Academy Award-nominated film tells the gripping story of the race for…
Can You Hear Us Now?
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- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
In 2011, the state of Wisconsin gained international attention when a hundred thousand protesters took over the state capital to oppose union-busting legislation. The legislation passed and, since then, Wisconsin has been a proving ground for 'pro-business' legislation that has changed both the electoral and the physical landscape of the state.
CAN YOU HEAR US NOW? looks at the personal impact of these changes and how Wisconsin has become a model — or a cautionary tale — of shifting policies and unaccountable government.
Through intimate, handheld verite cinematography and on-the-fly interviews, the film takes us into the lives of two Wisconsinites who have translated their own challenging circumstances into political action: Jenni Estrada, a working-class mother raising five children on her own since her husband was deported to Mexico seven years ago; and Rebecca Clarke, a laid-off environmental educator in a sharply gerrymandered district. Both are running for State Assembly seats they know they can't win.
Running in parallel with their stories is a series of anti-democratic measures that come to light through an ensemble of citizen activists. Voting activist Molly McGrath takes us to the country's most incarcerated district, in the city of Milwaukee, where we meet one person after another who explain why they can't get the ID's required to vote under Wisconsin's restrictive voter ID laws. Sachin Chheda and Bill Whitford, who argue that Wisconsin's legislative maps are the most gerrymandered in the country, show us the insurmountable hurdles that Democratic State Assembly candidates face. Retired teacher Sheila Plotkin, through hundreds of open records requests, tallies up communications from constituents that expose an alarming disconnect between their views and their representatives' voting records.
The film builds from personal stories of disenfranchisement to an alarming tale of democracy in peril, culminating in the election of Democratic candidates to all state-wide offices and a dramatic 'lame duck' legislative session in which Republicans strip a broad range of powers from those offices.
'This film is a compelling exposition that reveals the systematic suppression of voters in Wisconsin and how the featured activists fought back. The stories of these four remarkable women show the extent to which democracy itself is under siege by politicians determined to pick their voters instead of letting the voters pick their politicians. This terrific documentary illuminates the esoteric arguments about gerrymandering, voter suppression, and voting rights and the way those issues intersect with democracy itself.' Charles Anthony Smith, Professor of Political Science and Law, University of California-Irvine, Co-author, Gerrymandering in America and Gerrymandering the States
'One of the most important documentaries you'll see all year.' The Isthmus
'A riff on the Frank Capra classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' The Capital Times
'A bracing document, laying bare the state of our state.' UW Cinematheque
Citation
Main credits
Cricchi, Jim (film director)
Cricchi, Jim (film producer)
Cricchi, Jim (editor of moving image work)
Cricchi, Jim (director of photography)
Peters, Susan (film producer)
Peters, Susan (screenwriter)
Other credits
Original music by Caleb Stine.
Distributor subjects
American Democracy; American Studies; Citizenship and Civics; Government; History; Political ScienceKeywords
[00:00:08.38] [quiet dramatic music]
[00:00:13.85] It comes down to the simplest question of all: who shall govern us, the people or the money?
[00:00:20.98] Democracy is literally on life support in Wisconsin.
[00:00:25.07] A lot of lefties over in Wisconsin.
[00:00:26.48] People forget that actually really the birthplace of American progressivism.
[00:00:30.24] At one stage, it was a progressive laboratory for the country and then it became a conservative one.
[00:00:35.33] If the public really knew what was going on, they'd be outraged by it.
[00:00:40.92] If we can do all those things and more in a blue state like Wisconsin, there's no doubt we can do it in America with the right leadership.
[00:00:49.92] In other states, do you think we're going to see the scenarios play out like what we've seen in Wisconsin?
[00:00:59.89] [Quiet dramatic music]
[00:01:12.99] [Engine and crowd sounds]
[00:01:23.50] [Moody electric guitar music]
[00:01:45.10] Steve Scaffidi with you on this Tuesday edition right here on WTMJ.
[00:01:49.86] Of course, the big story today: primary election day in Wisconsin.
[00:01:55.16] You have a couple big races.
[00:01:56.74] One is the Democratic race to run against Governor Scott Walker.
[00:02:02.41] This governor has a lot to hang his hat on.
[00:02:05.92] Economic success, low unemployment.
[00:02:09.92] Really, the economy booming on a lot of different levels.
[00:02:14.34] Don't forget the child tax credit.
[00:02:17.10] All those things that affect taxpayers.
[00:02:24.10] [Traffic]
[00:02:29.69] [Lawn mower sounds]
[00:02:32.82] Mom!
[00:02:45.25] Jaime, do you want tortillas with your eggs.
[00:02:47.92] I don't want eggs.
[00:02:49.59] You don't know what you're missin'.
[00:02:54.26] Giovanni, the cat's gonna get your eggs.
[00:03:05.06] Today, four states are holding primary elections ahead of November's midterms and there are some closely watched races in Connecticut, in Vermont and in Wisconsin.
[00:03:15.82] Here's an interesting little article at The Cap Times -- For some Democratic primary voters the Democratic candidates for governor in Wisconsin are indistinguishable.
[00:03:27.25] To others, the answer was obvious and easy based on their own beliefs who would have the best chance to defeat Republican Governor Scott Walker in the general election on November sixth.
[00:03:38.51] Anybody but Walker, any one of these candidates would do a fine job.
[00:03:42.01] Everybody get out there and vote.
[00:03:43.89] If you have not yet voted, go do it.
[00:03:45.81] It is your duty to do so.
[00:03:53.61] Besides the inevitable voter fatigue, which Walker faces after eight years in office, Walker's tenure, in short, has done little for average voters while repeatedly rewarding the wealthiest people.
[00:04:09.54] There is no shortage of hugely important issues for Democrats to run on, Dom.
[00:04:23.39] Is it current?
[00:04:25.52] Yep.
[00:04:37.32] [Marching band, drums]
[00:05:03.64] Tuesday's primary races split the field heading into the November elections.
[00:05:07.97] Mandela Barnes, the winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor.
[00:05:12.60] Back in Wisconsin, the Democrats nominated the state schools superintendent Tony Evers to take on Scott Walker.
[00:05:20.61] How's it goin' today?
[00:05:23.11] No doubt, Tony Evers is your nominee.
[00:05:32.62] [Motorcycles revs engines]
[00:05:44.97] Hi. I'm Scott Walker.
[00:05:46.43] Good thing you're filling up, because if Tony Evers wins, he'll raise the gas tax by as much as a dollar a gallon.
[00:05:52.48] That's twelve hundred dollars a year for a typical family.
[00:05:55.31] We can't afford that.
[00:05:56.65] I'll lower taxes and keep fighting for you.
[00:06:08.33] Thanks, everybody, for being here.
[00:06:09.58] Be glad to answer questions.
[00:06:13.50] The governor says you may increase the gas tax by as much as a dollar.
[00:06:15.54] Is that true?
[00:06:16.92] Well, it's ridiculous.
[00:06:17.96] I mean, who the hell would, frankly?
[00:06:19.80] My priorities are for the working people in Wisconsin, making sure that their kids go to strong schools, making sure that we take the Medicaid money so that we have a good health system.
[00:06:29.64] All those things have been left aside during Scott Walker's time.
[00:06:33.18] We plan to change that.
[00:06:35.52] We have 860,000 families in the state of Wisconsin that just barely make enough money to buy the necessities, whether it's food, whether it's rent, whether it's child care, utilities.
[00:06:46.07] That's a lot of people.
[00:06:47.12] We will work with the legislature to make sure that taxes remain low in the state of Wisconsin.
[00:06:54.41] But we will have different priorities than the present governor.
[00:07:06.88] I'm just going to put it in your front, ok, Maria?
[00:07:10.64] OK...Thank you.
[00:07:15.98] [Optimistic guitar music]
[00:07:29.74] I am not the expert, I understand from the experts that you can have a list and you can target by name.
[00:07:37.04] You can do an ad specifically for them.
[00:07:41.25] I think my hesitance with doing much on Facebook is I just want to make sure that it's the right...
[00:07:47.30] I want to get the messaging right.
[00:07:49.30] It would be nice if we could have an attack ad on Tittl.
[00:07:52.68] I don't want to do that.
[00:07:53.51] Nope.
[00:07:53.60] You don't want to do that, huh?
[00:07:55.27] I hope that we get a debate and I will bring it out at that time, but I don't want to spend any money on any kind of attack ad towards him.
[00:08:03.15] There's just so much negativity and that's not what I want to focus on.
[00:08:06.40] So we all have our to do list.
[00:08:08.07] Hopefully we're all walking away with things that we need to do.
[00:08:11.87] Thank you, everybody.
[00:08:27.63] Mom, what did you do when we were at school?
[00:08:30.43] I had a breakfast meeting and then we dropped some signs off.
[00:08:34.55] I did all my e-mails.
[00:08:37.52] ....
[00:08:40.65] I've always been poor.
[00:08:42.31] Growing up with a mom with addiction.
[00:08:45.15] My dad left when I was, like, two days old.
[00:08:49.07] How we had to grow up was not...
[00:08:51.53] not the best.
[00:08:54.99] And I ask myself all the time, like, why?
[00:08:58.41] What makes our family different?
[00:09:03.25] What is going on in society that, you know, people aren't lifting people like us up.
[00:09:10.38] [Moody guitar music]
[00:09:18.81] The saddest part is that there's ... just that misconception of - poor people don't care, they're not trying, they're not....
[00:09:25.82] That's the furthest thing from the truth.
[00:09:30.28] I work three, sometimes four different jobs.
[00:09:34.37] Every week, I'm one step away from, like, completely going under.
[00:09:46.21] [Hopeful guitar music]
[00:10:02.60] This is what democracy looks like!
[00:10:06.69] What politician cooks for the people that are coming to her dinner?
[00:10:23.41] [Mariachi song in Spanish]
[00:10:46.52] This is great, isn't it?
[00:10:47.73] Look at all the people we got here on a Friday night, who want to do Mexican rather than fish.
[00:10:55.78] I'm sure everybody in this room is worried sick about democracy in Wisconsin.
[00:11:01.87] You know, there's gerrymandering, there's the dark money, there's the voter suppression.
[00:11:07.79] We used to lead the nation as the example of what a democracy looks like.
[00:11:13.92] But let me tell you, Jennifer Estrada is absolutely the voice of democracy in the midst of this.
[00:11:24.48] I ran because I care about our community.
[00:11:28.73] I care about our children's future.
[00:11:30.23] But I want to be a part of this community.
[00:11:32.15] Alma, who is graciously helping me on my campaign, she's a high school student.
[00:11:36.53] I want her to go to college here and stay here.
[00:11:39.78] They're going to outspend us.
[00:11:41.37] They're going to outraise us.
[00:11:42.74] But I know in a grassroots campaign with the twenty five dollars, the fifty dollars and -- I'm a mom of five, I know how to stretch a budget, right?
[00:11:52.67] I think when we drive around this town we see more Jenni signs than anything, right?
[00:11:56.92] So I'm putting your money to good work.
[00:12:02.68] So, um...
[00:12:04.56] well if you don't want any information, I'm just going to urge you then to pay attention to the Evers race and watch for this Kyle Whelton fella.
[00:12:11.36] He's a real up-and-comer.
[00:12:13.15] Thank you so much, Jean.
[00:12:14.73] We really appreciate it.
[00:12:15.90] My name is Jennifer Estrada and I'm calling from the Democratic Party of Manitowoc.
[00:12:19.82] I'm actually running for state assembly in your district.
[00:12:23.20] Jennifer Estrada is running against Paul Tittl in the....
[00:12:27.75] Yeah, that sounds good to me, too.
[00:12:29.83] Okay.
[00:12:30.83] Tony Evers. Tammy Baldwin.
[00:12:32.67] All right. Thank you. Bye Trump all the way.
[00:12:42.72] [Crowd cheers: "USA, USA, USA"]
[00:12:50.52] We need a change in this country, and I think he's the one who can bring it.
[00:12:53.40] He supports our troops.
[00:12:55.40] He's gonna keep us safe.
[00:12:56.28] Building the wall, that'd be a great thing. He's got to protect our country. And I think he'll do a good job doing it.
[00:13:01.24] Well, he's just gonna turn the country around if he sticks to what he said he's gonna do -- clean up all the corruption and things that are being done in government.
[00:13:11.83] He wasn't my first choice.
[00:13:13.13] But he's our current nominee so the choice is between him and Hillary and I'm not a fan of Hillary.
[00:13:18.38] I'm excited to see what he can do and how we can make America great again.
[00:13:23.09] [Crowd cheering "USA, USA"]
[00:13:25.81] Hold on.
[00:13:27.10] Stand by. There's a there's a big old call to make right now, and that is Fox News is projecting that Donald Trump has won the state of Wisconsin.
[00:13:35.56] Donald Trump has won the state of Wisconsin, which is momentous.
[00:13:40.90] Wisconsin, was barely in play.
[00:13:44.16] He's got the presidency as we sit right here.
[00:13:47.24] I mean, you even need to call Pennsylvania.
[00:13:49.58] That's it.
[00:13:52.58] [Moody dramatic music]
[00:14:01.34] UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer surveyed Dane and Milwaukee County registered voters who did not vote in the 2016 presidential election.
[00:14:10.81] Finding that Wisconsin's voter I.D. law discouraged thousands of voters.
[00:14:17.15] Eleven point two percent of eligible non-voting registrants were deterred from voting, which corresponds to well over sixteen thousand people and could be more than twenty three thousand people, depending on the survey's margin of error.
[00:14:37.96] [Wind and lite traffic sounds]
[00:14:50.56] Hi, ma'am. How are you today?
[00:14:52.43] My name's Molly.
[00:14:53.43] We're just knocking on doors today to see if you had any questions about voting. We can help you get an I.D..
[00:14:59.19] You can?
[00:14:59.82] Yeah.
[00:15:00.48] Cause I can't afford it.
[00:15:02.32] Yeah. Yup. Yup.
[00:15:03.69] Do you have a Wisconsin state I.D. or did you ever?
[00:15:06.45] I have but it's been expired for some years now.
[00:15:09.83] OK. Yep, absolutely.
[00:15:11.37] That's what we do. We help you get that so you can vote.
[00:15:17.25] Hey, sir.
[00:15:18.42] We're knocking on doors in the neighborhood to make sure everyone has everything they need to vote.
[00:15:21.96] We can help you get a state I.D..
[00:15:23.55] register to vote.
[00:15:25.55] I gotta renew my I.D..
[00:15:26.68] Yeah. Is it expired?
[00:15:28.39] Do you know how long ago it expired?
[00:15:30.72] On my birthday.
[00:15:31.76] Yeah, a couple years ago or this year.
[00:15:34.22] This year.
[00:15:37.14] Wisconsin passed one of the strictest voter I.D. laws in the entire nation in 2011.
[00:15:43.19] The first time that it was actually in place was in 2016 during the presidential election.
[00:15:48.61] We saw firsthand what this law does.
[00:15:52.03] People who produced three other forms of photo I.D., including government-issued I.D.'s, were still not able to vote because of this very strict, this very small list that the state legislature came up with.
[00:16:09.26] We saw so many stories of people who lacked the right I.D.
[00:16:13.56] that they needed so they could vote.
[00:16:17.52] There is no doubt in my mind that this law was uniquely curated to exclude certain people and certain voices: voters of color, low-income voters, transient voters, older voters and students.
[00:16:34.28] And certainly in the short term for that election, that's a problem.
[00:16:38.04] But I think what is most dangerous about this law is what this will do long term to our democracy and the signal that it sends to voters that you're not invited.
[00:16:49.93] This isn't for you.
[00:17:02.56] Me, I'm on parole so I can't vote.
[00:17:03.94] OK. Are you still on paper yet? Yup, so not this election.
[00:17:07.03] When are you off?
[00:17:08.48] A long time from now.
[00:17:10.15] Yeah. How long?
[00:17:11.53] 2033.
[00:17:18.58] [Moody string music]
[00:17:41.48] Welcome to our meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
[00:17:48.15] The time is ten o'clock so I'd like to call the meeting to order.
[00:18:04.83] I'm Molly McGrath. I work for the All Voting Is Local campaign.
[00:18:08.17] In January of 2018, WEC deactivated the registrations of approximately 308,000 voters who had been identified by ERIC as having moved and within 30 days of receiving a postcard, failed to return that postcard.
[00:18:26.15] We now know that many of these voters were removed erroneously, and we know that in the subsequent elections on February 20th, April 3rd and August 14th, that voters went to go and vote only to learn that they had been removed from the rolls.
[00:18:42.29] Low income voters in particular, it's not as easy for them to produce proof of residence on the spot, particularly when it's unexpected.
[00:18:50.05] It's not as easy as grabbing a smartphone and pulling up a savings account.
[00:18:55.01] Milwaukee's total number of registered voters dropped to the lowest number it has been in over 50 years.
[00:19:02.52] I think any of us anticipated that we would experience a handful of voters that were perhaps deactivated in error due to some anomaly in the data.
[00:19:14.65] Thousands of voter registration records were deactivated in error and that error still has not been corrected.
[00:19:33.21] [Room of people talking]
[00:19:38.26] As a product of Wisconsin public schools, I learned at an early age, when you see something wrong, you got to step up and say something.
[00:19:47.10] When I found out that they were going to remove the State Treasurer from our Constitution back on April 3rd, I was completely appalled because as somebody who has been in business and finance my entire career, we would never do that in business.
[00:20:00.70] My husband was deported in 2012 so I'm a single mother because of a broken system.
[00:20:07.21] Unless there's people like me, like Rebecca, that we're actually living the issues .
[00:20:11.25] We're not going to get any change.
[00:20:13.09] So I am excited to be a part of the forty-eight women running in Wisconsin.
[00:20:21.18] My background is in natural resources.
[00:20:23.18] For those of you that don't know me, I have a masters degree in environmental education and natural resource management, which is a degree that we no longer need, I guess, in Wisconsin, right?
[00:20:34.90] So when my job was eliminated in 2015, of course, I was sad and it was very stressful.
[00:20:41.87] But I found that I now had a voice.
[00:20:45.41] And in my district, which has the worst air pollution in the state, we know that they turned off the air quality monitor.
[00:20:52.17] We know that that was good for business, but bad for children.
[00:20:56.67] Yes, we have all protested.
[00:20:58.51] Right? We've marched.
[00:21:00.09] We've called.
[00:21:01.26] We've written letters, postcards.
[00:21:04.39] But now we are running.
[00:21:08.81] [Cheering and applause]
[00:21:25.33] [Optimistic guitar music]
[00:21:44.34] What is the plan going forward for the next couple weeks?
[00:21:47.31] What do we want to do?
[00:21:48.10] Where do we want to go?
[00:21:50.64] So if we want to do Town of Wilson on that Saturday and then do we want to do a sweep of Sheboygan Falls on Sunday to see how we're doing?
[00:21:58.07] Comparatively, we've hit the Town of wilson really well, which doesn't mean we've hit it well, but comparatively, yes.
[00:22:04.36] There's Ward Three, Town of Lima, and then there's some wards in the city of Sheboygan that we haven't hit very well either.
[00:22:10.79] We're looking for, what, five thousand new voters?
[00:22:13.37] Is that right?
[00:22:14.12] No. Three to thirty five hundred.
[00:22:15.54] Thirty five hundred new voters.
[00:22:16.71] We've talked to...
[00:22:18.00] We've hit thirty seven hundred...
[00:22:20.26] thirty seven eighty doors.
[00:22:21.47] 3,780.
[00:22:22.59] That's it?
[00:22:23.51] I mean, do we want to try and talk to those people who were like I don't know.. I'm still....
[00:22:27.35] Or do you want to talk to people that weren't home.
[00:22:30.47] And maybe we'll do one of each.
[00:22:31.93] Well, like I said, there's 2,000 not homes.
[00:22:35.94] OK, not home?
[00:22:36.77] Let's do it.
[00:22:40.07] Build it.
[00:22:41.19] Not homes.
[00:22:41.99] It's done, not-homes. Wednesday night.
[00:22:52.50] [Traffic sounds]
[00:23:02.71] Going through a lot of Paul Tittl's voting records, I have everything from how he voted on health care, education, environment.
[00:23:10.18] Everything that Walker has put forward he has voted for.
[00:23:14.27] It's mind boggling to me, how people that are not affected by any of the issues, may be health care, may it be poverty, may it be low-wage working, having your kids in public school, are the ones that are deciding how the rest of us should live.
[00:23:33.41] The referendum that they tried to pass for the K-12 public education -- thousands of emails from his constituents asking him to please reconsider his vote and he ignored every single one of them.
[00:23:45.92] That's exactly right there what's wrong with government today: no longer taking into effect what the people want.
[00:24:02.69] Scott Walker made the biggest cut to K-12 public education in the history of the state of Wisconsin. We're still not back, when you look at inflationary factors, to 2011 funding levels for our schools.
[00:24:14.83] How could that have passed when nobody really supported it?
[00:24:23.50] We took on the unions and we won.
[00:24:26.34] We defunded Planned Parenthood and passed pro-life legislation.
[00:24:30.18] We passed Castle Doctrine and concealed carry.
[00:24:32.80] Our state now says it's easy to vote, but hard to cheat -- you need a photo I.D.
[00:24:36.73] to vote in the state of Wisconsin.
[00:24:38.77] If we can do all those things and more in a blue state like Wisconsin there's no doubt we can do it in America with the right leadership.
[00:24:45.23] [Applause]
[00:24:48.99] ALEC stands for the American Legislative Exchange Council.
[00:24:53.62] ALEC has been in existence for over 40 years.
[00:24:57.37] They're funded by Koch Industries, big petroleum producers, big pharma, tobacco....
[00:25:05.55] So ALEC will come up with model policies.
[00:25:10.59] The movement to privatize public education came from ALEC.
[00:25:17.27] All the anti-worker, anti-union policies that we're seeing around the state come from ALEC.
[00:25:26.11] Voter I.D. came from ALEC.
[00:25:34.82] And then state legislators are encouraged to go back to their legislatures and pass these various policies.
[00:25:47.00] And so gerrymandering here was...
[00:25:49.46] was a piece of that.
[00:25:54.64] It really was an example of these Republican legislators wanting to circumvent the will of the people in drawing these very skewed districts that made no sense, that cut communities in half, cut cities in half.
[00:26:12.11] Republicans drew these maps outside of the Capitol.
[00:26:15.53] They did it in secret.
[00:26:18.20] They required people -- their own members -- to sign secrecy pledges and they kept it hidden from the public.
[00:26:34.01] We saw that there was a total disregard of established procedures which have taken place since 1975, which first says the county board shall redistrict and then the city council shall redistrict, and then they'll put wards together and those wards will be the building blocks that allow us to create legislative maps.
[00:26:59.66] What we have instead is the classic gerrymander: dump all the Democrats into a small handful of districts and then leave the rest so that the Republicans can have control.
[00:27:13.92] Historically, legislative districts in America were drawn based on things like county lines, maybe a major river.
[00:27:23.18] Big cities had their own districts.
[00:27:25.35] And through the 20th century, people started to see that that was unfair, especially as you started to see cities grow, right?
[00:27:34.03] And so in the 60s, there were a series of Supreme Court decisions that led to basically a one person - one vote standard, where each legislative district had to be of equal population.
[00:27:46.08] That made the map drawing process more frequent in that it had to happen every 10 years because every time you had new numbers from the census, you had to redraw the districts to make them equalpopulation.
[00:27:57.59] And with the advent of technology, it became another way to manipulate the process.
[00:28:04.68] In 2010, the Republicans won this big victory.
[00:28:08.19] And in 2011, they immediately got to work redrawing all the maps.
[00:28:12.77] They drew the maps in such a way that even with a minority of the vote, they would have control of the legislature.
[00:28:20.24] And they actually said, we don't think even in the biggest wave election that the Democrats could ever have, where the Democrats get all the votes, that the Republicans would get fewer than 59 out of 99 seats.
[00:28:31.50] And so in 2010, the Republicans won a big victory.
[00:28:34.92] They got a majority of the seats.
[00:28:36.34] That was all very reasonable and Fair.
[00:28:40.26] In 2012, the Democrats won a big victory and the Republicans came back with the same supermajority in the state assembly because they had rigged the maps, even though they had lost the votes in that election.
[00:28:54.44] If you are the majority party drawing the map and you want to make the minority a permanent minority, you actually "pack" and "crack" voters.
[00:29:02.74] You take the minority voters and you pack as many of them into as few districts as you can.
[00:29:07.83] That's packing.
[00:29:11.17] And then you take the rest of their voters and you crack them into districts where they can't win.
[00:29:20.93] And so you take the combination of packing and cracking and you just try to build a map where you could predict the result.
[00:29:30.02] The Democrats really haven't been able to put up a real fight in the legislature since.
[00:29:34.94] But you are seeing this inspiration of better candidates coming forward, willing to fight, in many cases, willing to fight, even though they really know that they have no chance of winning.
[00:29:48.12] [Quiet guitar music]
[00:29:57.88] Look what I caught.
[00:29:59.92] It's a spider.
[00:30:01.72] Ew. What is wrong with you, child?
[00:30:03.51] Jaime, could you please come here?
[00:30:05.09] Yes, mom.
[00:30:06.47] Can you move your clothes from off the front porch and go put them in the dirty clothes?
[00:30:09.77] Without the spider would be great.
[00:30:14.77] All right. Does anybody have to use the restroom?
[00:30:18.48] Now would be a great time.
[00:30:23.40] [Guitar and strings music]
[00:30:30.16] You're beautiful.
[00:30:31.54] Thank you.
[00:30:49.18] And now, let's welcome the two candidates that are vying for a two-year term to serve the 25th Assembly District.
[00:30:56.40] The incumbent is Paul Tittl from Manitowoc.
[00:31:01.23] And also, representing the Democratic Party, is his challenger, Jennifer Estrada.
[00:31:08.16] Hello. Good morning, how are you?
[00:31:11.16] I'm in heels so I'm running way behind.
[00:31:13.87] [laughter]
[00:31:15.67] Can I break the heels off for you?
[00:31:19.34] We'll talk immigration.
[00:31:21.67] Where do you stand on illegals coming into this country and getting state aids to live here?
[00:31:27.01] Jennifer, go first, please.
[00:31:28.89] OK, first of all, I'm glad I got that question.
[00:31:31.10] The statement is just untrue.
[00:31:34.31] My husband was deported back to Mexico in 2012, so I know a little bit about this.
[00:31:38.35] He had the same job for 10 years.
[00:31:40.02] We paid taxes.
[00:31:40.82] If you are an undocumented immigrant in this country, you do not get state aid.
[00:31:44.90] If your children are born in the country they do receive state aid.
[00:31:47.86] So that's where the difference is.
[00:31:49.74] As we look at our community, we make up 13% of the dairy production for the state and 87% of the workforce is undocumented.
[00:31:57.71] So we need to open a way for them to adjust their status.
[00:32:01.88] Thank you, Jennifer. Paul, go ahead, please.
[00:32:03.88] My grandparents immigrated here from Germany and immigrated the right way.
[00:32:09.05] Our immigration system is broke.
[00:32:11.26] It is broke on a federal level.
[00:32:12.97] There's very little what we can do on a state level as far as working on immigration, but I think the federal government needs to fix it.
[00:32:21.90] Jennifer, very quickly.
[00:32:23.15] When they take away the driving privileges of immigrants in order to drive and make it a state charge, which then impedes them to not even be able to get their status adjusted, that is stuff that we can fix at a state level.
[00:32:34.62] Yes, we can make the decision on that and sadly, we aren't doing that to protect our community that's already here and working for us.
[00:32:42.63] Any quick response, Paul?
[00:32:44.05] No.
[00:32:45.09] OK.
[00:32:52.47] [Strings and guitar music]
[00:33:13.32] Hello.
[00:33:16.24] Hi, Dad.
[00:33:17.83] Hi, how are you?
[00:33:19.54] Good, how are you?
[00:33:21.00] I'm good. Working.
[00:33:24.42] I miss you.
[00:33:26.55] Hi, Yuliana.
[00:33:28.05] Hi.
[00:33:29.38] How are you?
[00:33:30.47] Good.
[00:33:32.64] Jaime, say hi.
[00:33:33.93] Hi.
[00:33:34.97] Hey. What's up, buddy?
[00:33:36.26] He broke his glasses today.
[00:33:37.52] Again.
[00:33:38.93] Yesterday.
[00:33:39.98] You still play soccer?
[00:33:41.56] Jaime and I play goalie.
[00:33:43.35] Me, too.
[00:33:44.69] See, we're like you.
[00:33:46.77] I'm like him.
[00:33:48.65] Say hi.
[00:33:49.65] Hey, Jojo.
[00:33:50.65] Hi.
[00:33:58.79] I was living my life.
[00:34:01.21] My husband was 10 years at the same job.
[00:34:04.75] He gave us a call after work like he always did.
[00:34:07.25] He said, I'm going to the YMCA and then when I'm done, I'll be home.
[00:34:12.72] It was only five minutes later, he called back and he says the police pulled me over and they said I'm been detained by ICE.
[00:34:19.47] I literally laughed because I thought he was just goofing around.
[00:34:22.14] I was like, yeah, sure you did.
[00:34:23.56] And he was like, no, I'm being serious.
[00:34:24.52] He was like, I've no clue what's going on.
[00:34:27.52] It was just like...life-altering in one second.
[00:34:34.45] How you tell your child your dad went to work and is never coming home?
[00:34:41.25] It's not something that ever goes away.
[00:34:43.50] You know, like my daughter said the other day, it's hard because her dad's never gonna see her graduate, not going to see her get married, can't go to school functions, can't be there for any days, you know, that's important.
[00:34:56.05] Or when, you know, she's feeling sad and she wants to hug her dad, she can't.
[00:34:59.35] She's got to see him through a screen on a phone.
[00:35:02.02] And people ask, well, why don't you go there?
[00:35:04.35] Why don't you go live there?
[00:35:06.02] if your family was so important, why don't you keep it together?
[00:35:07.90] We tried.
[00:35:09.77] When he got deported, we sold everything.
[00:35:12.94] Our whole life was done here. We were moving there.
[00:35:15.95] It's hard to support a family, especially a family of our size.
[00:35:20.79] My ex-husband makes equivalent to like six dollars a day.
[00:35:25.33] I mean, how do you support a family on that?
[00:35:28.13] It's essentially my children's future or our family, which was probably the hardest decision I ever made.
[00:35:35.30] Love you, Dad.
[00:35:36.76] Love you, Dad.
[00:35:38.51] Love you, Dad.
[00:35:39.97] Bye. Cuídate.
[00:36:02.66] We talk about the importance of this race.
[00:36:05.33] We talk about the future of the state of Wisconsin because it can go either way.
[00:36:10.08] I want to live in Wisconsin.
[00:36:11.21] I want to raise a family here one day.
[00:36:12.67] I don't intend to leave, but we're the 10th most moved-from state in the country, and it's because people don't see opportunity here.
[00:36:18.43] My grandfather moved to Milwaukee after he served in World War Two.
[00:36:21.93] He worked at A.O. Smith. He had a union job.
[00:36:24.72] He was a steelworker. He retired comfortably.
[00:36:27.52] But that same shot at the middle class, that same opportunity does not exist for people my age anymore.
[00:36:32.69] If you are ready for a new day for this state, I want you to join me in welcoming my good friend, and I'm telling you right now, this is going to be your new favorite sitcom: The Tony and Mandela Show.
[00:36:45.12] Now, as you know, our governor -- present governor, soon to be ex-governor -- he spends a lot of time dividing and conquering.
[00:36:54.25] There is more to unite us than there is to divide us.
[00:36:58.42] And if we don't seek common ground and bring people together, we are making a huge mistake.
[00:37:05.39] We are going to work with Republicans and Democrats.
[00:37:08.52] But unless we, as Democrats, talk about what the people in Wisconsin value, we will lose.
[00:37:15.65] Thanks so much for being here.
[00:37:30.33] My background is not politics.
[00:37:31.96] I was the park naturalist for the city of Sheboygan.
[00:37:34.67] The thing that I as a voter would like is someone that would inform me more of what bills are coming up.
[00:37:43.09] Like, here's what this bill is going to do.
[00:37:45.85] Here's what it will mean in five years.
[00:37:48.31] Here's what it will mean in 10 years.
[00:37:49.85] Because it's happening so fast now with these bills that you don't have time to react.
[00:37:55.56] We are not giving any taxpayer money to our state parks.
[00:37:58.11] The only thing that's funding them is your stickers.
[00:38:01.78] And, you guys, I'm a hunter and I'm a fisherman and I go to all those spring hearings.
[00:38:07.20] They're asking to raise park sticker rates.
[00:38:10.75] They're asking to raise the fishing license.
[00:38:12.96] They're asking to raise the hunting license.
[00:38:14.83] It's really easy to say something is broken if you don't fund it.
[00:38:21.51] [Upbeat guitar music]
[00:38:31.14] We have 513 East Main Street.
[00:38:34.52] 513 East Main.
[00:38:39.44] Where is 609? Is that this one?
[00:38:46.82] Voting will be November 6th.
[00:38:48.58] The Assemblyperson would be, like, the representative of our area at the state level.
[00:38:52.83] So when they're talking about doing budget cuts to public schools -- and rural schools are the ones that are getting hit the worst -- it would be like someone that goes to bat for you on your local level at state.
[00:39:03.30] If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
[00:39:08.97] Hi, Mary, this is Rebecca Clarke.
[00:39:11.60] I'm running for state assembly in District 26.
[00:39:16.27] You're still doing a little bit of homework, huh?
[00:39:18.69] Check out Rebecca's positions in her campaign at ClarkforAssembly.com.
[00:39:23.65] Really appreciate it.
[00:39:24.82] Thanks very much.
[00:39:26.45] In my district, what's frustrating is there's still that issue of what is the best way to get your name out there.
[00:39:34.12] We have a very small newspaper here.
[00:39:36.58] We don't have TV.
[00:39:38.46] Do you have Internet at your house?
[00:39:41.05] OK. Her name is Rebecca Clarke.
[00:39:43.63] And we recently dropped off some literature at your place.
[00:39:45.88] I'm wondering if you had a chance to read it?
[00:39:48.76] I don't know about the strength of social media for a lot of these areas.
[00:39:53.85] Are farmers out there using a lot of Twitter and stuff?
[00:39:56.44] I don't know.
[00:39:58.31] You have to have strong candidates who are willing to go out there and meet people and get your name out there.
[00:40:04.90] Because of her naturalist background is really...
[00:40:08.36] wanting to empower the DNR to, you know, so they can do things like manage the deer herd again.
[00:40:14.75] And we're just calling to see if you know how you're gonna be voting for state assembly in November.
[00:40:20.96] Jeremy, you just made my night.
[00:40:33.06] 26 is white, here.
[00:40:36.64] Boopidee doop doo dodoo.
[00:40:38.77] And then whatever is happening in here...
[00:40:40.69] What they did in Sheboygan is they "cracked" the city in half because that's where your Democrats are.
[00:40:47.40] You can see there's just some stuff going on in the city.
[00:40:51.45] Took out Kohler.
[00:40:52.95] We kind of have Falls.
[00:40:54.29] No, Plymouth.
[00:40:55.74] This isn't even a road, really.
[00:40:57.91] Half of the people on my campaign committee who live in the same zip code could not vote for me.
[00:41:09.38] The city of Sheboygan is historically a blue-collar town, a larger population for the state of Wisconsin.
[00:41:15.18] And historically pretty blue -- Democratic.
[00:41:19.39] And by drawing a line almost kind of right through the city and taking the norther third of the city and combining it with a lot of rural land and other villages, and then taking the southern two thirds of the city and combining it with these rural villages and rural communities, they were able to crack those blue voters in half and say, you're not going to have the ability to elect the person of your choice.
[00:41:47.00] We've passed referenda or resolutions through the majority of Wisconsin counties saying change this process.
[00:41:54.80] Make it fair.
[00:41:55.89] Don't try to rig the system anymore.
[00:41:59.85] People just think it's unfair and it's wrong and they want competitive elections because they know that's how you get compromise.
[00:42:05.81] That's how you get good policy.
[00:42:07.19] That's how you elect moderates.
[00:42:10.57] So a group of citizens filed a lawsuit in 2015.
[00:42:14.41] In 2016, they went to trial.
[00:42:18.08] They got a result back from the federal court that they had won, but then it went to the Supreme Court in the fall of 2017.
[00:42:32.30] What's important about America, I think we value most, is that it be government of, by and for the people, guaranteed by the right to vote.
[00:42:39.52] But that right to vote is subject to severe threat with gerrymandering of the kind that went on in Wisconsin.
[00:42:46.27] This is a map that effectively determined in advance who was going to control the government of Wisconsin -- the Assembly of Wisconsin -- in advance for a whole ten years, regardless of how the people might decide to vote.
[00:42:58.28] Gerrymandering is getting more severe with the kinds of computing technologies we now have available, with a polarized, more predictable electorate.
[00:43:08.17] And so what we asked the court to do today was to recognize that this constitutional violation finally has to be brought under control and that only the courts can do it.
[00:43:20.39] The politicians are not going to do it.
[00:43:22.43] And the voters in places like Wisconsin can't do it because they can't get the issue on the ballot without the consent of the legislature.
[00:43:32.99] The U.S. Supreme Court today punted on its biggest decision of the term so far.
[00:43:37.62] The court had been expected to rule on the limits, if any, of partisan gerrymandering.
[00:43:42.49] Instead, the justices unanimously sidestepped the major issues on technical grounds, sending the two cases back to the lower courts for further examination.
[00:43:52.80] Most election experts seem to think the best vehicle for a decision in the next year or two would be a case from North Carolina currently sitting on the court's docket, which the justices could hear as early as next term.
[00:44:10.73] The North Carolina case, it may be the case that will decide on the merits and that decision may influence the outcome of our case a great deal.
[00:44:20.66] It may not even be necessary to go back to the Supreme Court.
[00:44:24.62] Gerrymandering is very much a democracy issue.
[00:44:27.41] I mean, if a majority doesn't control the Assembly, isn't that one of the essential definitions of democracy?
[00:44:35.59] The majority should rule on whether or not we have coal plants or clean water or how much taxes should be.
[00:44:44.68] And we don't rule in Wisconsin.
[00:44:57.32] Hi.
[00:44:58.15] Oh my god, you're cute.
[00:45:00.53] And I forgot my dog treats.
[00:45:01.91] I'm Rebecca Clarke. I'm running for state assembly, but I'm just out here introducing myself.
[00:45:06.33] ...And there's going to be a lot of folks on the ballot.
[00:45:08.87] So you all know where you vote, right?
[00:45:10.87] Yeah. Good.
[00:45:11.71] I vote the day of too myself so you have some time to do some research.
[00:45:15.50] What can we do for you?
[00:45:16.30] Rebecca Clarke running for State Assembly.
[00:45:17.59] Have you heard about me at all?
[00:45:19.55] Democrat? No thank you.
[00:45:20.84] OK, thanks.
[00:45:23.80] ...running for state assembly, you all know where you vote, right?
[00:45:26.64] Good. Well, hopefully I can count on your vote.
[00:45:28.23] So thanks for your time.
[00:45:29.64] Thank you.
[00:45:30.23] Thank you.
[00:45:32.23] The concern I have with some of this redistricting is that there is a feeling out there that this is a lost cause.
[00:45:40.65] Don't put resources there.
[00:45:43.12] Don't worry about it because it's a lost cause.
[00:45:45.53] But then when the maps change, what have you done with that lost cause for the last 10 years?
[00:45:50.37] They need to know that you've been in there.
[00:45:52.92] Not just paper candidates, but people that actually know the district.
[00:45:57.34] They've been out in the district.
[00:46:00.05] So we had to go out and look for...
[00:46:01.97] well, OK, where are the hunters? Where are the teachers?
[00:46:05.60] Where are those new voters or people that haven't voted in a while?
[00:46:08.89] The math is tough, but you still got to go out there and knock those doors.
[00:46:15.19] How old are you?
[00:46:17.78] So you can't vote, huh?
[00:46:26.37] Do you trust me? Like, really, really trust me?
[00:46:28.83] I'll show you 2, ok?
[00:46:30.66] Hands down.
[00:46:32.66] Have I ever made you look weird?
[00:46:35.17] No.
[00:46:36.21] I love you but stop moving.
[00:46:40.96] Hold still.
[00:46:41.72] I know. There's a parent teacher conference.
[00:46:44.01] Tomorrow's a half day?
[00:46:45.80] Not for you, buddy, just for the high school and junior high.
[00:46:52.10] Ok, I need you to hold still, because we're blending.
[00:46:54.02] We're blending.
[00:46:55.31] We're blending. We're blending.
[00:47:04.45] I can't even think straight today.
[00:47:10.54] OK. What comes after "who sides with special interests and his party?" We need to invest...
[00:47:16.67] I'm hungry.
[00:47:17.79] How can you be hungry? You just ate.
[00:47:19.46] Leave everything alone.
[00:47:21.09] I'm hungry.
[00:47:23.38] Baby, in a minute you're going to have to be really quiet.
[00:47:26.72] I'm running to make sure that all Wisconsin families like mine can prosper.
[00:47:32.77] I am running for Assembly District 25 because we need someone that truly represents our Wisconsin working families, unlike our current representative, who sides with special interests.
[00:47:42.86] We need to invest in public education, infrastructure and health care to ensure all families like mine can prosper.
[00:47:52.37] I humbly ask for your vote on November 6th.
[00:47:54.91] It's time to put people before politics.
[00:47:59.21] [Upbeat guitar music]
[00:48:12.85] You've got Senator Lemahieu, Kyle Whelton, his challenger.
[00:48:16.85] We've got Paul Tittl and we've got Jennifer Estrada.
[00:48:20.52] You want to take a couple minutes, introduce yourself.
[00:48:23.44] Good afternoon.
[00:48:24.23] My name is Paul Tittl. I have been your state representative for the past six years in Madison.
[00:48:30.37] A little bit about me, I was raised in Manitowoc, graduated from Lincoln High School, been here pretty much all my life.
[00:48:37.92] I started a business back in 1987.
[00:48:40.58] What I did is I put everything I had into it.
[00:48:42.63] And I think that's what I stand for is I stand for the people that basically put everything that they have into their well-being, into their lives.
[00:48:52.35] I was born and raised in Kewaunee and I've lived in Manitowoc most my life.
[00:48:56.64] As a single mom in this community, I've been deeply concerned at the direction that not only the state is going, but our community is going.
[00:49:04.57] I see more and more people like me that are struggling.
[00:49:07.61] I want a community where my children can go to a fully-funded public school knowing that they're not going to be left behind.
[00:49:15.74] We need to have somebody at the state level that's making sure that we're investing in our communities, we're investing in our public education, we're investing in health care, and we're enticing people to want to come to our community.
[00:49:29.05] [Blues guitar music]
[00:49:37.72] The backbone of Manitowoc, that's the backbone of Wisconsin, is dairy and factories.
[00:49:42.81] That's us. And we're...
[00:49:44.65] we're dying.
[00:49:53.07] A little bit out of high school, I was applying for jobs and I was offered one here in Manitowoc at Mirro.
[00:49:58.75] Loved it. It was a union job.
[00:50:02.67] We made pots and pans, bakeware, pressure cookers.
[00:50:06.88] I was there three and a half years.
[00:50:10.30] I actually had thought maybe I'd be there the rest of my life.
[00:50:15.93] It was, you know, the sustainer of Manitowoc.
[00:50:19.93] And, you know, it left.
[00:50:22.89] It just closed overnight.
[00:50:34.66] When Mirro closed, I was a stay-at-home mom, and that was a good six or seven years that I was out of the workforce.
[00:50:42.41] And I think that's why I was so impacted when my husband got deported, because I was like, okay, not only do I have to pick up the pieces, like, where do I start?
[00:50:59.72] I was working in different assisted living facilities.
[00:51:04.85] I worked for a long time at the YMCA.
[00:51:09.78] Working on dairy farms, roofing.
[00:51:18.16] So, that's six in total.
[00:51:20.58] I don't know anybody that I consider my friend that doesn't have more than one job just to sustain their family.
[00:51:30.25] Since I left Mirro, I have not had a time where I haven't worked two to three jobs at once.
[00:51:54.95] In Wisconsin, thousands of public workers and their supporters protested for a fourth day at the statehouse in a battle over benefits and union bargaining rights, a fight that is spreading to other states.
[00:52:10.79] [Drumming and crowd cheering]
[00:52:22.76] [Crowd chanting, "Kill the bill"]
[00:52:37.90] We will not rest!
[00:52:39.24] We will not rest!
[00:52:40.78] Until our rights are restored!
[00:52:42.70] Until our rights are restored!
[00:52:44.70] Can you hear us now, Governor Walker?
[00:52:48.58] [Crowd cheers]
[00:53:00.64] "Act Ten" was an attempt -- successful -- to disable unions in the state of Wisconsin.
[00:53:09.39] Scott Walker said it was a budget repair bill.
[00:53:14.36] But taking away collective bargaining from public employees in the very place where that concept began was...was horrific.
[00:53:30.54] There were a hundred thousand people in the snow, those people didn't mean anything?
[00:53:36.59] You don't have to listen to them?
[00:53:39.55] So I thought to myself, how can I find out if citizens are asking for these changes?
[00:53:47.14] And I realized there's an open records law.
[00:53:49.77] And I didn't know much about the law.
[00:53:51.19] I just knew that I could ask for stuff and they were supposed to give it to me.
[00:54:00.78] I sent out open records requests.
[00:54:03.62] I started asking them, what are you hearing from your constituents?
[00:54:08.08] I began with the dismantling of the Government Accountability Board.
[00:54:13.75] And I recorded thirty eight hundred plus people who wrote their legislators.
[00:54:18.51] 94% said, don't do this.
[00:54:23.47] This group said, "We're getting rid of it." Then I went after campaign finance.
[00:54:29.27] There was a $10,000 limit and disclosure requirements.
[00:54:37.07] The overall tenor of what they passed for campaign finance was to give them more money without disclosing from whom it was coming.
[00:54:49.79] I queried the entire GOP majority.
[00:54:52.96] Twenty three hundred people -- 98% -- said, "Don't do this." They did it anyway.
[00:54:59.71] So it was clearly to their benefit, but not to mine.
[00:55:06.39] The budget was designed to take millions of dollars from public education to privatize public education.
[00:55:16.77] Here's a PDF from a senator.
[00:55:21.36] For him, there are 10 of them, and they each probably have over 100 contacts.
[00:55:29.03] When somebody says anything positive about public school funding, that's what I'm recording.
[00:55:35.96] In February of 2016, there were 1,023 contacts saying, "I support public education" and 24 who said "No, let's continue building this voucher system.
[00:55:47.80] So that was 98% who said no.
[00:55:51.39] This ought to matter to legislators that they are hearing from this many people, and it didn't seem to matter.
[00:56:04.19] I told people on Facebook what I was doing.
[00:56:06.15] And people volunteered to help me, so I had volunteers now sending these things out, getting the information back, tallying it.
[00:56:16.00] Scott Walker and the Republicans wanted to change the DNR -- the Department of Natural Resources.
[00:56:25.09] They wanted to cut DNR scientists and conservationists.
[00:56:32.06] They wanted to defund the state parks.
[00:56:35.73] 120,622 citizen contacts saying "don't do this." And zero -- zero -- who said this is a great idea.
[00:56:49.28] It passed.
[00:56:50.95] All of these laws passed despite the fact that thousands of people were contacting their legislators saying don't do it.
[00:57:12.26] We have red fox, gray fox, otter, mink, great-horned owls, woodcocks, warblers.
[00:57:22.94] Sandhill cranes are here every spring over in the wetlands.
[00:57:27.90] This is Maywood.
[00:57:29.40] This is where I worked for 10 years.
[00:57:36.16] Seeing the Department of Public Works, which is where I was in the Parks Department, just getting cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
[00:57:43.04] All the education positions at state parks were cut.
[00:57:50.18] I lasted a lot longer than a lot of my friends in Natural Resources.
[00:57:55.47] It really demoralized teaching as a profession.
[00:57:59.39] A lot of kids that worked for me left the field of education and they would have been great teachers.
[00:58:05.65] That's really hard.
[00:58:10.53] I was the Park Naturalist for the City of Sheboygan.
[00:58:14.78] Our curriculum was aligned to the Sheboygan Area School District science curriculum.
[00:58:20.04] So first graders do weather, second graders do soils, third graders are doing butterflies or insects.
[00:58:29.59] In 1935, they passed the bill -- it's called the Conservation Education Act.
[00:58:35.18] And it stated that every child in Wisconsin K through 12 must have conservation education.
[00:58:43.27] We'd spent the entire 1800's cutting down basically every tree in the state.
[00:58:48.44] So parents and legislators got together and said, we don't want this to happen again.
[00:58:55.57] We want our kids to learn from our mistakes.
[00:59:00.83] That was the kind of value we had and the lessons we learned in 1935.
[00:59:05.25] We gotta get it back.
[00:59:24.06] So this person just moved from Florida and she doesn't have what she needs to register or what she needs to get her I.D.
[00:59:34.86] That's like bonkers.
[00:59:40.74] Hey, Molly, how are you?
[00:59:41.87] How was your day yesterday, Terri?
[00:59:43.75] It was good, it was a lot of fun, actually.
[00:59:45.42] You had a busy day.
[00:59:46.71] You took someone to vote early.
[00:59:48.29] Hi, Keith.
[00:59:49.71] 6943 is Bill Whitford.
[00:59:51.59] Hi, Bill. How's it going?
[00:59:53.21] OK.
[00:59:54.13] Apparently the World Series is on tonight.
[00:59:56.55] But the Packer game is over.
[00:59:58.14] Oh, how did... did we we win?
[00:59:59.89] No. No.
[01:00:01.60] So, first of all, we had a canvass yesterday and a canvass today.
[01:00:05.89] We hit almost 2,000 doors, which is incredible.
[01:00:10.11] Going in to what things are gonna look like on Election Day and kind of now as we do this last push, we'll have kind of a dispatch room where we'll be fielding the calls.
[01:00:21.99] It's kind of a rapid response to make sure that if somebody needs to vote, doesn't have an I.D., what do they ...
[01:00:29.92] what can they get so that they can vote.
[01:00:32.09] And so that might be, you know, picking somebody up at a polling location, getting them to the DMV.
[01:00:37.43] The biggest problem that I've encountered is that the DMV is not on bus lines and it doesn't have evening hours.
[01:00:44.97] So this woman I talked to yesterday, she works.
[01:00:48.85] She works even every other Saturday.
[01:00:50.86] Yesterday was the only day she could...
[01:00:53.78] I met Molly and realized that we were both in the same business: democracy protection.
[01:01:00.53] I got on her helpline, I volunteered, sometimes they just need information.
[01:01:05.62] Unless you want to call an Uber but that costs $33....
[01:01:10.50] Ultimately, off of that helpline you find people who actually are going to have to go to the DMV and get a photo I.D.
[01:01:17.01] and they're almost always people without a Wisconsin driver's license.
[01:01:20.47] And there's no good way to get to the DMV by public transport.
[01:01:27.14] Now serving I-497.
[01:01:31.23] It fits my model of one voter at a time, that's the way we're going to fight voter suppression.
[01:01:44.66] Hey guys, we're here down at City Hall in Manitowoc getting Jessica here registered and ready to vote.
[01:01:49.91] November 6th is right around the corner so we need you guys to register.
[01:01:53.71] 2016 - we saw what happened when people don't come out to vote.
[01:01:56.92] We lost by 20,000 votes and we have 20,000 wards in Wisconsin.
[01:02:01.30] That's one vote per ward, so we can't allow that to happen again.
[01:02:04.55] So register and vote.
[01:02:18.78] A big week for the top contenders running for governor in Wisconsin.
[01:02:22.03] Tony Evens gets out the vote in Milwaukee with Bernie Sanders on Monday and today with former President Barack Obama.
[01:02:28.91] President Trump keynotes a Scott Walker rally in Mosinee.
[01:02:33.88] Under Republican leadership, America is thriving because we are finally putting America first.
[01:02:41.76] Been a long time.
[01:02:43.09] It's been a long time.
[01:02:46.22] But that's why I'm here today, to ask the people of Wisconsin to reelect a truly great governor, Scott Walker.
[01:02:59.90] Hello, Milwaukee!
[01:03:04.61] Give it up for your next governor, Tony Evers.
[01:03:10.91] I am here to ask you to vote.
[01:03:17.13] A great awakening of citizenship is happening all across the country.
[01:03:22.59] I can't tell you how encouraged I've been watching so many people get involved for the first time.
[01:03:28.89] The antidote to government by a powerful few is government by the organized, energized many.
[01:03:39.07] That's what this moment's about.
[01:03:47.11] We want more people to participate.
[01:03:53.00] Ordinary people, not kings, not czars, not billionaires, but ordinary people have a right to determine the future of the nation.
[01:04:05.13] That's called democracy.
[01:04:08.80] And if people can fight and die for American democracy, we can go out and vote and play an active role in this campaign.
[01:04:23.28] [Upbeat guitar music]
[01:04:51.30] Yes, we have a platform.
[01:04:52.68] I want to get back to science.
[01:04:54.97] I'd like to talk about climate change.
[01:04:56.98] You know, let's at least talk about it.
[01:04:59.52] I am excited up and down the ticket from Milwaukee to Manitowoc, we have women running who are fired up.
[01:05:05.07] And they are -- not just because they're women, you guys -- they are the right people in the right districts at the right time and they are working their butts off.
[01:05:16.75] The dream ticket!
[01:05:38.35] Hey, guys, it's Jenni.
[01:05:39.27] I'm here down at the headquarters here on Washington Street.
[01:05:42.69] I'm so excited to have Peter here with me.
[01:05:44.07] We're going to be out knocking doors.
[01:05:46.19] We need everybody to come on down so you can help us with this last push today and tomorrow so we get everybody out to vote.
[01:05:56.33] This is an uphill battle because these districts have been gerrymandered very heavily.
[01:06:00.21] But the energy is out there and it's up to us to make sure that we carry that energy right through the finish line.
[01:06:11.63] You want to catch 807 since we're here?
[01:06:28.94] All right.
[01:06:30.36] Hey, guys, here we are here at Ryan's on York.
[01:06:33.99] We're waiting for the arrival of Tony Evers, Sarah Godlewski, Dan Kohl, so we're all excited.
[01:06:44.38] When Walker came to office, he did two things: he decided he's gonna take 800 million dollars out of the K through 12 system and he was going to make the people that work in those systems and all other public employees the enemy. Right?
[01:06:59.60] "Divide and conquer." Well, he may have tried to divide us, but he has not conquered us and he will not onquer us.
[01:07:30.76] What do you want? Toast?
[01:07:57.49] So after school, we'll drop your stuff off and then you come down to the office for the watch party and we get to find out if your mom is going to be the new assemblywoman.
[01:08:07.21] What happens if she doesn't win?
[01:08:08.79] Then she continues to be your mom.
[01:08:13.17] Ay yayay.
[01:08:14.34] That's true.
[01:08:16.09] What do you tell your teachers?
[01:08:17.51] Vote Blue.
[01:08:23.77] Polls opened at seven and I got in about 10 after 7.
[01:08:26.77] Big line!
[01:08:28.35] It was like presidential level turnout in Middleton this morning.
[01:08:33.82] That is longer, I think, than I waited in any presidential not '08, '16 or '12.
[01:08:42.79] Hi. Jennifer Estrada.
[01:09:02.26] This is how we do our polling.
[01:09:04.31] You base it on the ratio of how many times you get flipped off to how many times people honk their horn.
[01:09:11.40] That gives us a pretty good idea.
[01:09:13.02] I think it's pretty brutal right now, but it's early.
[01:09:19.82] Go vote! Go vote!
[01:09:25.70] And we got the school bus drivers.
[01:09:28.62] The blare of the horns is deafening.
[01:09:30.12] Shut up.
[01:09:32.21] Come on, how about another honk. Anybody?
[01:09:38.22] Yeah, we got a vote!
[01:09:42.43] You're trying to figure out where you are supposed to vote?
[01:09:45.14] Let me see if I can try to help you.
[01:09:49.35] The DMV closes at 4:45, 4:30.
[01:09:53.02] OK, cool. I will call a driver and I will call you right back on this phone.
[01:09:57.36] And you said you don't have your birth certificate.
[01:10:00.11] You can't locate that, right?
[01:10:01.74] I work for the voter helpline that you called.
[01:10:02.82] Just wanted to check in and see if you had any questions about voting.
[01:10:06.70] All right. He'll be there in 15, bye.
[01:10:08.95] So you may be able to call your bank and change your address with them.
[01:10:14.29] Cap Times: "It's gone crazy.
[01:10:16.00] Madison midday voter turnout surpasses 2014, 2016 levels." 2016 levels.
[01:10:25.35] According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, unofficial results show that more than 2.67 million Wisconsinites -- more than 59% of the voting-age population -- trudged through rain and cold to get to the polls.
[01:10:40.15] [Mellow guitar music]
[01:10:58.46] She won 386...to 355....Whoooooo!
[01:11:15.44] Paul Tittl: 575.
[01:11:19.65] Jennifer Estrada: 595.
[01:11:23.45] Whooooo!
[01:11:25.74] Rock, paper, scissor.
[01:11:28.16] Rock, paper, scissor.
[01:11:30.91] He won! He won!
[01:11:37.96] 6100 to roughly 3900.
[01:11:42.67] Yeah, there's no way coming back from that.
[01:11:46.14] A lot of the polling places are reporting presidential turnout.
[01:11:50.06] Oh, yeah. Exactly.
[01:11:52.18] So we should expect right around 24,000 to 27,000 votes.
[01:11:58.81] Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker leads by .1%, or about 2400 votes over Tony Evers with 92% of the precincts reporting.
[01:12:10.91] The stakes are very high in Wisconsin.
[01:12:13.70] Scott Walker really is trying to dismantle all social protections.
[01:12:19.29] What happens in the gubernatorial race in Wisconsin is going to have life-or-death consequences, particularly for immigrants and black people in Wisconsin.
[01:12:28.47] Like I said, it's a statistical impossibility, in my opinion.
[01:12:33.02] But I wouldn't concede.
[01:12:36.43] I wouldn't go anywhere until Tittl gets north of 11,000, 12,000.
[01:12:41.27] You have Tony Evers up .. no, now Scott Walker is up 314 votes.
[01:12:48.36] He is fighting for his political life as the incumbent governor.
[01:12:52.16] Governor Scott Walker's election-night party.
[01:12:53.70] A small crowd of supporters looked anxious as Walker and Democrat Tony Evers traded the lead past midnight.
[01:13:01.25] Looming over it all were 47,000 uncounted absentee ballots from the city of Milwaukee.
[01:13:24.19] Thanks to all your help, thanks to all the volunteers, we actually have gotten the most votes for a Democratic candidate in this district ever.
[01:13:33.24] And that's thanks to all of you.
[01:13:38.54] Hi, Paul, this is Jennifer Estrada.
[01:13:40.21] How are you?
[01:13:42.29] Good.
[01:13:43.17] I'm just calling to congratulate you on your win.
[01:13:46.09] And thanks for the good race.
[01:13:54.76] Can I know what those official results were once more time, what did it go for Walker?
[01:13:58.60] What did it go for...
[01:13:59.31] Sure. For Walker, he received 7,181 and the Democratic candidate, Evers, received 38,674.
[01:14:08.57] That gave Evers his winning margin of 29,000 votes.
[01:14:17.08] Given all the results we've seen tonight, I feel confident in saying to you right now, my name is Tony Evers and I'm going to be the next Governor of the state of Wisconsin!
[01:14:30.09] Democrats won every single statewide race.
[01:14:33.43] Secretary of State.
[01:14:34.30] State Treasurer. Attorney General.
[01:14:35.68] At the top of the ticket, Democrat Tony Evers won, as well.
[01:14:38.39] He beat two-term Republican Governor Scott Walker....
[01:14:52.45] The long dark reign of Scott Walker's terror here on the state of Wisconsin is finally over.
[01:14:59.29] Congratulations, Tony Evers.
[01:15:03.25] But a lot of first-time candidates that put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears of their own, knocking doors, doing the right thing, getting out there, they did not have this success.
[01:15:14.47] So I would say amongst the winners last night: the effectiveness of the Republican gerrymander in the state of Wisconsin.
[01:15:36.41] You really have this feeling like, oh, my God, we might win.
[01:15:39.83] And I was getting these phone calls and Ward One, Ward Two, oh my gosh.
[01:15:44.37] Oh, my gosh.
[01:15:45.42] We're doing really well.
[01:15:47.25] And then some of the outside places started to come in -- Sheboygan Falls.
[01:15:52.34] So I think by about 11 o'clock, we knew we weren't going to win.
[01:15:57.05] Even though we didn't win, it felt really good to be a part of that.
[01:16:02.02] We had something to do with getting those numbers for Tony, so it's hard not to feel a little good like, Ooh, Wisconsin's back on the map -- for good reasons, not, not bad scandalous ones, but actually something happened here.
[01:16:17.03] And you just couldn't feel bad about it.
[01:16:27.54] Protesters descended on the Wisconsin state capitol today decrying what they are calling a last-minute Lame Duck power grab by the state's Republican legislature.
[01:16:35.76] Shame on you!
[01:16:39.85] Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald and the Republicans inside of that building -- our capital -- refuse to accept the results of the 2018 election.
[01:16:52.23] Lose an election? No problem.
[01:16:53.69] Just pass some laws to strip power from the people who beat you in that very election.
[01:16:59.53] That is apparently what's happening in Wisconsin and Michigan.
[01:17:03.91] The changes would limit the governor-elect's ability to write state rules or adjust public benefits programs.
[01:17:09.63] ...keeping Governor elect Evers from rolling back GOP-backed laws.
[01:17:13.25] That includes Wisconsin's voter I.D. law.
[01:17:15.51] It insists on work requirements for Medicaid recipients, putting the legislature in charge of everything related to health care that might involve a federal waiver..
[01:17:23.93] ...and make it more difficult for the incoming attorney general to pull Wisconsin out of a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act.
[01:17:30.48] The bill would also limit early voting to two weeks.
[01:17:32.86] ...Not being able to ban guns in the capital without permission.
[01:17:35.82] ...Work requirements for public benefits like food stamps.
[01:17:38.61] Bring in private attorneys to replace the attorney general, who represents the public.
[01:17:44.87] The Capitol police that are here will be...
[01:17:45.87] once again, we'll be as respectful as we can to you.
[01:17:48.87] But if you are out of line and disrupting others in the room, you will be asked to leave, OK?
[01:17:53.84] We the people spoke on November 6th.
[01:17:57.80] We are here to speak again.
[01:18:00.47] Why now?
[01:18:01.68] It was confirmed today -- confirmed -- that these bills were all drafted and completed after November 6th.
[01:18:08.02] Who are you representing, if not the people who elected you?
[01:18:14.02] I feel the legislation in front of us today coming from this Wisconsin body has a degree of extremism and hatred.
[01:18:22.82] We have to stand against that.
[01:18:24.78] We look down at countries where dictators and oligarchs hold sham elections or don't respect the transition of power.
[01:18:33.58] It would be an embarrassment for me to try to explain it to my nine-year-old grandson because he has a sense of fairness and a sense of playground rules: You lose, you're a good loser.
[01:18:46.22] You pick yourself up, dust yourself off.
[01:18:49.39] And you play the game.
[01:18:51.98] Do you cheat on your spouse?
[01:18:54.44] Do you lie to your children?
[01:18:55.65] I mean, this is a matter of much higher moral import than those things.
[01:19:01.53] I can't believe you have any personal integrity if you're willing to put this out in public.
[01:19:05.87] I challenge any of you to tell me here today how many of your constituents have asked for any of these bills?
[01:19:13.62] Everybody asks, where you get all these great ideas from?
[01:19:16.67] Well, the answer is pretty simple.
[01:19:18.63] If you don't know where they came from, they came from ALEC.
[01:19:21.67] I'm going to pray that I can have faith that you will vote and be people of integrity.
[01:19:29.64] We will restore democracy in this state.
[01:19:32.31] This moment of power that you have before we get fair maps -- and we will get fair maps -- will be remembered and corrected.
[01:19:40.61] Not vindictively, not in the way this party operates, but out of fairness and concern and love for our neighbors, which is how things should be governed in the state of Wisconsin.
[01:19:49.91] Thank you.
[01:19:58.67] In changing the statutes we have put in place deep roots that no matter what happens over the next four years, are going to continue to allow the people of the state of Wisconsin to grow and to prosper.
[01:20:08.76] The 2.6 million people that voted -- and they represent the rest of the people of Wisconsin -- did not have their voices heard because of the actions of the legislature.
[01:20:19.61] That bill did curtail the powers of the incoming governor, right?
[01:20:23.90] The voters didn't elect me to finish on November seventh.
[01:20:26.82] They elected me to finish on January...
[01:20:29.03] That's your justification for jamming something through in a lame duck session?
[01:20:31.33] Anything he wants to do is not prohibited.
[01:20:32.83] He just has to work with the legislature to make it happen.
[01:20:40.75] Dittrich, Doyle, Duchow, Edming, Emerson, Felzkowski, Fields, Gruszynski, Gundrum, Haywood....
[01:20:55.98] I queried every member of the legislature this time.
[01:20:59.94] Everybody.
[01:21:01.52] And I asked them what they were hearing about the "Lame Duck" legislation.
[01:21:08.99] There were 43,934 citizen contacts that said, "Don't do this." And a whopping number of 730 people said, "That's a great idea." I remember the days when a legislator would say, if I got 10 phone calls on an issue, I knew I had to pay attention.
[01:21:34.31] These legislators are getting thousands of contacts from citizens.
[01:21:41.27] And they seem to mean little or nothing.
[01:21:47.28] ...is moved.
[01:21:48.32] We're now on adoptions.
[01:21:49.91] And we have....
[01:21:55.16] [Melancholy piano music]
[01:22:31.66] In a five to four decision, the Supreme Court ruled today, essentially, that partisan gerrymandering is beyond their control.
[01:22:38.04] In a sharply ideological decision, the court's conservative judges said redistricting claims "present political questions beyond the reach of federal courts." I think the decision is going to be seen by history as a really bad decision.
[01:22:58.60] It was the Supreme Court refusing to do its job to protect the rights of the American people.
[01:23:06.73] Over time, we'll have more states that have fair map drawing.
[01:23:09.78] But it's going to go slower than it would have.
[01:23:11.49] And there's going to be a whole bunch of states in which the maps are rigged for another decade because the Supreme Court refused to do its job and say we should set some standards and we should take the map-drawing power out of the hands of politicians.
[01:23:26.88] And we need to have a political system that's more responsive to the people.
[01:23:37.39] [Children's voices]
[01:23:58.78] You just can't rest.
[01:23:59.87] You cannot get lazy.
[01:24:01.54] You have to always stay on top of things.
[01:24:05.62] I do continue to fight for these things even after a loss.
[01:24:10.80] I know what issues are important to me and important other folks in this district, and we deserve a voice.
[01:24:21.56] [Quiet violin music]
[01:24:40.91] I have to try to make a change.
[01:24:41.74] I have to, if anything, instill values in my kids that say, it's not about just lifting yourself up, it's about lifting up the people that are around you with you.
[01:24:52.71] Because I want a better future for them and it isn't a financial future.
[01:24:55.67] That's not the future I'm talking about.
[01:24:59.09] I'm talking about a future where it's fair.
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 87 minutes
Date: 2021
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 9-12, College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
Interactive Transcript: Available
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