Yearly Archives: 2022

(The Center Square) – It looks like University of Wisconsin schools won’t be asking students about free speech after all.

On Wednesday, the professor who organized the survey told the UW System he wants to wait a while.

Timothy Shiell with the Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation at UW-Stout sent an email to the UW’s new president, explaining that he is going to wait until the fall to send the survey to all 13 UW campuses.

“Given current circumstances, I must delay the launch of the ‘Student Perceptions of Campus Free Speech, Viewpoint Diversity, and Self-Censorship’ survey launch until Fall 2022,” Shiell wrote. “The extra time will enable us to answer fully and accurately the avalanche of questions arising and lay the groundwork for a successful survey.”

The survey was supposed to ask students about speech on campus, and whether students felt there were any problems.

“It is essential that the survey provide the quantity and quality of data that helps inform the public discussion of an issue of state and national significance,” Shiell added.

UW-Whitewater Chancellor Jim Henderson resigned earlier this week because of the survey.

Henderson said he not only questioned the political motivations of the survey, but also questioned the decision from UW leaders to double down on the survey.

“As stated in my resignation letter, it was not an issue of the environment at UW-Whitewater that led to my resignation, but rather one of understanding that the integrity of the agreement about decision-making and the role of the chancellors in that process had been broken,” Henderson said in a statement earlier this week.

The UW System said when it announced the survey earlier this week that the survey would attempt to answer the following questions:

What do students know about First Amendment free speech rights?How much do they value these rights?How much do students value viewpoint diversity?Do they perceive problems in viewpoint diversity at their campus?Do students self-censor? If so, why do they self-censor?Have students witnessed or experienced formal sanctions or punishment for constitutionally protected expression?To what extent do student perceptions vary with demographic factors such as their political party affiliation, gender, and race/ethnicity?

There is no word when the survey will be sent to UW’s campuses.

(The Center Square) – Kenosha County’s newly elected county executive says connecting with people – and connecting with their biggest worry – helped sweep her into office.

Samantha Kerkman spoke with News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber Friday morning. She credited her victory, the first for a Republican in Kenosha County, to a grassroots campaign and listening to voters who said they want to feel safe.

“It’s been two years, and it’s been really difficult dealing with COVID and then we had the riots and civil unrest down here. People have been through so much,” Kerkman explained. “The issue of public safety resonated with everybody. It didn’t matter if you were on the east side of the county or the west side of the county, public safety hands down was that key issue.”

Parts of the city of Kenosha burned during the riots that followed Jacob Blake’s shooting in August of 2020. The violence didn’t end until after Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and wounded a third.

Kerkman said people wanted to feel safe again.

“If you don’t feel safe in your home, you don’t want to stay here, and you’re not going to want to raise your family here, and work here, and retire here,” Kerkman added.

It wasn’t all the Kenosha riots from two years ago. Kerkman said there’s been an uptick in violence over the past two years, including home invasions and shootings.

Kenosha County is seen as a bellwether for the state. Voters there went for every Democratic presidential candidate from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. But the county swung for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Kerkman said her victory was not part of a sudden "red-flip," but was a result of years of voters shifting their party loyalties.

“Back in the day, Paul Ryan got elected in 1998 and I got elected in 2000,” Kerkman told Weber. “We had a Republican sheriff, Dave Best, and everybody else had been a Democrat. But it was slowly moving that direction.”

Kerkman is currently a state representative from Salem Lakes. She said she will take some time to transition from the State Assembly to the county. By law, she has 60 days to leave her Assembly seat.

(The Center Square) – It appears that a lot of Wisconsin parents are not happy with their local school boards.

Conservative and Republicans candidates for school boards did well in their races Tuesday, many of them new challengers who unseated longtime incumbents.

“Last night was a great night for parents looking to take back control of their children’s education and for liberty-oriented candidates generally,” Eric Bott with Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin told the Center Square.

The Wisconsin Republican Party said party-backed and conservative candidates won two-thirds of the races where they were active.

“Conservatives fought and won across the state, including in swing and deep blue areas,” Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Paul Farrow said on Wednesday. “We are proud of the slate of conservative candidates who stepped up to the plate across Wisconsin, as they’ve proven that when we stand up and fight back against the far-left takeover of our local governments, we win.”

In southeast Wisconsin, conservative candidates won all of their school board races in Waukesha, New Berlin, and Cedarburg. Conservatives also did well in the Fox Valley and in northeast Wisconsin.

But it was not a total victory.

Three conservative candidates for school board in Eau Claire failed to win.

Challengers Nicole Everson, Melissa Winter, and Corey Cronrath lost by at least 1,000 votes each. The three gained national attention from bringing attention to Eau Claire School’s policy that states parents have to “earn” the right to know their child’s gender at school.

Progressive and liberal candidates also did very well in Dane County, while Milwaukee remained a deep-blue city.

Still, conservatives are optimistic heading into the November election.

“Last night proved that our grassroots operation is battle-tested and well-positioned to carry this momentum into November,” Farrow said.

“Conservatives have momentum heading into November but it’s premature to call it a red-wave,” Bott added. “Hard work and grassroots activism catapulted many candidates to victory last night. Conservatives will need to up their ground game to repeat these victories in the fall.”

(The Center Square) – It’s being seen as one of the biggest upsets in Wisconsin, and possibly a bellwether for the rest of the state.

Voters in Kenosha County on Tuesday elected their first ever Republican County chairman in the first local election since the 2020 riots that burned parts of the city of Kenosha to the ground.

Samantha Kerkman beat Clerk of Courts Rebecca Matoska-Mentink by nearly 800 votes.

“Liberals and Tony Evers let Kenosha burn,” Republican candidate for governor Rebecca Kleefisch said on Twitter Tuesday night. “Now voters are taking back control and putting the county in a capable set of hands.”

Wisconsin’s Republican Party said Republicans flipped the county board in Kenosha as well.

“Like all Wisconsinites, residents of Kenosha are fed up with the failed policies of Tony Evers, Leftists and the political class in general,” Republican candidate for governor Kevin Nicholson told The Center Square Wednesday. “I applaud every single parent and citizen who stepped up to run for local office. It’s time to get our society back on track – and last night showed that we will be successful in November as we charge forward to win the hearts and minds of Wisconsinites."

Kenosha is a swing county in Wisconsin. It went for every Democratic presidential candidate from Jimmy Carter through Barack Obama, but the county broke for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Trump won Kenosha County by just 255 votes in 2016, and he won by nearly 3,000 votes in 2020.

Kenosha, of course, jumped on to the national radar in August of 2020 when crowds of rioters burned parts of the city down following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The violence in Kenosha only stopped after Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two men and wounded a third.

Prosecutors cleared the officer involved in Blake’s shooting. A jury last year found Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges for the shootings during the city’s last night of violence.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor exercised his veto pen on several Republican plans.

Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday vetoed seven pieces of legislation, including what would have been new laws for rioters, an expansion for school choice for younger kids, and a plan that would have changed the make up of some police and fire commissions in the state.

Evers said SB 296, which aimed to allow misdemeanor charges for anyone who attends a protest that becomes a riot and opened the door for felony charges for anyone who participated in the riot, violated free speech rights.

“This bill creates ambiguity, inconsistency, and contradictions in practical application that could be used to infringe on rights guaranteed under the First Amendment,” Evers wrote in his veto message.

Republicans wrote the proposal following the riots in Kenosha back in 2020. Lawmakers wanted to give prosecutors another way to charge people who flocked to protests and turned them violent.

Gov. Evers also vetoed SB 597, which would allow more young people to enroll in the state’s private school choice program.

“This bill would add to the pupil count that fuels the general state aid reduction,” Evers wrote in his veto message.

The governor claimed the school choice expansion could lead to higher local property taxes.

Evers also vetoed a plan, SB 117, which aimed to change the rules for appointing members to police and fire commissions in the state.

One of his other vetoes, of SB 563, kills plans to allow hunters in Wisconsin to hunt farm-raised bison, buffalo, sheep, antelope, or goats.