance the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program. The fund enables the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to purchase private land and easements for habitat preservation and recreation or issue grants to organizations or municipalities to do the same.
Both Tiffany and Crowley say they support allocating money for the program, but Tiffany has long expressed reservations about its focus on purchasing new property.
In 2015, Tiffany sought to curb state authority by requiring the Wisconsin DNR to obtain approval from every municipality and the county in which the property is located before acquiring new properties. The bill didn’t advance to a vote. Tiffany now says he would fund the program so long as the dollars maintain existing public lands.
Crowley has said repeatedly he supports strengthening the program, drawing parallels to his support for county lands.
In the last five Milwaukee County budget cycles, he recommended county leaders spend tens of millions of dollars on parks and trails, drainage infrastructure and waterfront protection.
In other environmental areas, Crowley also has reined in local control by creating baseline standards. As a state legislator, he backed bills that would have imposed statewide requirements for mandatory lead testing and inspections and restricted the ability of municipalities to privatize their public water or sewer utilities.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
For 26 years, Wisconsin’s Driftless Area was represented in Congress by a moderate Democrat. Through multiple presidencies, including President Donald Trump’s first administration, Ron Kind was considered to be one of the most bipartisan House members and was easily reelected.
Now the 3rd Congressional District is one of the biggest battlegrounds in the nation.
Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden was first elected in 2022 after Kind retired and has held the seat since. He’s now seeking a third term.
Van Orden has shown a fiery reputation in Congress, faced some controversies and been an ardent Trump supporter. But this will be his first election as an incumbent where the odds aren’t in the GOP’s favor, particularly with Trump’s approval rating polling at a historic low. Despite that, Van Orden has continued to align with the president throughout his reelection campaign.
Democrats, after losing the House in 2022, are heavily targeting the district. In a rematch, Democrat Rebecca Cooke is challenging Van Orden for the seat after losing by 3 points last election.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has put the 3rd District, along with the 1st in southeastern Wisconsin, on its “Red to Blue” list. The program provides candidates with organizational and fundraising support.
Kind, who has endorsed Cooke, told Wisconsin Watch he believes Van Orden “can’t afford to have any degree of separation” from Trump because the president is a large part of his political success. But in the current political climate, that could also be a liability for the 26-year Navy veteran.
“People are beginning to realize what this guy is all about back home and the fact that he’s not making their lives any easier by supporting the president’s policies,” Kind said.
Kind won some of his last few elections by substantial margins, winning by 13 points in 2014, unopposed in 2016 and almost 20 percentage points in 2018. In 2020, though, Kind defeated Van Orden by less than 3 points. In 2022, national Democrats weren’t targeting the open seat and canceled its ad spending for the district, according to WPR. That year, Van Orden defeated state Sen. Brad Pfaff by just under 4 percentage points.
Democratic polls show Cooke ahead of Van Orden by up to 4 points. A Republican poll in September showed Van Orden leading by 5 points.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political science professor Anthony Chergosky said GOP candidates faced a strategic choice with their campaigns this year.
“Are they going to double down on Trumpism in a bid to motivate the president’s supporters, or are they going to try to open up some daylight between them and the president?” Chergosky said.
Van Orden’s strategy of sticking with Trump, Chergosky said, is likely a move to lean into the president’s heavy supporters to carry him to reelection. He said many voters were highly motivated in 2016, 2020 and 2024 simply because Trump’s name was on the ballot, but those same voters didn’t turn out as much when Trump wasn’t on the ballot. Over 95,000 more votes were cast in the race for the 3rd Congressional District in the 2024 presidential election than in the 2022 midterm.
The district voted for Trump all three times he ran, even when Kind won in 2016 and 2020, so Van Orden’s presidential ties might help bring out those voters again.
“There’s something that’s sorely lacking in this political business and it’s loyalty,” Van Orden told The Associated Press before the GOP midterm convention in August. “I think we’d be a lot better off if we were more loyal to our fellow Americans to begin with.”
Van Orden’s campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for an interview for this story.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, one of the most liberal members of the Senate who won Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary in 2016, joined Cooke at a rally in Eau Claire on Sunday.
“In my view, this is the most important midterm election in the modern history of our country,” Sanders said. “What Rebecca’s race is about and the reason that I am here is that the time is long overdue for us to hold the most dangerous president in the history of the United States accountable.”
He applauded Cooke for her working class background as a waitress and emphasized the importance of that representation in Congress.
Candidates take starkly different positions on issues
Van Orden and Cooke overlap on few issues that have been part of Trump’s first term. Those differences were clear when they met Oct. 20 for their first and only debate and sparred over the economy, immigration, health care and the war in Iran.
Cooke said she would not have supported Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and criticized it for giving “billionaires tax breaks and tax credits.” The tax incentives on average benefited higher earners rather than lower earners, according to the Tax Policy Center.
“Big corporations and the ultra wealthy should be paying their fair share of taxes,” Cooke said.
Van Orden touted the act and how its changes led to an influx of revenue for BadgerCare, the state’s form of Medicaid. The act, however, made $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid overall through mandatory work requirements for able-bodied adults and tighter caps on provider taxes.
He also criticized Cooke for not condemning unauthorized immigrants who commit violent crimes. She said they should be deported and the border should be secure. She also said she does not support sanctuary cities, but affirmed that there should be a “clear pathway to citizenship” and acknowledged immigrant contributions to the workforce.
According to an April 2023 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers, unauthorized immigrants alone make up an estimated 46% to 70% of the dairy farmers in the state. Van Orden has emphasized in his campaign his support for Trump’s immigration policies, which have emphasized large-scale deportations and rolling back authorized immigration.
Political campaign signs for Republican state Sen. Howard Marklein, Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor, are displayed along a stretch of U.S. 18 in Bridgeport, Wis., on Sept. 30, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Political campaign signs for candidates including 3rd Congressional District candidate Rebecca Cooke sit in the Crawford County Democratic Party office in Prairie du Chien, Wis., on Sept. 30, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Cooke said one of the first things she would like to see in Congress is ending the war in Iran, which Van Orden has voted against ending. While he said he does not inherently want to be at war, he said it’s the only way “radical Muslim mullahs” will listen.
“I know about war. I spent my entire adult life either training for war, training others for war or a war myself. I do not want our country to be involved in war,” Van Orden said. “We tried diplomacy. We tried sanctions, upped them again and again and again, and these radical muslim mullahs don’t respond to that … they only respond to this horrible thing that is war.”
Cooke, a waitress and former political consultant, wants to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, address teacher shortages with pay increases and signing bonuses, change the school funding formula to give more funding to low-income districts and double Pell college grants for low- to moderate-income families. She also advocates for expanding Medicare to dental, hearing and vision coverage and protecting abortion rights.
Rebecca Cooke, the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, speaks to reporters outside of Sen. Brad Pfaff’s annual corn roast at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem, Wis., on Sept. 2, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
One of the few issues that Van Orden and Cooke seem to agree on is supporting agriculture and dairy farms. Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District ranked 17th in the nation in 2022 for most farm producers at 31,470. Both Van Orden and Cooke have promised to support the state’s agriculture system and dairy farms. Cooke wants to ensure tax incentives and subsidies for small farms, expand export markets and fight big agriculture to support small farmers.
As for data centers, Van Orden wants local communities to decide on new developments and to protect farmland and water resources. He has co-sponsored the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act, which would ensure ratepayers aren’t forced to pay new energy bills required by large data centers. Cooke wants a moratorium on new developments and to end the tax breaks given to data centers, but data center laws are largely up to state and local governments.
National polarization and negativity
Similar to their first matchup two years ago, Van Orden and Cooke continue their heated rivalry in the high-stakes election. Van Orden has posted AI-generated fake videos of Cooke on social media, making it seem like she was saying she was the “anointed one” and that voters will “comply” and vote for her. She sent him a cease-and-desist letter in September and boosted a citizen complaint filed Oct. 22 with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.
Cooke told Wisconsin Watch the district is looking for a “representative that’s rooted in reality” and focused on issues rather than making these deepfakes. She called for more AI regulation for campaigns in the future.
Chergosky said it’s unclear how the AI deepfake issue will play out and what voters think about this new territory.
Van Orden and Cooke also have been trying to undercut each other’s authenticity in their campaigns. Van Orden has slammed Cooke for portraying herself as a political outsider while working as a Democratic fundraiser and political consultant for controversy-courting Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad. She also has worked with the center-left think tank Third Way.
Van Orden also has found himself in controversies throughout the years, including inflammatory social media posts and his presence in Washington during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. In 2023 he scolded teenage Senate pages and in 2021 accosted a Prairie du Chien library worker over an LGBTQ+ book display.
Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents western Wisconsin, speaks with attendees during the World Dairy Expo, Oct. 2, 2025, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Cooke blasted how Van Orden has never held an in-person town hall throughout his time in Congress, as well as his support for Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran.
“His devotion to this administration is greater than his devotion to people in this district,” Cooke said. “I think it’s a mistake on his part, but it’s like a blind loyalty that he has to the president.”
Kind said Van Orden has “insulated” himself from his constituents, and Pfaff told Wisconsin Watch that Van Orden has been at the “beck and call” of the White House and has “never had any original thought.”
“I do not believe he has a vision,” Pfaff said. “I don’t believe, deep down, he has a fundamental understanding of what this district is, who the people are in this district and what it would take in order to work the public, private effort in order to continue to move this area forward.”
Kind was noted for being one of the more bipartisan members of Congress, ranking 17th most bipartisan in the House in his last congressional session, according to The Lugar Center’s bipartisanship index.
Van Orden ranked 138th most bipartisan in his first year in office and the second-most bipartisan House member representing Wisconsin, behind former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher at 33rd. The least bipartisan from Wisconsin was Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is now running for governor, in 379th place.
What’s different this year?
Given the rematch, 2024 and 2026 look very similar. Both years, the district was heavily targeted and categorized a toss-up, but one thing remains largely different: It’s not a “Trump year.”
This is the first year since 2020, when Van Orden lost and Joe Biden narrowly won the state, when he is running in a likely poor year for Republicans. In 2022, Democrats controlled the White House — historically the president’s party has fared worse in midterms. In 2024, Trump narrowly won Wisconsin. Now, with a Republican president, Democrats are favored to flip some seats and take back Congress.
Whichever party comes out of November with control of Congress will “profoundly influence the final two years of Trump’s presidency,” Chergosky said.
“In 2022, it was about Republicans trying to gain control of Congress. In 2024, Republicans were trying to retain control,” Chergosky said, “and now, Democrats are trying to get it back … this could be one of the decisive seats in a high-stakes race for Congress.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
We’ve already recapped key takeaways. Here, we use data to examine how the candidates spent their time, which topics drew the most attention and how they criticized each other.
School funding dominated the debate
Each candidate spent over four minutes explaining his take on school funding, including positions on private school vouchers, making it the debate’s most covered topic. Taxes ranked second, with candidates covering several issues: income taxes, state budget surpluses and property taxes.
The two candidates spent roughly the same amount of time on most topics. One notable exception came when Tiffany spent three minutes and 37 seconds — two minutes more than Crowley — explaining why he voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
“One of the reasons that I did that is Zuckerbucks,” Tiffany said. “If you remember, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook billionaire, he put $15 million into Wisconsin, and so he was trying to privatize our elections via electioneering. The people of the state of Wisconsin rejected that a few years later.”
“Zuckerbucks” refers to grants funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, that helped local election officials run elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment banning private funding for election administration in April 2024, after Republicans argued the grants disproportionately benefited Democratic strongholds.
Crowley spent more time attacking Tiffany
Although Tiffany spoke for about 200 seconds longer overall, he spent much of that time explaining and defending his own positions.
Crowley, by contrast, took a more aggressive approach, spending about four minutes more than Tiffany in directly criticizing his opponent.
For this analysis, we classified a statement as an attack when a candidate criticized his opponent or made him the subject of a statement.
Crowley spent the longest time criticizing Tiffany’s positions on taxation, school funding and border control.
“We’re talking about somebody who actually supported the elimination of the United States Department of Education. We’re talking about someone who, when he served as a senator, voted for one of the largest cuts to our UW systems as well as K-12 through education,” Crowley said. “I went to Milwaukee Public Schools. My daughters go to public schools, and I know that they need an increase in funding from the state of Wisconsin because of the fact that we have been dealing with decades of cuts ever since he was in the Legislature.”
Tiffany spent the most time criticizing Crowley when discussing how Crowley would appeal to those who voted for democratic socialist Francesca Hong in the Democratic primary.
“What he said about a week or two before the primaries, he said there was very little difference between he and Francesca Hong,” Tiffany said. “In fact, one of the only things he could think of is that he was supportive of data centers.”
The candidates spent similar amounts of time criticizing one another’s records on data centers — less than a minute each.The candidates spent roughly 50 seconds apiece criticizing their opponents’ record on data centers.
Crowley accused Tiffany of supporting tax breaks for data center operators. (Tiffany voted for President Donald Trump’s tax and spending package that included broad tax breaks benefiting data center developers along with many other businesses, but lawmakers did not specifically vote on a data center tax break.)
Tiffany countered by criticizing Crowley’s past support for subsidies and calling Crowley’s proposal to power data centers with wind and solar energy unrealistic.
Word clouds show how the candidates framed their attacks
A word cloud shows words candidates used most in the Oct. 21, 2026 gubernatorial debate when they speaking with an aggressive tone. (Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch)
After we removed verbal fillers and words used to address the other candidate, the word cloud of attacks shows that Tiffany used the word “taxes” the most often when criticizing Crowley. This reflected Tiffany’s argument that Crowley’s policies would increase tax burdens on Wisconsinites.
“Taxes have went up every single year that David Crowley has been county executive,” Tiffany said. “You know what he’s going to do as governor.”
Crowley most often used the word “work” when attacking Tiffany, repeatedly questioning Tiffany’s track record in following Trump’s decisions and whether Tiffany would represent Wisconsinites if elected.
A word cloud shows words candidates used most in the Oct. 21, 2026 gubernatorial debate when they speaking with a defensive tone. (Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch)
“Congressman Tom Tiffany, it doesn’t sound like you want to work for the small guys,” Crowley said after Tiffany said he was open to raising income limits on private school vouchers. “It sounds like you want to work for those who have the money and have the means to continue to pay their way. This is what this election is about.”
The pattern was less pronounced in the word cloud analyzing defensive statements. Tiffany most often said the word “Wisconsin” while Crowley’s most frequently used word was again “work.”
How we analyzed the debate
Wisconsin Watch transcribed the gubernatorial debate audio through Parakeet MLX, an automatic speech recognition model, then used the artificial intelligence tool Pyannote to assign each line in the transcript to a speaker. Automated transcription and speaker recognition can produce errors, which may affect the results.
We manually reviewed the transcript to correct as many speaker-identification errors as possible. We also tagged each line spoken by the candidates by topic and tone. We categorized a line as “aggressive” if a candidate referred to his opponent as the subject of a sentence or otherwise clearly criticized him. We categorized all other statements as “defensive.”
We calculated speech duration using the transcript’s start and end time stamps.
The SpaCy tokenization algorithm we used to generate the word cloud misidentified “taxes” as “taxis,” so we manually corrected that error.
At the end of 2025, Milwaukee Water Works still had over 55,000 residential homes or properties with lead water lines on the utility-owned side, customer-owned side or both. The utility had yet to identify the makeup of pipelines serving another 27,000 properties.
But Milwaukee can’t replace all the pipelines at once — and some neighborhoods face greater risks from lead exposure than others.
So which areas should officials prioritize?
Part of the answer lies in a surprising place: a tool University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers originally developed to study the connection between neighborhood disadvantage and human health.
Lead does not impact neighborhoods equally
Milwaukee’s pipeline problem dates back to 1872, when the city mandated the use of lead in service lines. Although the city abolished the mandate in 1962, older lead pipelines remained in many older residential buildings.
Historical topographic map of Milwaukee and surrounding area, 1957 – 1959, by U.S. Geological Survey. Red shading indicates urban built-up areas. (Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch)Historical topographic map of Milwaukee and surrounding area, 1957 – 1959, by U.S. Geological Survey; overlaid with lead service line inventory data (2025) by Milwaukee Water Works. (Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch)
Today, most homes known to have lead lines are concentrated in the older neighborhoods surrounding downtown, while most homes with service lines made of “unknown” materials tend to be farther away.
Downtown Milwaukee includes a scattering of homes with non-lead service lines — many due to having already been replaced by the city.
Milwaukee has replaced nearly 15,000 pipelines since beginning its broader efforts in 2017, said Milwaukee Water Works Superintendent Patrick Pauly. When federal funding became available under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the utility expanded its effort, increasing the pace from about 1,000 lines a year to 5,000.
But scaling up the effort required more than funds and construction crews. The city also needed a systematic way to decide where to work — one that recognizes disproportionate risks across the city.
“We needed to expand the lead service line replacement program, and we needed to develop a, for lack of a better word, defensible method to expand that program,” Pauly said.
70% comes from the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a measure of relative socioeconomic disadvantage developed by UW-Madison researchers.
25% comes from the percentage of local children who tested positive for lead poisoning.
5% comes from lead service line density in the area.
Together, these measures help the utility determine where replacement will yield the highest benefits.
The city updates each property’s score every other year as new information becomes available, Pauly said.
The scoring weights heavily toward neighborhood disadvantage as broader challenges residents face can compound risks posed by lead exposure.
Nationwide, communities burdened by economic disadvantages and racial inequalities can face greater risks of lead exposure, according to a Montclair State University study of New Jersey. Such neighborhoods often contain older housing and sit near former industrial sites.
The ADI relies on attempts to quantify disadvantages in Milwaukee, and its origins have little to do with water infrastructure.
A tool developed to understand health disparities
The ADI measures neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage or adverse social exposure using 17 U.S. Census American Community Survey measures. They include factors related to income, education, housing, and employment.
The index assigns scores to census block groups — small geographic areas that generally contain several hundred to a few thousand people.
Block groups receive a national percentile ranking from 1 to 100 or a statewide decile ranking from 1 to 10. Higher rankings indicate greater socioeconomic disadvantage relative to other areas.
Statewide Area Deprivation Index (ADI) of Milwaukee area
The ADI measures neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage or adverse social exposure using 17 US Census American Community Survey measures.
Legend
Colors represent ADI of census tracts in Milwaukee area.
1 -> Least fiancially deprived
-> State median level
Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch
10 -> Most financially deprived
Statewide Area Deprivation Index (ADI) of Milwaukee area
The ADI measures neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage or adverse social exposure using 17 US Census American Community Survey measures.
Legend
Colors represent ADI of census tracts in Milwaukee area.
1 -> Least fiancially deprived
-> State median level
10 -> Most financially deprived
Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch
Researchers have long recognized that people’s health depends on far more than the medical care they receive. But measuring the influence of social and economic conditions on health isn’t easy.
Dr. Amy Kind has spent much of her career trying to figure that out.
Kind, a professor of geriatrics and gerontology at UW-Madison and founding director of its Center for Health Disparities Research, grew up in Niagara, Wisconsin, before training as a physician.
During her residency in Boston, she saw that the medicine she prescribed could do only so much when patients returned to homes without healthy food, stable housing or access to other basic resources. Those experiences helped shape her interest in finding ways to measure such disadvantages.
Researchers have used indexes like ADI since the 1980s. In 2014, Kind led a group of University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health researchers in updating ADI using modern census data, refined it to the census block level and validated its usefulness across several scientific studies.
“(Like any marker), it may not be the thing that ultimately drives the risk,” Kind said. “But it has been an extremely strong marker that something going on in that area is increasing risk, whatever it might be.”
An unexpected use for health research
“When we first developed the metric, we thought that perhaps it would be used primarily by health systems, primarily in the research community,” Kind said.
Instead, Kind and her colleagues heard from many community groups and local governments that were interested in using index data to guide their public health work.
Amy Kind, a professor of geriatrics and gerontology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is shown in her Madison office. Kind and her colleagues developed the Area Deprivation Index in 2014 — a tool that has been used in hundreds of different projects, including in Milwaukee’s lead pipeline replacement efforts. (Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch)
Since 2014, the University of Wisconsin has tracked over 3,500 academic papers citing the index and more than 400 examples of its use across different fields. That includes a recent Kind study linking environmental factors to the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, the index helped officials in Puerto Rico decide where to send nurses to combat dengue fever and the mosquitoes that carry it.
That wide interest prompted Kind to develop the Neighborhood Atlas in 2018, making the data more accessible.
Kind said she enjoys seeing the index be used in sometimes unexpected ways to address local challenges. That includes Milwaukee’s effort to protect children from lead exposure, where officials are using it as one component of their model.
Thousands of pipelines replaced, thousands more to go
Milwaukee Water Works has replaced lead pipes at more than 6,000 properties under its priority program, which launched less than three years ago.
Prioritization Project Operational Areas since 2024
Legend
Replaced in:
2024
2025
2026
Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch
Prioritization Project Operational Areas since 2024
Legend
Replaced in:
2025
2024
2026
Hongyu Liu / Wisconsin Watch
The work has been largely concentrated on the city’s North Side but has also expanded into near South Side neighborhoods.
Pauly expects the utility to reach a milestone next year of 20,000 lead lines replaced.
But officials will soon face a difficult question: how to pay for replacements after Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding runs out in 2028.
One possibility is returning to a funding system that required homeowners to pay part of the cost of replacing the privately owned portion of their service lines.
“I don’t believe the city has the financial capacity to take on fully funding the private side replacement costs,” Pauly said.
That could present another challenge for a program designed to prioritize neighborhoods where residents already face financial disadvantages.
For now, residents living in homes with lead service lines that are not yet scheduled for replacement can take steps to better understand their own risk.
Julie LaRose, lead and nutrition program coordinator at the MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary, runs one of the many programs in the city where residents can submit samples of their tap water for free lead testing.
LaRose recognizes residents’ concerns about their tap water. But she also emphasizes that Milwaukee water is highly regulated, and she has not seen any samples tested through her program exceed one part per billion (ppb) of lead.
That’s far below the FDA limit for lead in bottled water (5 ppb) and the EPA’s threshold for utility action (15 ppb).
“If you’re nervous about this, let’s test it,” LaRose said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Early voting has started, and Election Day will be here before you know it.
The Northeast Wisconsin News Lab (NEW News Lab) reported and published 10 issues-focused stories since early September.
Each member newsroom – Appleton Post-Crescent, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Green Bay Press Times, Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Watch – picked a topic readers said they cared a lot about but felt underinformed on. Then, we ran with them.
Several candidates did not reply to the NEW News Lab’s election questionnaires, but I found debate coverage or questionnaires through other news outlets:
Answers from incumbent Rep. Glenn Grothman and independent Elizabeth Fitzgibbon are included in this Q&A for the 6th Congressional District from the Oshkosh Northwestern.
Mark Becker, an independent who is running against Republican Nic Cravillion in state Senate District 1, replied to the Peninsula Pulse’s candidate Q&A, as did Cravillion.
Senate District 19 incumbent Rachael Cabral-Guevara replied to a Q&A from the Oshkosh Northwestern, as did her opponent Emily Tseffos.
Coverage from the Green Bay Press-Gazette of the 2nd Assembly District debate between incumbent Shae Sortwell and challenger Alicia Saunders.
Incumbent Rep. Elijah Behnke of the 6th Assembly District answered questions from the Shawano Leader, as did challenger Shirley Hinze.
Tim Paterson, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Lori Palmeri in the 54th Assembly District, replied to the Oshkosh Northwestern’s candidate Q&A, as did Palmeri.
Please note that we sent the questionnaire to all three candidates running for Assembly District 5 and none responded.
With less than two weeks until Election Day and early voting already underway, Wisconsin’s gubernatorial candidates met for the only televised debate. Both attacked their opponent’s biggest weaknesses and provided further insight into how they would govern.
Democrat David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, and Republican Tom Tiffany, who represents the 7th Congressional District in northern Wisconsin, are competing in the first open race for governor since 2010 after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers did not seek a third term.
In a midterm year when the national environment favors Democrats, Marquette University Law School polling has shown a close contest between Crowley and Tiffany. The most recent poll in late September showed Crowley leading within the margin of error 49% to 46% among likely voters with about 5% still undecided. The next Marquette poll is scheduled for release Oct. 28.
The debate, held at the law school Wednesday with only news media in attendance, arrived on Wisconsin’s second day of in-person early voting. More than 55,000 people cast their ballots on the first day, up from more than 33,000 at the same time ahead of the last gubernatorial race in 2022, according to data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Here are some key takeaways from Wednesday night’s debate.
Crowley was on the attack
Crowley used any opening in the debate to criticize Tiffany for his votes in Congress in support of President Donald Trump and the millions in campaign funding Tiffany received from GOP megadonors.
Early in the debate, Crowley pointed to Tiffany’s votes against ending U.S. military involvement in the Iran war and blocking the president’s tariffs to suggest the congressman doesn’t care about lowering costs for Wisconsinites.
“We don’t need what is happening in Washington, D.C., coming into the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley said. “It is very clear that he is working for Donald Trump and the billionaires who are funding his campaign.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley addresses the moderators during a gubernatorial debate at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Oct. 21, 2026. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Campaign finance reports from July through September show Tiffany’s largest donor was the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which received nearly 95% of its $29 million in donations from billionaires Diane Hendricks, the founder of ABC Supply Co., and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who founded the Uline shipping supplies company. The next campaign finance report deadline, which will show the candidates’ financial position ahead of Election Day, is Monday.
Tiffany, who was endorsed by Trump earlier this year, attempted to separate himself from the president, who is unpopular in Wisconsin ahead of Election Day. The September Marquette poll found just 38% of registered voters approve of Trump’s job in his second term.
“While my opponent, you can see early on in the debate, is consistently focused on being against Donald Trump, I’m for Wisconsin,” Tiffany said.
More insight on how Crowley, Tiffany would govern
The moderators from WISN-TV in Milwaukee pressed Crowley and Tiffany for more details on the campaign promises they’ve made while traveling the state over the last year.
Tiffany has called for returning Wisconsin’s $3 billion surplus to taxpayers. During the debate, Tiffany explained that he would do that through “long-term” reductions in property and income taxes. In remarks after the debate, Tiffany added he would not support one-time rebates, which were part of the failed bipartisan surplus deal Evers and Republican legislative leaders negotiated earlier this year. Tiffany opposed that plan.
“The one thing that I don’t want to do is just one-time rebates,” Tiffany said after the debate. “I want it to be long-term, lasting tax relief, so people in Wisconsin can plan, so they can plan their futures.”
Tiffany said he opposes raising transportation user fees, instituting tolls or indexing the gas tax to inflation. Crowley said he would be open to new user fees and that the state should be open to tolling to fund transportation projects, but he also opposed indexing the gas tax, which was discontinued in 2006.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, addresses the moderators during a gubernatorial debate at Marquette University Oct. 21, 2026. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Crowley reiterated his position from the primary that he would not eliminate the Milwaukee school voucher program and said he would keep the statewide program in place.
“I will work with the Legislature,” Crowley said. “But as of this moment, we are not in a position to push all of these children towards any of our public schools.”
Asked if he would sign a bill to eliminate income limits on school vouchers, Tiffany said he would have to take a look at it if elected.
“I would be willing to raise those income limits,” Tiffany said. “But I would sit down and take a look at where we should move them at this time.”
Crowley noted the voucher program was originally intended to help low-income Milwaukee students, but the statewide program has allowed families who could already afford to send their children to private school to receive a taxpayer subsidy.
Crowley explains data center policy shifts
On data centers, Tiffany pointed out that Crowley in the past week changed his position on the state’s sales tax exemption for data centers, which is worth some $2 billion.
“Why would some of the wealthiest companies in the world need subsidies from the taxpayers of Wisconsin?” said Tiffany, who has campaigned on repealing data center tax breaks.
Crowley now says he would sign legislation, proposed by Republicans, to repeal the sales tax exemption. Previously he said he would review the exemption.
Candidates stick to their positions on abortion
Tiffany said he would not sign a “fetal heartbeat bill,” which would ban abortions once a heartbeat is detected, if it reaches his desk. Tiffany voted for Wisconsin’s current abortion ban after 20 weeks when he was in the Legislature and he said he would maintain that “middle ground” in the abortion debate.
Crowley did not directly answer whether he would sign a bill that legalized abortion with no gestational limits and said he did not believe such a bill would reach his desk if he is elected. He has proposed a constitutional amendment, which would need the support of the Legislature, that would protect the right to an abortion.
“These are discussions that need to be made between a doctor and a patient,” Crowley said. “When you think about any type of abortion past the 20 week, it’s usually dealing with extreme circumstances.”
Fact-checking the debate
Both candidates repeated claims that Wisconsin Watch has found to be inaccurate.
Tiffany claimed during the debate that Crowley “wants to remove half of the prison inmates here in Wisconsin.” Crowley has voiced support for cutting Wisconsin’s prison population in half over time using a variety of means, such as legalizing marijuana and funding jail diversion programs.
Crowley claimed Tiffany “provided the tax breaks to the big tech companies who are steamrolling our communities today with these data centers.” The tax cuts were part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and applied to a multitude of companies across sectors. They were not specifically for tech companies or data centers, as Crowley had previously claimed.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, right, R-Hazelhurst, addresses the moderator during a gubernatorial debate at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Oct. 21, 2026. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Clashing closing statements
Each candidate had a minute to give a closing statement. Crowley highlighted the contrast between himself and Tiffany, while Tiffany recounted his recent emergency plane landing experience. Here’s each candidate’s entire statement:
Crowley: “I’m running to be your governor because Wisconsin families are working harder than ever and still falling behind. And I get it. I grew up in a working-class family, and I’m raising three amazing daughters. Congressman Tom Tiffany, he doesn’t get it. He went to Washington and he sold Wisconsin out. He went to go work for Donald Trump and the billionaires bankrolling him. They got tax breaks. You got higher bills. They got tariffs. You got higher prices. They got their endless war. You got record high gas prices. This election is about who your governor works for. If Congressman Tom Tiffany becomes our governor, he’s going to work for them, not for you, just like he did in Washington, voting with Donald Trump 100% of the time. But me, I’ll work for you. I’ll lower your costs. I’ll expand health care. I’ll make sure we can improve our schools and bring people together to get it done. That’s why I’m asking for your vote. Thank you, and go Brewers.”
Tiffany: “It was a month ago that a plane that I was in had to make an emergency landing on Lake Wausau and run up to the airport. And as the pilot and I exited that plane, he dialed 911. From the time that call hit dispatch in downtown Wausau to the boat picking us up in the middle of Lake Wausau was 16 minutes. Only 16 minutes. I remember hearing after we made the call that you could hear the sirens and then you could see the lights, but it only took them 16 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, I saw the best of Wisconsin that night. As your next governor, I’m going to make sure you see the best of Wisconsin. I hope to earn your vote to lead this state.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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The New Friends program at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute has paired people with early-stage Alzheimer’s and dementia with UW-Madison students.
The students will go into careers as nurses, doctors, therapists or social workers.
Mentors, students and program leaders say the program is mutually beneficial: The semester-long program gives students firsthand experience being around someone who lives with mild cognitive issues, and the mentors get social connection during what can be a lonely time.
New Friends also helps dispel myths about people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia, many of whom are able to live independently, hold jobs, socialize with friends and raise kids or grandkids.
The first sign seemed harmless.
Bill Ducett drove his carload of friends in the opposite direction of the Chicago conference where they were headed. His wife Diana — a nurse — watched out the car window, concerned, as they passed unfamiliar streets. When she corrected Bill, embarrassment washed over him as he quickly turned the car around.
It was a small slipup, unless you know Bill: a 78-year-old with a razor-sharp internal compass and an Illinois native who knows the city like the back of his hand.
Diana convinced Bill to go to the doctor. After five hours of testing, he emerged with a diagnosis: mild cognitive impairment, and a prescription: car GPS.
Now, for three years, Bill has met with medical students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to talk about what it’s like to live with an early-stage Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The program, dubbed New Friends, has for 14 years connected people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia with future medical professionals to learn from one another.
The goal is to teach future health care workers lessons they can’t gain from coursework alone: firsthand experience with people living with cognitive changes outside of a classroom and textbook. Many of the participating students go on to be nurses, doctors, therapists or social workers. Together, they help challenge misconceptions about dementia and work toward better care for patients experiencing it.
“I thought I could be, with my own journey, helping to be productive for somebody else to do something about this. So the motivation was to give back. But in giving back, I’m getting so many benefits,” Bill said.
As Wisconsin’s population ages, elder care workers are in short supply, and even rarer are those with prior experience with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The arrangement is mutually beneficial: Students get experience connecting with people living with cognitive changes, and mentors get social connection during a particularly lonely time.
“Oftentimes medical students are really good at the medicine side of things, but their bedside manner or their understanding of people living with dementia wasn’t the best,” said Sheryl Spensley, education coordinator at UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
How it works
The program started small in 2012. Since then, it’s grown exponentially, and more than 300 students have participated. Usually, each mentor takes on two students.
Spensley plays matchmaker, pairing students and mentors who have the most in common.
The meetups look different for every pair. Some gather at the mentor’s home to sit and talk. Others go to parks, coffee shops, restaurants or museums. Some opt for more activity, watching sports, going bowling or playing board games. Bill and Diana’s “friends” have chosen to paint pottery together or attend plays put on by Bill’s son, a teacher at their local school in Oregon, Wisconsin.
There are logistics to navigate that students usually don’t consider in their everyday lives: How will the mentor get to the meeting? Is there suitable parking and seating? Is the meeting place too loud or overstimulating?
“That’s a good learning experience about how differently abled people have to navigate the world, capacity to get in and out of places, and how much time that takes for people,” Spensley said.
“I was a school teacher. I was a professor in education. I mentored students in their 20s, so I meet with these future medical professionals because I can get back in teaching mode. For me, it’s all very comfortable,” said Bill Ducett, left, of participating in the New Friends program. His wife, Diana, right, attends sessions with Bill to explain her role as a caregiver. (Miranda Dunlap / Wisconsin Watch)
All mentors are squarely in the early stages of dementia. In the mid to late stages, communication becomes more challenging, people may live in an assisted living facility, and reflecting on what they’re experiencing can be difficult.
“For some it can be more emotionally distressing at that point,” said Molly Schroeder, outreach program manager at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute who helps coordinate New Friends.
Much of the conversation can tend to revolve around the mentor, as students ask about things like the logistics of their medical care or their everyday hurdles, but former mentee Meghana Ram said they also often just talked as friends. She found the meetups felt less like an interview and more like a social hangout.
Some of the mentors have caregivers who join and talk about their responsibilities and careers. Technically, Diana joins the meetings as Bill’s mentor.
“She’s a caregiver, but you know, she’s more of a commentator,” Bill joked.
Throughout the semester-long process, students keep a journal where they reflect on what their mentors teach them. They also take surveys before and after the program measuring their attitudes toward people with cognitive decline — questions like, “how comfortable would you be sitting one on one with someone with dementia?” By the end, students’ perceptions grow more positive.
Dispelling myths, challenging stigma
When Bill started telling his neighbors and friends about his diagnosis, he felt their sympathy. But he also noticed that they became uncomfortable and started “pulling back” from him.
“They don’t know what to say,” Diana said of people who learn about Bill’s diagnosis. “They’re afraid of how they’ll be interpreted … They feel sorry for both of us. They’re a little too afraid to get involved.”
Nowadays, the symptoms Bill experiences are small and often harmless: forgetting that he made a cup of coffee for Diana until the cup is cooled. Temporarily losing his keen sense of direction. But he still drives, still attends his son’s plays, still lives his life mostly as normal.
Diana Ducett poses for a portrait in Oregon, Wis., on Oct. 7, 2026. Diana first noticed changes in Bill that led to his early-stage Alzheimer’s diagnosis. (Miranda Dunlap / Wisconsin Watch)
During dementia’s early stages, people often experience confusion or small memory lapses that don’t always impact their ability to live independently. Many with this early diagnosis still have jobs and social lives and are raising kids or grandkids, Schroeder said.
But many people don’t realize that, she said, “because unfortunately, a lot of what we see in the media is, we see people more at the later stages in a nursing home, sitting in a wheelchair in front of a TV. But there are years before that where it doesn’t look like that at all.”
Bill doesn’t feel that same judgment with the New Friends students. They meet him with pure curiosity. He’s mentored eight students over three years.
“I was a school teacher. I was a professor in education. I mentored students in their 20s,” Bill said. “So I meet with these future medical professionals because I can get back in teaching mode. For me, it’s all very comfortable.”
Students say the program dispels many of the myths about dementia they once held, mostly regarding what someone’s daily life must look like after diagnosis.
“Culturally, how we look at the elderly, it’s not good,” Spensley said. “This program shows students that even when you have early-stage dementia, you still have things to contribute to society and things you can learn. That’s why they’re called mentors.”
‘Different than just a textbook definition’
When Ram worked as a CNA at an assisted living facility throughout high school, she kept meeting dementia patients, and she didn’t feel she had the tools to fully connect with them.
After enrolling at UW-Madison, she joined the New Friends program to improve her communication with patients.
For a year, she set aside time to play at an arcade and go out to eat with her mentors. She asked questions like: “How did you react to the diagnosis? How did you tell your family? Has your social life changed?”
The answers showed her the importance of establishing a personal connection with patients.
“A lot of these patients don’t necessarily have someone to talk to or have someone to listen to them,” Ram said. “By doing that, you can learn so much of what each individual person needs … to make them feel better. Realizing that the experience of this illness looks so different from person to person, and that sometimes it needs a tailored approach, and that only comes with building that trust and having those conversations and listening.”
Ram loved the program so much that when she moved home to Green Bay, she started a mini version with local students.
The program ran for two years in partnership with Curative Connections, a support program for adults with dementia or other cognitive issues. It ended when Ram moved to Wausau to study to become a physician’s assistant. But she hopes to restart something similar someday.
“(I wanted to) go into those patient rooms with better communication methods, or remembering more of the experience, not only for me, but for the patient, too, and maybe for family members,” Ram said. “I think understanding the experience of a disease is so much more different than just a textbook definition of it. Getting to hear that from patients firsthand is really neat.”
Like Ram, not every student will go on to become a caregiver for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. But they’ll be prepared when coming across people with cognitive changes, whether they be patients, family members or perfect strangers.
“Whether that’s at a restaurant, a bank, the grocery store,” Schroeder said, “it’s important to know how to communicate and support those individuals.”
But it isn’t just about preparing students for the people they’ll meet in the future.
Many of the New Friends pairs end up forming a bond and keep in touch after their time in the program ends. Ram said she and her mentors kept in touch for a while by texting each other photos and updates about their lives. Bill and Diana follow where their students go after graduation and look forward to meeting more, semester after semester.
“We feel that those young people have enriched our lives so much,” Diana said. “They keep us looking forward to the next set of friends.”
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Electrical line work pays a median salary of more than $95,000 and does not require a college degree.
The demand for electricity, driven by data centers, means line workers enjoy job security and union benefits in addition to their salaries.
However, the work can be dangerous, with line workers exposed to the elements, heights and thousands of volts of power.
Wisconsin Watch visited a pre-apprenticeship program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau that trains 14 students annually to learn more about the work.
On a sunny morning in late August, a dozen teenagers wearing reflective vests and work boots stand on a hill overlooking the farm fields of their central Wisconsin college.
A few steps away is the classroom where they’ll learn how electricity works. Beside it, a handful of poles six stories tall mark the training yard where they’ll train to install and repair power lines, a skill that’s increasingly in need as Wisconsin’s infrastructure ages and data centers demand ever more energy.
Today, they’ll try out some of the toughest physical parts of the job — while racing against the clock.
The students have just 30 minutes to dig a hole 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide. Then they must walk two 100-pound wooden pole chunks down the school’s dirt road and haul a 70-pound piece of wood up a 65-foot pole twice, using only a pulley and their own strength. The student who finishes in the shortest time wins.
This is day three of the nine-month Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, which prepares about 14 students each year for careers with electric utilities or power line construction companies.
It’s one of seven such programs at the state’s tech colleges, which together enrolled 265 students in 2025.
With a median salary of more than $95,000, electrical line work is one of the country’s most lucrative jobs for people without a college degree. It can also be dangerous and draining, as it often involves long days of manual labor, as well as exposure to the elements, heights and thousands of volts of power.
Most of the students in this class were still in high school just a few months ago. By the end of September, they’d begun scaling utility poles six stories tall. Within a year, they could land apprenticeships that pay more than $34 an hour and put them on track to earn union pensions.
Marc Cegielski, right, instructor of the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College, works with a student on Aug. 26, 2026. Cegielski keeps in touch with many former students, and he doesn’t think any of them are struggling to find work. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
It’s instructor Marc Cegielski’s job to make sure they’re ready.
“It is physically demanding. It is mentally demanding, and your work-life balance is probably not going to be very good — unless you want your work-life balance to be more work than not work,” said Cegielski, who spent four years doing line work before he started teaching. He still works as a lineman for several weeks each summer to keep his skill sharp.
The field of electrical line work is thriving. The country is expected to add 13,600 line worker jobs between 2025 and 2035, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a jump of 10%, much faster than the average for all jobs. In Wisconsin, the ranks are expected to swell nearly 14% from 2024 to 2034, with about 240 job openings projected each year. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2150, which represents line workers and a variety of other workers in Wisconsin, reports its membership is at an all-time high.
The new energy demand comes at a time when states finally have the money to strengthen and expand aging electric grids, thanks to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law in 2021. Those funds could help Wisconsin’s electrical infrastructure accommodate more energy sources and rebound more quickly after storms, changes proponents say are needed whether or not the state adds more data centers.
“There’s never been a better time to get involved in this trade, and the work outlook right here at home in Wisconsin looks awesome for the next 10-plus years,” said IBEW Local 2150 business manager Jim Meyer.
Students in the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College dig holes by hand on Aug. 26, 2026, in Wausau, Wis. The program enrolls 14 students each year and consistently has a waitlist. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
Risk versus reward
Installing and maintaining power lines is rewarding work, Cegielski said, because workers can see the difference they’re making. Sometimes they turn the lights back on after a storm. And sometimes, they bring electricity to a place that’s never had it, as he and a few students do each spring on the Navajo Reservation.
“Getting people’s electricity back feels really good,” Cegielski said.
But the job isn’t for everyone.
Line work involves heavy exertion in all kinds of weather. Machines can handle the tough tasks some of the time, but Cegielski warns his students there are plenty of times when they’ll need to dig or lift by hand because no machine is available, or it’d be too hard to maneuver the machinery — say, in a residential backyard. Plus, if there are buried utilities within 18 inches, mechanical digging is prohibited.
Myles Haubert uses a shovel to dig a hole as part of a physical exercise in the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College. “You can’t always use a machine. Sometimes you’re the machine,” instructor Marc Cegielski told the students. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
“You can’t always use a machine. Sometimes you’re the machine,” Cegielski tells his students as they race to dig their holes. He says he’s sometimes spent a whole day digging a single hole, with or without a machine to help.
The students wipe their brows. One slips off his gloves. Cegielski urges them on. “Come on, man. The customer needs their electricity back.”
With four minutes left on the clock, Sam Volm, 18, unfolds a ruler to check his progress.
“I’m only about 2 feet deep! This is so crazy,” he says. He’s not alone. None of the holes are nearly deep enough.
It’s just one example of the challenges of the job. Some line workers work for contractors hired by utility companies to build or maintain their infrastructure. Those workers could be on the road, often out of state, for weeks or months at a time. Line workers employed by local utility companies generally work close to home. Still, many work 12- to 16-hour shifts, and they may need to be available to help on nights or weekends.
Sam Volm digs a hole by hand on Aug. 26, 2026, in Wausau, Wis. Volm wants to become a line worker because he’s used to physical work and doesn’t want a desk job. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
“Your phone rings a lot,” Cegielski said. “You’re going to be missing a lot of things that you’d rather be doing with your friends and your family to answer that phone call and get people’s power back on so that they can cook supper, so that they can go to work and earn money for their own families.”
And then there are the safety concerns. Cegielski said he’s never been seriously injured doing line work, but he knows the risks that come from working with high voltage and at high heights, sometimes on busy roads. Electrical power line installers and repairers had the 16th highest fatal injury rate of all U.S. jobs, with an annual rate of around 24 fatalities and 189 nonfatal injuries per 100,000 workers, according to a USA Today analysis of federal data from 2020 and 2021.
Despite the challenges of the job, the training program at Northcentral Technical College consistently has a waitlist.
For Volm, who’s worked in construction since he was 14, spending his days outside was part of the appeal.
“You’re not behind a computer or nothing. It’s real physical work, it’s what I’m used to,” Volm said.
Gavin Richter, a student in the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College, carries a 100-pound pole chunk on Aug. 26, 2026, in Wausau, Wis. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
His dad, an electrician, encouraged him to consider line work. Bigger lines mean bigger money, he said, plus he’d get to travel.
The morning drill didn’t deter him. He’s been wrestling since first grade, so he’s got lots of practice putting his body to the test.
“It was pretty tough, but I muscled through it, obviously, and embraced the suck.”
College classes not required
Training programs like these are an optional extra step for those looking to enter the field. Line workers get most of their training through apprenticeships that last three to six years and require only a high school diploma. But doing a program like the one at Northcentral Tech first gives students a chance to try out the work before they commit.
That’s how Pat Keegan, a business agent with IBEW Local 2150, got started in the industry 25 years ago.
Haakon Ashburn, a student in the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College, moves a 100-pound pole chunk on Aug. 26, 2026, in Wausau, Wis. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
“I’m glad I did it because I got comfortable with climbing and I knew I wanted to do this career,” Keegan said, though plenty of line workers go straight into apprenticeships.
“I’ve seen people right out of high school, skip the tech school part of it … and have no issues,” Keegan said.
Prospective line workers shouldn’t assume this training will help them get an apprenticeship faster, Meyer said. Instead, they should think of it as a chance to solidify their skills and learn more about things like electrical theory.
For Cegielski, the Northcentral Tech program is also about teaching the all-important “soft skills” that employers are increasingly looking for, like how to solve problems and persevere through challenges.
Anthony Striklin, a student in the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College, takes a drink of water on Aug. 26, 2026, in Wausau, Wis. Instructor Marc Cegielski designed the hole-digging exercise to be nearly impossible. “I like to observe to see, once they figure out they’re running out of time, do they continue trying, or do they give up? It’s a really good marker of character,” Cegielski said. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
Take the August morning’s drill. What the students don’t know is that Cegielski designed the digging portion to be nearly impossible within the time limit.
“I like to observe to see, once they figure out they’re running out of time, do they continue trying, or do they give up? It’s a really good marker of character,” Cegielski said. “Even if they don’t think they can complete the task, they should keep going at it.”
Six other Wisconsin tech colleges offer electrical power distribution programs, but capacity is limited. Graduates earn around $43,000 more a year than the median high school graduate, according to an analysis of earnings data from three of the programs, conducted by Open Campus and The HEA Group. Program cost varies by school but typically runs from $8,500 to $11,000.
Despite the growing demand for line workers, Northcentral Technical College hasn’t expanded its small program. Cegielski says he hasn’t heard anything about plans to do so.
“They need more people than I can provide,” Cegielski said, “and I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future … I don’t know if that’s a problem that the technical college system wants to handle or can even handle.”
Mason Dieringer, a student in the Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College, takes a break from digging a hole to stretch his hands on Aug. 26, 2026. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
Leaders at Northcentral Technical College did not respond to a request for comment.
Kristina Haensgen, a spokesperson for Moraine Park Technical College, which also trains future line workers, noted the “strong and ongoing demand for skilled electrical line workers” but said the school has no immediate plans to grow its program.
Chippewa Valley Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College did not offer comment on their line worker training programs.
If colleges do want to expand these programs, the booming industry might actually make it tougher, said Katy Pettersen, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Technical Colleges System.
“We have not heard much on this front, other than colleges may be having trouble finding qualified instructors because the companies building the data centers are paying so well.”
Jobs aplenty
Meyer of IBEW Local 2150 said the number of apprenticeships available through his union depends on how much local employers are hiring. In a good year, there could be room for around 170 new apprentices, he said, and it looks like Wisconsin is on track for some good years. Those waiting for an apprenticeship can get jobs as “groundmen” assisting line-working crews until a spot opens.
Cegielski talks with many of his former students, and he doesn’t think any of them are struggling to find work.
That stands in contrast to many other fields, where AI has left many uncertain about the future. Recent college graduates with four-year degrees are having more trouble finding jobs. Across the country, office workers are wondering if they’ll be replaced by increasingly powerful AI agents, or if they’ll have the skills they’ll need to use ever-more-ubiquitous AI tools.
“At the moment, it doesn’t seem like AI is knocking at our door to take our jobs,” Cegielski said with a laugh. ”(The work) is hands-on, and it doesn’t look like machines and robots are going to be able to take it in the future. Maybe someday.”
Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership withOpen Campus. Email her atnyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
On Wednesday night, the candidates for Wisconsin governor will face off in their only debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election — and based on how the campaign has gone so far, a lot of claims and accusations will fly.
To help voters sort through the noise, Wisconsin Watch and our partners at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have been fact-checking claims about the candidates.
Do you know whether Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee, supports releasing half of Wisconsin’s prison population, or whether homicides have increased 57% under his watch?
How about U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee? Do you know whether he voted to defund the police or for a $68 billion tax break for data centers?
Before you watch the debate at 7 p.m. Wednesday on WISN.com, read on to know the facts.
And before you vote, check out our other Fact Briefs and our comprehensive voter guide too.
No. Tiffany cited Crowley’s 2019 support for Gov. Tony Evers’ goal as support for his claim that Crowley “wants to let half the prison population out in Wisconsin.” Evers’ goal was aimed at gradually achieving the 50% reduction.
No. The number of juvenile homicide victims in Milwaukee County has ranged between 19 and 27 annually, with no clear trend upward or downward, since Crowley took office. Plus, most law enforcement in the county is done by city and village police departments; they are not under the control of the county executive.
Yes. Milwaukee County sales and property taxes have increased while Crowley has been county executive, though property taxes have increased less than the statewide average.
Yes. Crowley gave final approval to a 2022 contract requested by the Sheriff’s Office and approved by the Board of Supervisors that provides communication tablets to inmates and approved a three-year extension in 2025.
No. Congress did not vote up-or-down on giving data center operators a $68 billion tax break. An attack ad cited Tiffany’s vote for the Big Beautiful Bill Act. It contains business tax breaks, including 100% depreciation, but they are available broadly, including for data centers, to deduct the cost of many investments.
Yes. Both have emphasized how they would regulate artificial intelligence data centers, but they also have spoken favorably of them. Crowley: Wisconsin can “become an AI and a data hub not only for the entire country, but for the entire globe.” Tiffany: Data centers are “exciting new technology.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
When Mitchell Berman received an email from Elon Musk asking him to justify his job as a front-line emergency room nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, he began thinking more seriously about how he could make a difference beyond the hospital.
The email came as the Department of Government Efficiency, commonly referred to as DOGE, began making cuts and hiring freezes in spring 2025. More than a year later, Berman is still working emergency room shifts, but is now campaigning as the Democratic challenger to four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.
“I kind of realized if we really wanted to help improve things for folks, not even just at the VA, but for people in our communities, it was going to take somebody from the ground floor standing up and fighting for it,” Berman said.
The southeastern district is emerging as an unexpected battleground as Democrats look to capitalize on a shifting political environment and political newcomer Berman attempts to unseat Steil, who has represented the district since 2019.
Recent polling from Democratic-aligned organizations shows a close race, leading to increased national attention and campaign spending. Democrats point to dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump’s policies and congressional Republicans’ continued support of them as reasons the traditionally Republican district could be more competitive, while Steil noted he has faced significant Democratic spending in the district before and has continued to win.
“We’ve seen national Democrats spend millions of dollars in southeast Wisconsin before,” Steil said. “My strategy remains the same: Go speak directly to voters about the issues that are in front of us, and we have ultimately been successful in earning the support of the majority of voters four times in a row in the southern part of the state.”
About 38% of registered Wisconsin voters approve of Trump’s job performance, according to a Sept. 30 Marquette Law School Poll.
An Oct. 3 poll conducted by Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC showed Berman leading Steil 48% to 47% among likely voters. The poll also found 56% of respondents viewed Trump unfavorably. A Sept. 29 poll from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) found the candidates tied at 48%.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, recently shifted the district from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.”
In 2024, a Congressional Leadership Fund poll found Steil leading his challenger Peter Barca, a former member of Congress and Assembly minority leader, by 10 percentage points less than a month ahead of the general election, and Steil went on to win by that much.
Recent election results, however, show differences in how voters in the district have supported presidential, congressional and Supreme Court candidates. Trump carried the district by 4.5 percentage points in 2024. But liberal Supreme Court candidates have won the district by at least 6 percentage points in elections since 2023.
Democratic political strategist Joe Zepecki said the national political environment could make the district more competitive than it has been in previous elections.
“When the political environment is as bad for either party as it is bad for Republicans right now, races that didn’t seem plausible a year ago suddenly get very real,” Zepecki said.
Zepecki said Steil could have difficulty distancing himself from the administration as voters react to Trump’s actions.
“The way that Trump’s choices and congressional Republicans’ refusal to do anything about it is really hamstringing candidates like Steil, who otherwise would be viewed as safer than he finds himself today,” Zepecki said.
Republican political strategist Bill McCoshen, however, said Democrats appear to be “potentially overreacting” to what he said appears to be a favorable national environment for their party. He said he was surprised Democrats are targeting the district.
“Will that national environment still be there in three or four weeks? We don’t know. So I guess as they’re trying to put more seats in play right now, and then they’ll narrow it down to the ones they think they have the best shot at in the final two weeks,” McCoshen said.
Who has the advantage?
Steil in 2026 benefits from advantages in name recognition and financial resources compared to his opponent, McCoshen noted.
A campaign finance report from Oct. 15 showed Steil with more than $4.2 million in his campaign chest, compared with about $338,000 for Berman.
But Berman’s campaign has received additional support from national Democrats. In September, Berman was added to the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program, which provides selected Democratic candidates with additional fundraising and organizational support.
Barca was also added to the program during his 2024 campaign. He said the designation helped raise national money because people want to invest in candidates they believe can win.
He said the political environment changed significantly since he ran.
“The whole focus (in 2024) was putting Biden and Harris on the defensive and because even though things were improving, people didn’t really sense that big of an improvement,” Barca said. “And now though, I mean, it hasn’t been this bad since I think the recession of ’08. So as a consequence, I think it’s a completely different environment than it was.”
Mitchell Berman, the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District race, talks to supporters after a town hall for veterans at the Kenosha Union Club on Oct. 1, 2026. (Kenny Yoo for Wisconsin Watch)
Outside groups have also started pouring money into the race, bringing more national attention to the district.
The House Majority PAC has a $2.7 million ad buy planned for this district, according to AdImpact. Steil has still outpaced Berman in overall advertising spending, with about $5.9 million compared with more than $3 million for Berman, WisPolitics reported. The DCCC also made a joint ad buy of more than $270,000 for the Berman campaign.
Republican-aligned groups are also pouring money into the race. The No Going Back Pac, backed by Trump, spent over $400,000 on Steil along with crypto-backed Super PAC Wisconsin Working PAC spending over $500,000.
But Barca said spending may not be enough to overcome a broader political shift if voters remain displeased with the policies supported by Steil and other congressional Republicans.
“This is one of those potentially wave years where money can’t save you,” Barca said. “When you’ve got people hopping mad, and especially given they can connect the dots and tie what’s going on directly to policies that Steil has supported, I think that hurts dramatically.”
Candidates make their case to voters at home
While the political environment and campaign spending have drawn national attention to the race, both candidates are focused on emphasizing their message to voters in the district through their policy priorities and differing visions.
Berman, a political newcomer with more than two decades of experience in health care, is positioning himself as an outsider who can relate to working-class voters.
“I’m the true definition of a working-class candidate. I’m still working shifts in the emergency room as we run the campaign because I have a mortgage to pay,” Berman said. “Unlike Brian Steil, who sort of left for D.C. and kind of forgotten where he comes from, this is my home, and I’m invested in seeing our community do better.”
Berman said his experience in health care has shaped both his campaign and his decision to enter politics. Zepecki said this background could give him an advantage in a race where health care costs are a major concern for voters.
“I think he is exactly the kind of candidate you want at a time when health care costs are among the most severe pain points that families are dealing with,” Zepecki said.
Berman has called for lowering health care costs, restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies and reversing Medicaid cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. He is also campaigning to raise the minimum wage, protect reproductive rights and provide more funding for environmental protection.
He criticized Steil’s support for Trump’s tariffs and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying Steil’s support for policies like these have made life more difficult for Wisconsin residents.
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil speaks to supporters at the primary election watch party for U.S. Rep. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany at the Rustic Manor wedding barn in Hartland, Wis., Aug. 11, 2026. (Zoey Elwood / Wisconsin Watch)
Steil has emphasized securing the border, protecting older adults, supporting law enforcement and that he is “a strong supporter of life,” which signals support for the anti-abortion movement without mentioning the hot-button issue. He also highlighted legislation he supported, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security and increased the standard deduction.
Both candidates emphasized affordability as the top issue for voters in the district, but disagree about the route to addressing it.
Steil said Berman’s policy proposals would put more of a financial burden on taxpayers while Berman said Steil has failed to deliver on promises to lower costs.
“Brian Steil has made a lot of promises to folks here in this district,” Berman said. “He’s been running cycle after cycle on lowering costs, making health care affordable, protecting Social Security, and he, in fact, has not done any of those things.”
Steil pointed to his support for legislation that’s helped lower costs, such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and legislation to produce more domestic oil and gas to lower household energy and living costs for Americans.
“There’s more work to be done, and I think what you see is a contrast in policies between the radical left at the national stage, supported by my opponent, that would make life more expensive for families here in Wisconsin versus our policies to lower the costs for hardworking families,” Steil said.
The candidates do share some common ground. Both have emphasized supporting veterans, with Berman drawing on more than a decade of experience working at the VA. Both have also emphasized protecting Social Security.
Steil, having won four previous times, said the district has always been competitive and that his strategy remains the same as it has been even with continued efforts by Democrats.
“It’s a swing area of the state, a swing area of the country, which is why my focus is always on the grassroots and on direct voter outreach,” Steil said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Wisconsin’s largest utilities are on track to contribute less to political campaigns than in the last two gubernatorial election years, despite the enormous stakes for the state’s energy future.
Neither Republican Tom Tiffany nor Democrat David Crowley received contributions from utility political action committees through September.
Utilities have directed nearly all their campaign contributions toward state legislative races.
Democrats are gaining ground in utility fundraising, receiving about 45% of contributions to legislative candidates and fundraising committees this year, compared with less than 20% in 2022.
Wisconsin’s multibillion-dollar energy infrastructure construction boom isn’t fueling a similar deluge of utility-related campaign spending ahead of the election.
The state’s largest utilities are collectively on track to spend less supporting political candidates this year than in the last two gubernatorial election years.
Utility campaign contributions to Wisconsin’s local, state and federal campaigns — and state-level partisan fundraising groups — reached just under $300,000 by late September, down roughly $50,000 from the same point in 2022.
Neither Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany nor Democratic candidate David Crowley took in any contributions from the utilities’ political action committees (PACs) between January and September.
Utilities could still make last-minute contributions before the election, as they have in years past.
Utilities are dialing back contributions despite the influence the next governor and Legislature will wield over the industry. Next month’s winners will appoint and confirm a new majority to the state commission that regulates utilities and weigh in on legislation that could shape Wisconsin’s energy future for decades.
Some industry observers speculate that the mismatch between utilities’ political spending and the election’s ramifications reflect the mounting public hostility to the data center boom — and, by extension, to the utilities themselves.
“I think utilities are beginning to recognize that their brand is increasingly toxic,” said Jonathan Kim, a Chicago-based researcher for the Energy and Policy Institute, a nonprofit watchdog. As of August, Kim is also the institute’s registered lobbyist in Madison, focusing on residential ratepayer concerns.
If past ties to utilities put a target on a candidate’s back, Kim added, the companies would have good reason to avoid making direct contributions in hotly contested races.
Wisconsin isn’t the only state where utility political spending appears to be softening. In Michigan, for example, the state’s largest investor-owned utilities are on track to spend less supporting political candidates this year than they did in the last three midterm cycles.
The drop in political spending falls short of an all-out retreat in Wisconsin. Utilities have steered nearly all of their contributions toward state legislative contests — and, for the first time in at least a decade, divided their giving almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans. The shift coincides with Democrats’ improved prospects of securing a majority in at least one legislative chamber for the first time since 2010.
How utilities spend on politics
Three companies provide electricity for a majority of Wisconsin households: Alliant Energy, owner of Wisconsin Power and Light; WEC Energy Group, the parent company of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service Corporation; and Xcel Energy, owner of Northern States Power Company.
Each company operates separate federal and state political action committees, or PACs. The committees collect voluntary contributions from company executives, employees and shareholders, then distribute those funds to political candidates and organizations chosen by their boards of directors. Candidates can spend donations on their current or future campaigns — or share them with other candidates. They cannot legally spend on personal expenses.
Can utilities use ratepayer dollars for campaign contributions? (Click to expand)
Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission doesn’t explicitly prohibit it, but utility spokespeople told Wisconsin Watch that their companies do not bill ratepayers for political contributions. We Energies said the same to the state’s Public Service Commission in April.
Wisconsin law caps how much a PAC can contribute to a given state-level candidate in a single cycle — up to $2,000 for a Senate campaign, for instance, or $86,000 for a gubernatorial campaign. Federal rules similarly limit PAC contributions to individual candidates. Utilities’ federal PACs can give up to $5,000 to a federal candidate.
Utility employees and executives, meanwhile, can donate via employer-sponsored “conduits.” Alliant, WEC Energy and Xcel each sponsor conduits, as do Madison Gas and Electric and the American Transmission Company, Wisconsin’s largest transmission utility.
Like PACs, conduits serve as pass-throughs for political donations. Unlike PACs, employees choose which candidates receive their donations. The conduit’s sponsor may recommend candidates or races to support, and candidates who receive conduit contributions often also receive PAC donations.
Conduit contributions appear in campaign finance records under the individual donor’s name. Although state law limits how much individuals may contribute to a candidate, the combined donations routed through a utility’s conduit can exceed the amount a utility’s PAC may give in a single cycle.
How much have utilities spent on congressional races?
Alliant, WEC Energy and Xcel’s federal PACs gave roughly $23,500 to Wisconsin’s congressional delegation between January and late July.
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, facing a competitive race for a district stretching from Janesville to Racine, received $5,000 from Alliant’s PAC in early March — the largest Wisconsin utility contribution to a single candidate this year. Federal campaign finance records show no utility PAC contribution to Steil’s Democratic opponent, Mitchell Berman.
The state’s utilities have largely steered clear of the high-profile race in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, where incumbent Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Democratic challenger Rebecca Cooke have tried to link each other to data center interests.
Utility PACs have donated to all eight Wisconsinites in the U.S. House in the last decade. But annual donations have plunged from 2016, when the three utilities’ PACs gave over $94,000 to the Wisconsin delegation, primarily to Paul Ryan, who was House speaker at the time.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, the Madison area’s representative in Washington since 2013, hasn’t received a utility contribution since 2018.
How much have utilities spent on state races?
Contributions from the state-level utility PACs and their conduits to Wisconsin legislative candidates and legislative fundraising committees totaled roughly $250,000 between January and September.
Much of the decline in utility contributions from 2022 stems from reduced spending by WEC Energy’s PAC and conduit.
Democratic lawmakers have received about 45% of utilities’ year-to-date contributions, compared to just under 20% in 2022.
“We work with both sides,” WEC Energy President Scott Lauber told investors on a July quarterly earnings call. “It’s just a matter of how we make Wisconsin successful.”
Taylor Adams, an Alliant Energy spokesperson, said the utility’s political giving is bipartisan and varies from year to year based on the communities and elected officials within its service territory, not partisan preference. Adams added that his company focuses on policies that support “reliable and cost-effective energy.”
Rep. David Steffen, chair of the Assembly Committee on Energy and Utilities, is the top individual recipient of utility dollars, campaign finance records show. He has received roughly $13,655 via utility PACs and conduits this year, accounting for roughly a third of his total 2026 fundraising as of September.
Alliant and WEC Energy’s PACs have already given Steffen’s campaign the maximum $1,000 allowed by state statute for an Assembly candidate in a single cycle. Three WEC executives have done the same through their company’s conduit.
The Assembly committee’s ranking Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison, received $3,980.
Sen. Melissa Ratcliff of Cottage Grove, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Utilities, Technology and Tourism, received $5,250, including $2,000 from Alliant alone — the maximum state law allows for a Senate candidate. Ratcliff is not up for reelection until 2028.
Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, has received $7,500 from utilities and their conduits while Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, took in $5,560. With longtime Assembly Speaker Robin Vos set to retire, August is likely among top contenders to become speaker if Republicans keep the majority after Election Day.
August led Assembly’s Republicans through the two consecutive fights over utility-backed “right of first refusal” (ROFR) bills, which would grant Wisconsin’s transmission utilities first dibs on any electrical grid projects within their territory. Ratepayer advocates argue the proposal would risk driving up electricity prices by stifling competition in the transmission market.
Speaking at a June WisPolitics luncheon, Hesselbein blamed Republicans for the bill’s failure last session, casting the policy as a means to shore up Wisconsin-based businesses and union jobs.
Chamber leadership and members of the Senate and Assembly utilities committees received over a quarter of all utility PAC and conduit contributions this year.
That pattern isn’t unusual. Other industry interest groups, including in agriculture, also focus contributions on the committees most relevant to their businesses.
“Election spending from industry and wealthy special interests is about wanting access and sway over policy agendas that could affect their bottom line,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “It’s no surprise that they assess the landscape and find who might have the most impact.”
Some top recipients are less obvious.
Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha, has received $4,750 this year — more than many lawmakers on the Assembly utilities committee, despite not serving on it. McGuire is one of four Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee, which drafts the state’s two-year budget.
Other key lawmakers received relatively little this year. Senate utilities committee chair Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, received $1,500 from utility PACs and conduits as of late September, and Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer received $1,175.
Not all utility money reaches lawmakers directly. Utility PACs also contribute to partisan fundraising groups like the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, which contributes to legislative campaigns.
State law doesn’t cap contributions to party fundraising committees.
“There’s not supposed to be any sort of coordination between donors to the party committee and the campaigns that receive that money,” Kim said, making it difficult to know which candidates ultimately benefit from the utility’s committee contribution.
Scant spending on the governor’s race
About 2% of contributions from utility PACs and utility conduits between January and September flowed directly to gubernatorial candidates — including to candidates who lost their primary.
Wisconsin hasn’t held an open gubernatorial election since 2010, muddying comparisons with other recent elections.
Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker collected roughly $269,000 in contributions — not adjusted for inflation — between the launch of his gubernatorial campaign in 2009 and his exit in 2019, including about $86,000 ahead of his 2018 defeat by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Evers received about $11,000 in utility contributions during that race. Utilities have since contributed roughly $330,000 to his campaign committee.
Ahead of the 2022 election, utilities contributed more than twice as much to Evers as they did Tim Michels, his Republican opponent.
Some gubernatorial spending in 2018 and 2022 came in late October, just after the candidates turned in their final pre-election fundraising reports.
Tiffany has received roughly $3,600 via WEC and MGE’s conduits while Crowley has drawn none during the campaign.
Still, both accepted utility contributions during previous runs for office.
Tiffany brought in at least $17,000 from utility PACs and through their conduits over a decade of state legislative campaigns, followed by another $11,500 during and after his U.S. House campaign in 2020.
Crowley’s state Assembly campaign committee raised just over $1,600 from utility PACs and conduits — mostly WEC, which serves households in the Milwaukee district he represented. His Milwaukee County executive campaign committee accepted another $9,900 from WEC’s PAC and via its conduit between 2020 and 2024.
Any additional contributions between Oct. 26 and Election Day will appear on the candidates’ next finance report in January.
Crowley and Tiffany’s visions for the PSC (click to expand)
Both Crowley and Tiffany are picking up the banner of energy affordability, promising to follow through in part via their appointments to the PSC.
“Under David Crowley, the PSC will become a watchdog for taxpayers, ensuring that Wisconsinites’ utility bills stay as low as possible while creating greater transparency in where their tax dollars are going,” Crowley spokesman Philip Schulman wrote in an email. “This includes empowering the PSC to reject rate hikes in favor of cheaper options and publishing a quarterly score card detailing everything from avoided outages to fuel cost savings.”
Tiffany doesn’t shy away from criticizing the current commission, in no small part because of his objections to converting cropland into solar farms. “Day one when I become governor, they will be replaced,” he said at a September town hall in Sauk County, referring to the two acting commissioners — Kristy Nieto and Marcus Hawkins — serving without Senate confirmation.
Utility allies spend more
Utilities share interests with other groups, some of which have poured far more into this year’s governor’s race.
Crowley has received separate $86,000 donations — the PAC cap for a single cycle — from at least four labor groups that often align with utilities on energy infrastructure projects: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139 PAC, Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council and Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association PAC. Two other construction trades unions contributed smaller sums to Crowley’s campaign; a PAC representing a carpenters’ union gave $82,500 and a PAC representing plumbers and steamfitters gave $25,000.
Those unions represent workers who build or operate power plants and transmission lines. The political director of the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council sits on the board of Fair Rates for Wisconsin’s Dairyland alongside WEC and Alliant representatives.
Tiffany seized on that support in an attack ad that dubbed his opponent “Data Center David Crowley,” citing the labor groups’ vocal support for developing data centers and associated energy infrastructure. “IBEW certainly supports responsible data center development,” the IBEW state conference vice chair, John Jacobs, wrote in an email. “We also support renewable energy and countless projects that support family supporting jobs, great healthcare, great retirement benefits and a path to the middle class. All priorities of David Crowley – and that’s why we support him.”
Those labor groups had not contributed to Tiffany’s campaign through September. But Robert Marchant, the Wisconsin Data Center Coalition’s sole lobbyist, donated $5,000 in early June. Alliant, WEC and Xcel are founding members of the coalition.
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Wisconsin’s statewide economic development agency has signed at least five nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with data center developers.
Wisconsin Watch previously reported that five communities had signed local NDAs with data center developers. The statewide disclosure increases to eight the number of Wisconsin projects that used an NDA.
NDAs have drawn criticism for keeping the public in the dark about the multibillion-dollar projects while government officials negotiate the terms of a project. Economic development officials say NDAs are necessary to attract businesses to Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s statewide economic development agency has signed at least five nondisclosure agreements with developers of artificial intelligence data centers, adding a previously unknown level of secrecy to the billion-dollar projects.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., a quasi-government state agency, signed one of the NDAs nearly two years before a proposed data center in Menomonie was announced to the public and six months before the city signed its own NDA.
Wisconsin Watch previously revealed that at least five communities signed local NDAs, keeping the public in the dark about data center proposals for months.
The newly released state agency NDAs show that in some cases, the proposals were hidden from view even longer. Also, three of the NDAs signed by the state agency are for projects proposed in communities that didn’t have a local secrecy pact.
The agreements, provided to Wisconsin Watch under the state public records law, show the gap in time between when the WEDC NDAs were signed and when the data center proposals were publicly announced:
Menomonie — 23 months: The August 2023 NDA, signed with a shell company called Balloonist LLC, was done 23 months before the city announced the data center proposal, which is pending.
Beaver Dam — 19 months: The NDA for the Meta data center now under construction in Beaver Dam, also signed in August 2023 by Balloonist, was done 19 months before the project was announced to the public.
DeForest — 8 months: The NDA was signed in February 2025 with QTS Data Centers, eight months before the public announcement of the proposal, which was later dropped.
Mount Pleasant — 2 months: Microsoft’s NDA was signed in January 2023, two months before the village announced the proposed data center complex that is now under construction.
Port Washington: The July 2025 NDAssigned for the OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage project under construction were done six months after the city announced the proposal.
WEDC replied to an interview request with a statement saying “the agency is committed to transparency and compliance with Wisconsin’s public records laws and has long been recognized for its strong commitment to reporting.”
“Wisconsin law recognizes that certain information related to pending economic development projects may need to remain confidential to protect their competitive nature,” the agency said. “NDAs are one tool used to facilitate the exchange of business information while companies evaluate potential investments, expansions, or relocations in Wisconsin. These agreements help Wisconsin compete for economic opportunities while remaining consistent with applicable public records laws.”
Told about WEDC’s use of NDAs, state Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, said he would add the state agency to legislation banning data center NDAs that he plans to introduce in January, after a new governor and Legislature take office.
His original bill, introduced in January but given no hearings, would have applied only to local governments.
“I would assume they wouldn’t like it,” Moses said of the WEDC. “I know certain groups … kind of frown on any time you start banning NDAs. But these data centers are such a big issue, and there’s so much unknown about them still, that we need to be doing something.
“I think regardless who the governor is and who has control of the Legislature, I think it’s popular,” Moses added. “I think it will get support, regardless.”
Behind the WEDC and confidentiality
WEDC is the state’s lead economic development agency. It aims to attract new businesses to the state by allocating tax credits, awarding grants and loans and authorizing local governments to issue bonds.
The state law that created WEDC in 2011 says agency records are open to the public — except for “pending grants, loans, or economic development projects that, in the opinion of the corporation, must remain confidential to protect the competitive nature of the grant, loan, or project.”
That means proposed data centers costing billions of dollars and covering hundreds of acres could be quietly explored long before local residents are informed.
“It just seems like really bad practice,” said Port Washington Ald. Michael Beaster, who opposed his community’s data center and made public records requests about it before being elected in April. “A state agency is not accountable to the local government.”
The NDA record requests
Wisconsin Watch sought to obtain all NDAs signed by WEDC for hyperscale data center proposals. However, the agency was unable to produce all NDAs in its records in response to a general public records request for them.
The agency initially provided NDAs for three data centers that it certified for a state sales tax exemption and are under construction — Microsoft’s in Mount Pleasant, Meta’s in Beaver Dam and OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage’s in Port Washington.
Mount Pleasant and Port Washington replied to previous public records requests from Wisconsin Watch saying they did not sign NDAs for their data centers. The Beaver Dam Area Development Corp., a quasi-government group, signed an NDA for the Beaver Dam data center.
Wisconsin Watch then followed up with a request for any NDAs that WEDC signed with at least 16 companies that Wisconsin Watch identified as making data center proposals in the state. That prompted WEDC to provide its Menomonie and DeForest NDAs.
No data center NDAs were turned up by public records requests Wisconsin Watch made to the state’s nine regional economic development agencies.
Six of the regional agencies said the public records law doesn’t apply to them. But three of those six, plus three others, said they had no such NDAs.
NDAs helped usher in massive economic development
The NDAs helped pave the way for multibillion-dollar developments, but also public backlash.
Microsoft’s plans have grown to $20 billion worth of data centers in Mount Pleasant, south of Milwaukee in Racine County. The OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage project is worth $15 billion in Port Washington, north of Milwaukee in Ozaukee County. Meta’s data center investment is $1 billion in Beaver Dam, 40 miles north of Madison in Dodge County.
Data centers have also been worth billions of dollars to Wisconsin businesses that serve them. Earlier this year, just three Wisconsin companies had already done more than $1 billion in data center business, Wisconsin Watch reported.
“Non-disclosure agreements are an essential part of doing business in a competitive economic development climate,” the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch. “Companies considering major investments don’t evaluate locations singularly. They compare us with communities across the country, and they expect legitimate trade secrets and proprietary business information to remain confidential while making those decisions. If we make it harder to protect that information, we put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage and risk losing that investment altogether. That means a loss of jobs, tax base and economic momentum. To our knowledge, not a single state prohibits its economic development arm from utilizing NDAs.”
A Microsoft data center, named “Fairwater,” is under construction in Mount Pleasant, Wis. The Foxconn High Performance Computing Data Center Globe can be seen in the background. The Microsoft project was subject to a nondisclosure agreement between the developer and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. two months before it was publicly announced. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Another measure of data centers’ impact is the sales tax exemption, part of the 2023-25 state budget. It means that generally, data centers certified by the WEDC, including the three facilities under construction, don’t have to pay sales taxes on construction materials, computer servers and other equipment. The exemption is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion and has been targeted by Democrats and Republicans for modification or elimination.
The $1.6 billion data center proposal in Menomonie in western Wisconsin, where $25 million in land has already been purchased, was paused in September 2025 after local opposition mounted. The city is still drafting zoning regulations. The city signed an NDA in February 2024, six months after the WEDC secrecy agreement.
QTS had planned to spend $12 billion on a data center in the Madison suburb of DeForest. The village, which said it did not sign an NDA, reached a wide-ranging community benefits agreement with QTS, but village officials dropped the plan over local opposition. Wisconsin Watch obtained records showing village officials were in talks with QTS around the same time WEDC signed a nondisclosure agreement and months before village officials initially told the public they were aware of the project.
At least two Wisconsin communities have restricted data center NDAs. The Columbia County Board prohibited its members from signing data center NDAs. The Beloit Town Board barred town board employees from signing them without board approval.
Both candidates for governor in the Nov. 3 election, Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany, have expressed support for banning data center NDAs.
More data centers being considered
Data center proposals that are pending include one for a former paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids, north of Madison, where a decisive city council vote could come this month. The city said it did not sign an NDA.
In Kenosha, which signed an NDA in May 2024, residents are seeking a data center moratorium as the city considers a data center plan from Microsoft. The technology giant terminated the local NDA in June 2026.
That stemmed from Microsoft’s announcement three months earlier that it would no longer sign data center NDAs with local governments and would seek to terminate the ones it had signed, calling it an effort to build trust.
The announcement didn’t mention state-level NDAs. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment on state NDAs.
“We continue to hear these data centers and tech companies talking about wanting to be a good neighbor,” said Beaver Dam data center opponent Maily Kocinski. “This is not something a good neighbor does.”
Disclosure: The OpenAI Foundation recently awarded agrantto Wisconsin Watch but has no control over its editorial decisions. We will update our funding page to reflect the grant. A list of donors and funders through 2025, as well as our donation acceptance policies, can be foundhere.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
“I was wondering if, in a future edition, you might offer some insight into some of the process behind some of these city and town board meetings. For example, I have always wondered why boards are allowed to meet in a closed session.” — reader Sophie B.
Great suggestion, Sophie. You’re not the first person to wonder about closed sessions.
Generally speaking, most boards follow the rules we’ll dive into below. However, some don’t, and it’s important to know the rules so that if something seems fishy, you can report it.
What is closed session?
Closed session is when a board meets without members of the general public present.
When can a board go into closed session?
Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law is pretty clear on reasons why a board can go into closed session and on how to notify the public about closed session.
First things first: Every governmental body “shall give at least 24 hours” notice that a meeting ofany kindwill take place.
In the case of an emergency meeting, the public must be notified at least two hours before the meeting starts. That’s for any meeting, regardless of whether it includes a closed session.
Do boards have to give notice of closed session?
You betcha! A board that plans to convene in closed session has to say so on its agenda and list the reason why.
Furthermore, a board has to start a meeting in open session and a motion must be made, seconded and approved before closed session starts.
To deliberate after any quasi-judicial trial or hearing.
To consider specific personnel matters.
To consider specific applications of probation or parole.
To consider a strategy for crime detection or prevention.
To deliberate or negotiate the purchase of public property, the investing of public money, or to conduct specific public business when competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed section.
To deliberate unemployment insurance or worker’s compensation.
To deliberate the location of a burial site if discussing it in public would likely result in disturbance of the burial site.
To consider financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific people, which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any such person.
To confer with legal counsel for a governmental body that is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy with respect to litigation.
To consider requests for confidential written advice from the Government Accountability Board, which used to be called the State Ethics Board.
To consider some matters related to acts by businesses, which if discussed in public could adversely affect the business, its employees or former employees, under the State Economic Adjustment Program.
To consider financial information relating to the support of certain nonprofit corporations.
Personnel issues and getting legal advice from attorneys are the common reasons I see on agendas.
Can the board talk about anything in closed session?
No. The law is clear on this, too. The discussion can only focus on the reason why the board goes into closed session. This is why you might see a board list multiple reasons for closed session on its agenda – officials don’t want to go back and forth from open to closed session multiple times.
Are minutes taken during closed session?
Yes: “The open meetings law requires a governmental body to create and preserve a record of all motions and roll-call votes at its meetings. This requirement applies to both open and closed sessions,” according to the DOJ’s Open Meetings Guide.
The DOJ’s Open Meetings Guide has a ton more information about open meetings generally, including what to do if you think a local government board violated open meetings law.
In a governor’s race that has focused more on data center construction than artificial intelligence technology, Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley on Tuesday announced a plan for state regulations on AI aimed at protecting vulnerable Wisconsinites.
In an 11-point plan shared with Wisconsin Watch, Crowley calls for guardrails on AI offerings for minors and holding technology companies responsible for scams and fraud on their platforms. Some key components of the plan include:
Limiting access to AI chatbot apps for children under 13.
Prohibiting addictive design features, such as infinite scrolling and autoplay, on accounts of minors.
Increasing penalties for circulating AI-generated sexual images of minors.
Allowing families to sue AI platforms if their content harms children, such as by promoting suicide or eating disorders.
Penalizing technology companies that profit from scams or fraudulent ads.
More funding for adult protective services and resource centers that can help victims of scams or fraud.
Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, is running for governor against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in what polling from Marquette University Law School shows could be another close governor’s race in Wisconsin. AI policy debates between the two candidates in the months since the August primary have mostly been focused on the planning and construction of AI data centers, rather than the technology itself.
In a statement, Tiffany also said Wisconsin needs “commonsense guardrails” to protect children and older adults, including holding companies accountable for platforms that allow creation of sexually explicit images or engage minors in inappropriate chatbot conversations. Tiffany said he also wants to prevent personal data from “falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Communist China.”
“As governor, I will also support commonsense age-verification requirements for app providers, strengthen parental-consent protections, and give parents greater control over their children’s online activity,” Tiffany said.
Crowley’s proposed state-level AI regulations land as President Donald Trump has dismissed calls for guardrails and warnings from technology company leaders asking for government oversight as their platforms become more advanced.
Trump in May 2025 signed the Take it Down Act, which criminalized the online publication of real and AI-generated intimate images and requires social media platforms to remove them once notified of their existence. Tiffany, and the rest of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, voted for the bill in 2025.
Other proposed federal legislation has not advanced, including bills requiring public reporting of safety incidents by AI companies and requiring labels on any AI-generated content. Crowley in a statement said he would not “wait around for DC to act” on additional AI regulations if he is elected.
“Like so many parents, Ericka and I are raising our three girls in the age of social media and AI, and we’re navigating things no generation before us has ever had to, worrying about whether a stranger is messaging our kids, or a fake picture of our daughter is going around school, or even scammers trying to drain a grandparent’s life savings,” Crowley said.
The proposals in Crowley’s regulatory plan would require state legislative action. They echo recent bipartisan efforts signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers, including a series of bills that classified sextortion as a crime and provided additional recourse for victims and their families.
Additionally, Attorney General Josh Kaul in August announced Wisconsin could receive up to $313 million in a settlement social media company Meta made with 47 states in a case that alleged addictive components of its platforms threatened teens’ mental health.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
At a brewery in Mauston, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley took a question from rural Democrats about what led to his exit and reentry in the chaotic Democratic gubernatorial primary this summer. At a biergarten in Germantown, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany answered a guest at a picnic table who asked how his property tax plan might help young people purchase a home.
As Crowley and Tiffany sprint toward Election Day on Nov. 3, they are crisscrossing the state to get in front of potential voters and make their case to be the state’s next governor in a high-stakes election that could determine future political control of the Capitol in Madison. The latest polling from the Marquette University Law School indicates it’s shaping up to be another close gubernatorial contest in Wisconsin.
Voters are already casting their absentee ballots, and early in-person voting begins Oct. 20. Wisconsinites can watch the candidates participate in the race’s lone televised debate on Oct. 21, but few voters across the state may get the chance to ask Crowley and Tiffany questions about issues that matter in their communities.
In August, Wisconsin Watch asked readers to send us their questions for candidates running for office in 2026. We caught up with Crowley and Tiffany at their campaign events to pose several of those questions.
Their answers show two very different approaches, with occasional overlap, to issues they may face if they are elected governor in November. We also provided additional context when appropriate. After reading this, find out more about the candidates in our voter guide.
Reader question: What would your administration do to help fund volunteer fire departments?
More context
Results of a surveyconducted by the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health and published in June 2025 showed that about a third of fire chiefs said they could not cover their annual costs due to the financial status of their departments. The survey also found many fire departments do not have enough firefighters to staff their trucks.
David Crowley: “I think that’s a very good question. It’s also one of the reasons why I worked to get Act 12 passed and across the finish line because we know how important this type of funding is for communities all across the state, and so we need to step up. We need the state to step up as it relates to shared revenue to make sure that EMS, our firefighters, are getting the support that they need. And I want to continue that work that we started with Act 12 when I become governor.”
More context
In 2023, Gov. Tony Evers worked with the GOP Legislature to passAct 12, which changedthe way local governments receive state funding. The law also provided the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County the power to implement new sales taxes, which both governments did later that year. Crowley has highlighted his efforts to pass the legislation on the campaign trail as an example of his ability to work across the political aisle to help Milwaukee County’s struggling financial position stemming from pension costs. Tiffany’s campaign has cited the sales tax increase to suggest Crowley would raise taxes as governor.
Tom Tiffany: “We’re going to review the volunteer fire department programs that are out there because what I’ve heard from local officials is that they’ve made the requirements so onerous now they’re keeping young people from going through the process to get certified. So, like the training hours have basically doubled, and so we’re going to review that because what it’s doing is it’s reducing the number of people that want to go through the process to become a volunteer fireman. And so I always put it this way that the perfect is becoming the enemy of the good. And I understand they want to set really high standards, but let’s make sure we have good standards but we’re not, they should not be excessive.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, greets a guest at a meeting of the Juneau County Democrats at Gravity Box Brewing in Mauston, Wis., on Oct. 1, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: How will you bring native nations to the table in your administration? Have you met with any of the native nations as you’ve been campaigning?
Crowley: “I know that our state has a long history and a long relationship with our native nations and our tribes all across Wisconsin, and as governor, I want to continue to build that relationship and continue that track record. I think it’s extremely important that you know both our governments sit down to actually figure out how we can help one another moving forward. You know, we just have a duty to do that because these are the lands that they lived in way before our government was actually here, and so I want to make sure that we are committed to building that future together.
I’ve met with a few of the different nations, and actually between now and Election Day, I know that we’re going to be heading up north to visit some of their land as well.”
Tiffany: “I would work with the tribes. I mean, the governor has a responsibility to do that, and I’ll sit down with the tribes both collectively and individually if they choose to, and hear what their concerns are. I’ll share what my concerns are, and we’ll just have good dialogue.
I’ve talked to some of tribal leadership here and there. I’ve had some discussions with them. I would say that I will definitely be sitting down with the Lac du Flambeau in regards to their road closures, because having dealt with that issue federally, and the judges ruled that that’s illegal to do that, I’m hoping we can come to a resolution where we don’t have this disagreement that’s going on, where they’re closing roads illegally.”
More context
An August 2025federal court rulingfound that the Lac du Flambeau Band of the Chippewa Indians could not block public access to roads going through tribal lands after a dispute about expired easements. Tiffany, ina letter later that month, asked former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate and recover $600,000 the town of Lac du Flambeau paid the tribe during the conflict, describing the tribe’s actions as an “illegal shakedown.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for governor, speaks to guests at the Von Rothenburg Bier Stube in Germantown, Wis., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: What policies would you enact to protect Wisconsin from droughts, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes?
Crowley: “The changing of climate is real and you have to follow the science and the data to make sure that we are pivoting the way that we need to to make sure that we’re protecting our land, protecting our water, protecting our air. But I also know that the state of Wisconsin has a 2050 climate action plan as well, but it doesn’t have any teeth or levels of accountability to it. I want to make sure that it’s a plan that we can actually implement and where the community can actually hold us accountable in making sure that we’re addressing climate change in Wisconsin.
The other things that we can do is as we look to the future, how do you build for more resilience, right? How do you build thinking about things, for example, the flooding, right? We’ve seen that here within Milwaukee County within the past couple of years, but it doesn’t just affect urban areas. It also affects farmers, affects our rural communities and affects their crops. So it’s about making sure that we’re building with more resilience because we see more extreme weather patterns.”
Tiffany: “The important thing that needs to be done is, I mean, we’ll make sure that our disaster aid program is fully prepared. I mean, I’ll make sure … that they’re fully prepared for any disasters that may happen in Wisconsin. I think that’s the most important thing that we can do is simply be prepared when they do happen, whether it’s flooding or whatever.
The other thing is that I’m going to make sure that I have a good line of communication with the White House in regards to this. In case you have a situation like in New London this year, where they had the flooding, and we sent letters to the administration asking them to designate it a federal disaster area, and the administration said yes, we’re going to do that. I think it’s important to have good communication there. And this is one place where I think David Crowley is really making a mistake when he says, almost every time he does an interview, and he’s speaking about me, he says ‘Donald Trump, MAGA, all the rest,’ and he’s basically just saying ‘I’m against everything that Donald Trump stands for.’ Well, you’ve got to work with the White House occasionally when you’re the governor.”
More context
While the Trump administration has approved some disaster declarations for recent storms in Wisconsin, it has also denied some of the state’s requests. For severe rain and flooding in August 2025, individual assistance for Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties was approved but public assistance grantswere denied. The administration approved both individual and public assistance for several counties after severe flooding in April 2026, butit deniedstatewide hazard mitigation grants and public assistance for Bayfield, Manitowoc, Marathon and Racine counties. After an appeal, Racine County was later approved for public assistance. Ina social media poston Oct. 7, President Donald Trump said he spoke to Tiffany and would approve $17.9 million for Wisconsin’s “severe storms and tornadoes.” Evers formally requested disaster assistancein Augustfor the storms andtornado that hit the Fox Valley in July.
Reader question: Are there any rights thattransgender childrenand adults have currently that you would seek to limit, such as access to gender-affirming care?
Crowley: “No, I am not going to limit our LGBTQ community from what they currently have. We have a job in making sure that we protect our LGBTQ community, that we protect all children in this state, to where they can live and be their healthy selves, no matter where they are. And so, you know, I’m always going to be an accomplice when it comes down to the LGBTQ community and making sure that we’re protecting their rights and their ability to live healthy lives in Wisconsin.”
Tiffany: “I would say two things in regards to that. So first of all, public money should not be used for that, including for adults, and it should not happen to minors. I mean, puberty is a very delicate time of life. It’s a time of confusion for young people, and to say to them, to say that we’re going to allow these sexual, what I call, mutilations, to happen, I think is just wrong when they’re minors, and just because it’s a time of great uncertainty, we should let them work their way through it. And then, as adults, if they choose a different path, then you know that’s up to them as adults. But we should not be doing that as minors. And I would restrict that funding for medical facilities that are offering those surgeries to minors, we would restrict those dollars from going to them.”
More context
Over the course of his two terms as governor, Evers vetoed several Republican bills that focused on medical procedures, names and pronouns of transgender Wisconsinites. In March, Evers vetoed five Republican bills that included:
A ban on transgender children and college-age individuals from playing in school sports teams that matched their gender identity.
Prohibiting school districts from changing a student’s name or pronouns without parental consent.
Prohibiting health care providers from providing gender-affirming care for minors in Wisconsin and allowing lawsuits against medical professionals that do so.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, speaks to guests at a meeting of the Juneau County Democrats at Gravity Box Brewing in Mauston, Wis., on Oct. 1, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: Do you envision any reforms to the current campaign finance system that gives political parties the ability to raise unlimited funding for candidates?
Crowley: “What I’ve realized running for governor is that you spend a lot of time fundraising. Unfortunately, Tom Tiffany has not because he has three billionaire backers, and it takes us away from actually talking to as many voters as possible. And when you think about how much money that we see going into supporting candidates all across this country, when you think about the $24 million that is backing Congressman Tom Tiffany from three billionaire donors, imagine how much more we could afford child care, how much we can help health care stretch across this state, how we can start fully funding our public schools. So yes, we absolutely need campaign finance reform in the state of Wisconsin.
I want to make sure that no one can buy this election. The fact that any political party can receive unlimited amounts of funds and donate that to one particular candidate, that’s insane to me. And so we need to make sure that government continues to stay in the hands of the people, and not in the hands of the ultra wealthy.”
More context
Recent campaign finance reports from July 1 through Sept. 23 show Tiffany’s largest donor is the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which received nearly 95% of its $29 million in donations from GOP megadonors Diane Hendricks, the founder of ABC Supply Co., and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who founded the Uline shipping supplies company. Crowley’s largest donor in the same time period is the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, whose largest donors include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Lynde Uihlein, a cousin of Richard Uihlein, who each gave $1 million.
Tiffany: “I would work with the Legislature in regards to that and see if they want to make some changes. I think it’s going to take a bipartisan effort in order to be able to do that, and so I would just work with the Legislature to see if they want to change that.
More context
In a December 2025 interview withPBS Wisconsin, Tiffany described the system of unlimited donations to political parties as a “billionaire loophole.” As a state senator, Tiffany voted for the2015 law, signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, that allowed unlimited donations to political parties.
“I do find it ironic that the Democrat Party is making a big deal out of this when they raised $50 million for the 2023 Supreme Court race, $48 million in the 2025 race, almost all of it out of state, including the governor of Illinois, and now they’re whining about it. I mean, to me, it’s really clear what’s going on. David Crowley is not exciting their base, and they’re having a hard time fundraising because what he’s proposing and just the basement campaign that he’s running, primarily between Milwaukee and Madison, is just not exciting voters around Wisconsin. So he’s having real difficulty being able to raise money.”
More context
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin donated about $9.9 million in 2023 to then-Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz’s campaign and about $11.8 million in 2025 to then-candidate Susan Crawford’s campaign.A majority of the donorsto Protasiewicz and Crawford’s campaigns did not live in Wisconsin. During those same races, the Republican Party of Wisconsin donated $900,000 to conservative former Justice Daniel Kelly in 2023 and $9.7 million to former Attorney General Brad Schimel in 2025.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican nominee for governor, speaks to guests at the Von Rothenburg Bier Stube in Germantown, Wis., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: Do you support restoring local eminent domain for bike and pedestrian purposes?
More context
The 2017 state budget bill, which Tiffany voted for and Crowley voted against, prohibited the use of eminent domain for bicycle and pedestrian paths. The Wisconsin Bicycle Federation has supported bringing back those powers for local governments.
Crowley: “I believe in local control and I think that this is basically what it goes down to. I think that local communities should be able to have a say-so on what they want to be able to do, you know, with the properties that are within their communities. And so, to say whether or not I support it for a particular project, I support anything that gives local municipalities a greater say-so at the table, at the decision-making table.”
Tiffany: “I think eminent domain should very rarely be used, and if it’s oftentimes that would be going over. I remember the example when I was in the Legislature. It was in St. Croix County, and they wanted to do it over farmland. I am very opposed, whether it’s bike trails or wind and solar, I am very opposed to converting our farmland. It is one of the cornerstones of our economy, and we have got to stop destroying our farmland. So I think eminent domain should be used very, very rarely, just very rarely.”
Reader question: What’s your position on marijuana legalization and why? What are your concerns if you do not support recreational legalization?
Crowley: “I believe it should be legalized, and I think that it needs to be legalized. One, you know, we don’t have the same opportunities as folks in Minnesota and in Michigan and in Illinois. I believe that we should support it, one, because this is a personal health position for those who want to utilize it as an alternative to a prescription drug I think is extremely important. But I also look at it as an opportunity, right? Being able to grow our economy here locally, but also finding a new revenue stream to invest in things like public safety, public education and child care.”
Tiffany: “I think you take a go-slow approach because we’ve seen some states that went straight to it, like I think about Colorado, and they had some real problems as a result of that. Think about Oregon, where they adopted full legalization, but then they also legalized other hard drugs. They had to pull back, and so I think those are a lesson to other states that we should take this go-slow approach. Also, I’ve voted federally for more money to go into research, and I think that research can inform states about what’s the best approach to take in regards to legalization.”
More context
Tiffany’scampaign websitesays the congressman supports legalizing medical marijuana and establishing a “responsible program” that would help veterans and patients access treatments while also establishing strict age requirements to prevent marijuana from getting in the hands of children.
Reader question: Do you support the BECI and MariBell electric transmission line projects? Will you intervene if they decide to skip public utility corridors and route them through private land?
More context
Two 765 kV transmission line projects are proposed in southwestern Wisconsin, which energy companies say would help meet energy demands and opposition groups say would threaten land and life in the Driftless region. The BECI would run from Crawford County to Walworth County and then to the Wisconsin-Illinois border. The MariBell would run between Marion, Minnesota, and Bell Center, Wisconsin. It will be up to thestate’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, whether the projects get approved for construction.
Crowley: “No, I do not support them in its current form, and that’s because it is literally going through many different private properties and agricultural land that could be utilized, and it’s unfortunate. What’s really unfortunate is that they did not pass. ROFR would have utilized existing right of ways instead of creating new pathways, you know, for these lines that’s going to basically power these data centers. And so I want people to recognize and know that this shouldn’t be happening and the only reason why it’s happening is because the Republican-controlled Senate, particularly, didn’t pass the law to utilize the existing right of ways. We want, I want to preserve our beautiful areas. When I think about the Driftless region, I want to make sure that people can continue to have the types of views and in the agricultural lands that they need to produce the products that they harvest. And so, in its current form, I absolutely oppose this line.”
More context
ROFR, or right of first refusal, legislation that would allow in-state utility companies to have first dibs on transmission line construction has often failed in the Wisconsin Legislature, including the recent 2025-26 session.
“I’m not sure of everything related to what the governor’s power is related to this. But as you can imagine, it all depends on when this gets approved, right? Because if it gets approved before you know anybody is sworn in, you know that that pretty much handcuffs anybody’s ability to do anything moving forward. But I want your readers to know that you know they have a friend in me. They can call me their Randy Newman, in a sense, because I’m going to make sure that we’re fighting on their behalf as it relates to these power lines.”
Tiffany: “I oppose this because we’ve been seeing this across the state of Wisconsin. So first of all, just having a farm background has really given me a sense of what is happening because if we destroy our farmland, one of the most important things we do is grow food, and we’re going to, as we convert this farmland, thousands of acres of it, we’re going to drive food prices up eventually as a result of that. But there’s also the increase in energy prices. The last eight years, over $2 billion worth of rate increases here in Wisconsin, and I think one of the utilities just asked for another 14% increase, so it’s clear they’re going to continue to skyrocket our utility rates here if we continue this conversion, but to bring in something like this line, which is unique to Wisconsin, that we’re not very familiar with. I think there needs to be a timeout here and reassess where we’re going as a state.”
More context
A review of Public Service Commission-approved rate increases from 2021 to 2025 byWisPolitics.comfound that Evers’ PSC commissioners approved $2.2 billion out of more than $3.1 billion in rate increases sought by utilities.
“I think the key thing is to be able to get PSC members that are going to respect private property. They’re going to make sure that we’re not using eminent domain, and that we’re seeking low-cost, affordable, reliable energy sources rather than the high-cost sources of energy.”
Sauk County Board Chair Tim McCumber speaks to guests at a town hall about the 765 transmission line at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., on Sept. 18, 2026. The event was organized by No 765 Line, Inc., an organization concerned about the proposed MariBell and BECI transmission lines proposed across southern Wisconsin. (Brittany Carloni / Wisconsin Watch)
Reader question: Do you support the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program? What changes would you want to see to the program?
More context
The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, which was created in 1989 to preserve green space and wetlands across the state, expired on July 1 after the Legislaturefailed to reauthorize the program.
Crowley: “The Knowles Nelson Fund, we’ve never seen this become a political issue until, you know, within the past year and a half, two years. This has always been a bipartisan issue, and I want to make sure that we’re fully funding the entire program, especially when you see Donald Trump and Tom Tiffany stripping safeguards at the federal level that keeps our water and air clean.”
Tiffany: “I support renewal of the stewardship program, and the primary change that I want to make is to make sure that we’re maintaining existing state properties appropriately. I always use the example of someone who has a home, they got a hole in their roof, and their neighbor’s house comes for sale. Do you buy that house or do you fix your roof? And I see that happening with some of our state properties where they’re in disrepair. We need to make sure the roads and the buildings, the outhouses and all the rest. We’ve got to make sure that parking lots, we got to make sure that stuff is all in good repair, so people can enjoy their experience at the existing state properties. So let’s make sure we maintain what we have first before we buy anything else.”
Reader question: How will you protect and ensure the quality of Medicaid-funded home- and community-based services (like Family Care and IRIS programs) for older adults and people with disabilities?
Crowley: “That’s extremely important to me. You know, when I think about our seniors, people with disabilities, we’re talking about the most vulnerable populations, like here within the state of Wisconsin, and we’re going to make sure that they continue to get the direct services that they need. And when we talk about expanding BadgerCare, I mean, this is about actually allowing people to pay into a system to make sure we can keep it sustainable moving forward, and so I’m excited about the opportunities. But we know that we have a long road to go. My job is to focus on how we win in November to make sure that we can provide that relief, those health care services that so many families rely on each and every single day.”
Tiffany: “Part of it’s going to be the audit that I talked about. Part of it’s going to be the auditing. So the auditing, we’re seeking to first of all eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse, but just as importantly, we want to make sure that people get quality care. We’re generous here in Wisconsin in helping people who are in need, and we should make sure they’re getting the best care possible. I would add, just generally in regards to health care, we’re going to have a transparency part to our budget that health care costs have to be fully transparent. Our health care providers have to do that. We’ve seen with the study out of UW-Madison that our health care expenses are 26% higher than Illinois. We should not be worse than Illinois in anything, and so it’s certainly something that needs to be dealt with.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Lake sturgeon have been around for more than 130 million years, long before the Great Lakes formed. Commercial fishing in the 19th century, followed by damming rivers, nearly wiped out the species in the Milwaukee River basin.
A breeding and release program led by Riveredge Nature Center, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Wisconsin’s tribal communities aims to reverse the damage. This year marks the project’s 20th anniversary.
Staff collect sturgeon eggs, then hatch and raise them in a trailer at Riveredge Nature Center using water from the Milwaukee River. Over the past 20 years, the program has released more than 23,000 sturgeon.
Each fall, that work culminates in Sturgeon Fest, where people release young lake sturgeon into Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Milwaukee River. Wisconsin Watch attended the festival on Sept. 27 in Milwaukee’s Harbor District. Watch the video for the sights and sounds of the event — and to see us release a sturgeon of our own.
Males mature slightly faster than females and have been spotted in the Milwaukee River. The Wisconsin DNR hopes females will soon reach the age — about 20 years — when they typically begin spawning.
If they do, Milwaukee could see sturgeon spawn in the basin for the first time in more than a century.
New credential programs and apprenticeships are creating more pathways for Wisconsin workers to launch careers, switch fields and build skills throughout their working lives.
But Wisconsin policymakers could do more to make those pathways accessible to students and workers.
Those were among the themes from a conversation Wisconsin Watch and Open Campus convened Tuesday to explore how short-term credentials are reshaping careers in a range of industries — from manufacturing to health care and education.
Here are four more takeaways from the event’s two panels, which were moderated by Wisconsin Watch/Open Campus reporters Natalie Yahr and Miranda Dunlap.
Training programs are providing more on-ramps to careers than ever — and career choices don’t have to be permanent.
Panelists said workers increasingly can build skills over time through short-term credentials, apprenticeships and certificates. Wisconsin Technical College System President Layla Merrifield compared the “stackable” approach to constructing a Lego city — adding one building at a time as careers evolve.
“It’s OK to change careers. It’s OK to change your mind,” she said, encouraging students and workers to view education as a lifelong process rather than a one-time decision.
Nathan Roberts, president and owner of G.D. Roberts, a metal manufacturer in Columbus, Wisconsin, encouraged students and early-career workers to take their time, try new things and gravitate toward what gives them joy.
Parents should be patient, too.
“Give your kids enough time to figure it out,” he said.
Employers value more than just technical skills.
Knowing how to weld, code or care for patients may open the door to a profession, panelists said, but employers increasingly look for workers who can communicate, collaborate, manage projects and solve problems. Credentialing programs through technical colleges often teach those “employability” skills alongside the industry basics, Merrifield said.
That’s one reason why Roberts said he values candidates who have pursued credentials through technical colleges or adjacent institutions.
“It’s not about the morsels that they learn as much as the process you go through,” he said. “We want to know that you’re trainable. That you’re a team member. That you’re a problem solver.”
Those skills, Roberts said, are hard to find.
Apprenticeships and short-term credentials are expanding beyond the skilled trades.
Apprenticeships aren’t limited to construction and manufacturing.
“Earn-and-learn” programs have expanded into fields including health care, education, barbering, urban forestry and cosmetology, Merrifield said. Certified nursing assistant and EMT credentialing programs are particularly popular at community colleges.
“If they want to go into health care … that is a true stackable credential industry,” said Becky Kikkert, development director for the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin.
Since 2018 UW Health in Madison has been paying employees to gain credentials for careers as nurses, surgical techs or other positions — while they are working.
Even as career pathways expand in Wisconsin, access remains uneven.
Kermit Kaleba, strategy director for credentials of value at the Lumina Foundation, noted that states have invested a combined $4.5 billion in career and technical education to date, much of it since the pandemic. But Wisconsin remains one of five states without dedicated funding for career and technical education in public schools, leaving access to many programs dependent on local school district budgets.
Merrifield said Wisconsin needs a broader conversation about what school is for — and what it isn’t.
The goal, she said, is to build a system that lets people return to learning — whether they’re 18, 38 or 48 — whenever their careers demand new skills.
“Your path is rarely as clear or as linear as you might assume. There are many on-ramps and off-ramps … There are so many opportunities,” she said. “There are so many options.”
Disclosure: The Lumina Foundation, Ascendium Education Group and the Joyce Foundation are Wisconsin Watch funders but have no control over its editorial decisions. A list of donors and funders through 2025, as well as our donation acceptance policies, can be foundhere. Ascendium and the Joyce Foundation sponsored Tuesday’s event.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Wisconsin’s controversial 2011 law that severely restricted public employee unions, known as Act 10, is headed for a reckoning with the Nov. 3 election and the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court poised to determine its future.
The law is one of many points of disagreement between the two candidates for governor. Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has defended the law, saying repeal would place more of a burden on taxpayers. Tiffany also voted for Act 10 while he was in the Legislature. His Democratic opponent Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has called for a repeal of Act 10.
However, a governor cannot repeal Act 10 alone. Whether its restrictions are rolled back would also depend on the party in power in the Legislature, adding additional stakes to the upcoming legislative elections as Democrats try to take control of the Senate and Assembly for the first time since 2010.
Democratic leader Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said Senate Democrats support restoring collective bargaining rights. The caucus is still discussing what it would do about public employee health insurance and pension contributions that increased under Act 10, Hesselbein said.
“Collective bargaining works,” Hesselbein said. “It works for the state of Wisconsin. I’ve seen it work for (Dane County) and I’m really looking forward to seeing it work for the state of Wisconsin again.”
Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, center, Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer, right, and Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler, left, launch a campaign to retake the state Legislature on Aug. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
A lawsuit heading to the Supreme Court may also lead to major changes to the law. If the court upholds a 2024 Dane County Circuit Court decision that invalidated parts of the law, it could potentially overturn some restrictions on collective bargaining for public sector employees. The Court of Appeals overturned the circuit court ruling in July, setting up a Supreme Court showdown in the coming months.
The bill’s introduction in 2011 drew as many as 100,000 protesters to the state Capitol and sparked an unsuccessful attempt to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. A conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law in 2014. But Democrats have helped elect five of the Supreme Court’s seven justices. They also have held the governor’s office since 2018, though have yet to hold both chambers of the Legislature.
Public opinion on Act 10 remains divided along party lines. In an Aug. 26 Marquette Law School Poll conducted after the Aug. 11 primary election, 54% of Wisconsin registered voters said they wanted collective bargaining for public employees restored to what it was prior to Act 10 while 43% said they want to keep the law as is.
The divide was especially evident among political parties, with 84% of Democrats favoring the restoration of collective bargaining while 65% of Republicans opposed a repeal. Independents were more closely split, with 50% supporting the law and 46% favoring repeal.
Nonpartisan experts say the effects of a repeal would depend heavily on the specific provisions lawmakers change, how court cases interpret it and how employees and employers respond after a repeal.
What Act 10 changed
In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to formally authorize public sector employees to bargain with their employers. More than 50 years later, Act 10 significantly reduced those rights, changing how public employees negotiate their wages, contracts and other working conditions.
Act 10 largely eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees and required public workers to contribute more toward their pensions and health insurance. It also put stricter certification requirements on unions, making it more difficult for them to remain certified.
The changes did not apply to public safety unions representing police and firefighters, which is one of the key issues being raised in the latest court challenge.
Before Act 10, public employees could bargain over wages, vacation days, pensions, mandatory breaks, promotions, contracts and other work-related issues.
Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said local governments, state agencies and school districts were required to sit down and bargain with unions over these subjects. If disputes arose, they would go to arbitration and mediation. Act 10 significantly changed that process.
“There were these very real obligations that the state had to, and the local governments had to interact with these unions,” Stein said. “Now that’s — for many public employers — that’s not the case.”
He added that government bodies can now unilaterally adjust health care benefits, giving local government employers an “upper hand” in changing some working conditions.
After Gov. Scott Walker unveiled the Wisconsin budget repair bill in February 2011, which sought to end collective bargaining for most public sector unions, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Madison in opposition. Protesters are seen here in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 12, 2011, a day after the bill was passed. (Richard Hurd via Flickr, license: CC BY 2.0)
Act 10 also required unions to hold recertification elections every year. To recertify, unions had to receive a majority vote from all members, including those who did not vote.
Stein noted that contrasts with most democratic elections, where a candidate needs a majority of the people who actually show up to vote. Under Act 10’s union recertification requirement, however, nonvoters are counted as “no” votes.
Stein said that made it difficult for unions to pass the annual recertification votes, causing many local unions to disband. He also noted that the only permitted subject of collective bargaining under Act 10 is a base wage increase up to the rate of inflation, diminishing the value of union membership.
“So, it was tough to recertify your union to be the official bargaining voice for the employees, and then if you did that, there wasn’t a lot that the union could actually bargain for,” Stein said. “As a result of that, many unions didn’t even try to recertify; they just disbanded.”
Wisconsin’s public sector union membership rate fell by nearly 29 percentage points between 1985 and 2025 — the largest percentage decline of any state, according to a report from the Center for Economics and Policy Research. The report shows a significant drop coinciding with Act 10’s passage in 2011, with the public union membership rate falling from 46.6% in 2010 to 18.5% in 2025.
Stein said school districts have been the biggest exception, with many school district unions able to recertify and continue bargaining, but they’re still only able to bargain over base wage increases up to the rate of inflation.
What could a repeal mean for public sector employees?
If Act 10 were repealed or struck down by the court, established unions could regain the ability to bargain over contracts and other agreements. However, unions whose certification or organizational structure lapsed under Act 10 could face a more complicated process.
Michael Childers, a University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers professor, said already certified unions would be able to bargain immediately while other unions would need to reorganize.
He noted that both unions and human resources staff involved in bargaining would need time to recertify and prepare for the resurgence of collective bargaining.
“There’s going to be a huge gap, even for these unions who’ve been recertified, in terms of they don’t really have any bargaining experience or expertise per se, because nobody has done this for going on 15 years,” Childers said.
A repeal of Act 10 would not immediately result in higher pay or benefits for public employees.
If they did vote to form a union, they would then have to negotiate changes to their desired benefits, pay or other working conditions. Stein said any financial impact would also take time to develop and it would vary across the state.
What could a repeal mean for schools, local governments and taxpayers?
Republicans have raised concerns that a full repeal of Act 10 could increase costs for Wisconsin taxpayers because the law made major changes to health care and pension contributions. The bargaining process itself would also cost public bodies more time and money.
Tiffany emphasized the new costs that would be presented to local governments and school districts with a full repeal, estimating a $2 billion increase in taxes each year — an estimate stemming from a study by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“(Local governments and school districts) would be forced to make devastating cuts or come back to taxpayers for more money,” Tiffany said in a statement. “Families are already dealing with higher property taxes, utility bills, and everyday costs. They cannot afford another massive tax increase.”
Crowley said he would work with the Legislature, unions and public employers, including school districts and local governments, to come up with a clear cost estimate for repealing Act 10. He disputed that there would be an immediate cost to taxpayers.
“Restoring bargaining rights does not mean every employee automatically stops contributing toward retirement or healthcare,” Crowley said in a statement. “How that works would depend on negotiated agreements.”
Act 10 shifted a greater share of pension costs onto public employees. Before the law, employers covered more than 99% of contributions to the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). By 2020, employers covered about half, with employees paying the remainder — similar to private employers who match 401(k) contributions.
A Wisconsin Policy Forum analysis estimated that the increased employee pension contributions reduced state and local government costs by nearly $5.2 billion from 2011 to 2017. The estimate included only changes to pension contributions, not other provisions of Act 10, like increased employee contributions to health insurance premiums.
A repeal would not necessarily mean those costs immediately return to the levels they were at before Act 10, and the financial impact would depend largely on how the law is repealed and what provisions are restored.
Tyler Byrnes, senior research associate with the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said those costs would have to be negotiated. He said there could be increased costs for local governments and school districts because employees and employers would once again be able to negotiate over those issues.
Byrnes said it’s important to note that school funding is controlled by per pupil revenue limits and school funding formulas. Local government funding is also controlled by “relatively strict” levy limits.
“While repealing those required contributions would give the employers and the employees something more to negotiate over, they’re still subject to how much revenue the local government has,” Byrnes said.
Municipalities are limited in how much they can spend based on how much revenue they have. Byrnes said it’s difficult to project exactly how costs would change, but if those limits remain in place, he said it’s unlikely there would be a massive increase in taxpayer costs immediately after a repeal.
“Over time, that impact may increase. But immediately, it’s going to be difficult to start spending a ton more for a school district on employee benefits if you just don’t have the revenue,” Byrnes said.
Hesselbein said if Democrats win the majority they would want to study the school funding formula with bipartisan input before making major changes.
Why Act 10 was passed
Byrnes said health care costs for government and private businesses were rising significantly before Act 10. He described how revenue could grow, but rising health care costs for existing employees could “eat up” that new revenue, creating a desire to address those costs.
He said there was also a desire to address pension costs. The state’s retirement system has been well funded, but some local governments didn’t have well-funded pensions.
“This combination of pension costs and health care costs were really making it difficult to cover the cost of local government, and there was sort of a desire to address those,” Byrnes said.
He also said some believed public employee unions had become too powerful. Union-affiliated organizations had spent heavily on Democratic candidates and liberal Supreme Court justices in the years leading up to Act 10.
Act 10 shifted more health care and pension costs to public employees, eliminated automatic union dues and reduced union participation rates.
What unions are looking for from state government
Julius Shieh, communications specialist at SEIU Wisconsin — a union representing health care, property services and public school workers across the state — said that SEIU supports a full repeal of Act 10.
“All workers deserve the right to collective bargaining and a union, and our state should be protecting workers’ rights rather than attacking them,” Shieh said in a statement.
Registered nurse Tami Burns speaks during a May 2021 press conference calling on UW Health to recognize a nurses’ union. Around 2,500 nurses lost certification of their union in 2014 when their contract expired. Since then, UW Health has argued that Act 10 precludes the quasi-state health authority from signing a collective bargaining agreement with its workforce. (Courtesy of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin)
Jon Shelton, president of AFT-Wisconsin — a labor union representing members of the public K-12 system, state agencies, technical colleges and the Universities of Wisconsin system — said Act 10 had a significant impact on members because it limited public sector employees’ ability to negotiate salaries and working conditions.
“We’ve seen a lot of K-12 teachers, in particular, either leave the profession, or work multiple jobs, or end up even going to neighboring states where salaries are higher,” Shelton said. “It’s really diminished our education system in the state from top to bottom.”
He said he has also heard from workers about how the law affected the way they are treated in their workplaces.
“The biggest thing that I hear from workers across the state … is the lack of professional discretion — the way that workers have been cut out of the conversations,” Shelton said. “It’s been to the detriment of the education system. It’s harmed our students.”
He said the law has affected class sizes and student resources and has given administrators more control over which positions are filled. He also said seniority and experience can sometimes be disregarded.
“Having administrators who are nowhere near the classroom basically mandates which kinds of professional developments teachers and other professionals engage in often means that teachers don’t get the kind of training that they actually need to be able to effectively work with students,” Shelton said. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that student learning conditions have been significantly hampered by 15 years of Act 10.”
Shelton said AFT-Wisconsin believes public employees are entitled to full bargaining rights and expects the next governor and Legislature to restore those rights to public employees across Wisconsin. He said the organization would also want a larger conversation about pensions and health care contributions and wouldn’t expect those to immediately change.
The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union and one of the leading organizers of the massive protests that rocked the Capitol in 2011 after Act 10 was introduced, declined to comment for this story.
Crowley has been endorsed by more than a dozen unions including SEIU Wisconsin, WEAC and AFT-Wisconsin. Tiffany has been endorsed by three public safety unions, including the Milwaukee and Kenosha police unions.
What happens next?
Any legislative changes to the law would likely require Democrats to take control of the Assembly, Senate and governor’s office. If the Supreme Court strikes down the law and Republicans control the Legislature and governor’s office, they could try to make changes to address any constitutional issues. Split control of government wouldn’t likely lead to legislative changes either way.
If Act 10 is repealed or overturned, it would not immediately change every public employee’s wages, benefits or other working conditions. In many cases, unions would first have to reorganize or recertify, and employers and employees would then have to negotiate new agreements.
At the same time, restoring bargaining rights could eventually give public employees more ability to negotiate over compensation and working conditions, while potentially increasing costs for some public employers and taxpayers, according to Stein.
Stein called Act 10 “one of the most litigated aspects of public policy” since it passed in 2011, saying it hasn’t been one continuous lawsuit but multiple.
In July, a state appeals court upheld Act 10 after a Dane County Circuit Court ruled parts of Act 10 as unconstitutional in 2024. The case is now being sent to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The lawsuit argues that Act 10’s different treatment of public safety employees and other public employees violates the Wisconsin Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
“A lot of (the permanence of Act 10) depends ultimately on elections,” Stein said, “whether that’s elections that determine the composition of the state Supreme Court or elections that determine the composition of the Legislature.”
Wisconsin Watch reporter Brittany Carloni contributed to this report.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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