I went to the WISDOM Democrat governor candidate forum in Pewaukee today because it was 10 minutes from my house. Well, the Democrat governor candidate forum + Andy Manske, this 26-year-old medical tech in an 80s-style jacket, who has launched a quixotic primary bid against Tom Tiffany that no one thinks he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning (sorry Andy.)

I wasn’t expecting to like him because he said mean stuff about me on social media, and his campaign seems distracting, but as most of these things go, he was disarmingly nice in person, and he even explained that he meant it as a compliment when he compared me online to Gossip Girl. Whatever. He has the right to run if he wants. It’s a free country. To be honest, although he didn’t articulate a consistently conservative view on stage (at one point Kelda Roys praised him as an alleged pro-choice Republican), he was entertaining. He even gave out his cell phone to everyone in the room.

It was kind of like Andy wandered on stage through a time warp after starring in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (the resemblance is uncanny, jacket and all), got lost and ended up sitting between Roys and Sara Rodriguez with a microphone stuck in his face. “I want a better future,” he explained. He was winging it, but it endeared him to the crowd. My 73-year-old mom, an old-school Democrat, came along to the forum, and later she laughed and said, “I liked him. He seemed so honest. He just said what he was thinking.” Would she vote for him? “No,” she said emphatically. “I’m a Democrat.” Then again, my mom’s main reason for not liking Tom Tiffany is that she wrote Tom and Ron Johnson a letter years ago and only Ron wrote back. And because she’s a Democrat. He probably didn’t even read it.

By the way, Tiffany is on the flyer for the forum at North Division High School on June 27. And this fascinates me because I am not sure I’ve ever seen a Republican debate five Democrats at once before. The WWF would be proud. And Andy Manske. But Tiffany should do it because these forums desperately need a dose of strong conservative common sense so the next time Kelda Roys shrieks about hard-working local cops being “dragoons” someone on stage will call her out on it. To be honest, this forum was kind of the equivalent of a Madison liberal boomer book club. Tiffany may as well start defining them now.

What Francesca Hong Is Like

When I walked into the forum (watch the livestream video here) at Waukesha County Technical College, my mom was already there – talking to Francesca Hong! The forum was cool because you could mingle with the candidates if you wanted, and it was well-attended. Plus, they had bruschetta with goat cheese and little meatballs.

My mom asked Hong what she should tell her daughter (ie me) who doesn’t like her defund the police stance (mom, she wants to ABOLISH the police, get it straight). But my mom said she won’t really do that (mom, when they tell you who they are, believe them…). She wasn’t thrilled by Hong’s answer because Hong basically babbled something generic about adding more after school programs. Because abolishing the police is just a slogan that is insane in practicality. My mom thinks Hong looks too young to be governor.

I was going to go up to Hong and ask a question but a tall guy in a neatly pressed suit rushed over, and it was Democrat candidate Joel Brennan. To be honest, he looks better in real life than in his campaign photos, so I almost wasn’t sure it was him. But it was. I give Joel a point. He’s a really nice guy, one of these outgoing old-school Irish-American types with a gift of gab. Timothy Dolan is like that. My grandpa McBride was like that.

Joel didn’t even seem offended that I’ve been calling him Tom Barrett’s godson in every post because he recognized me, said hi, and said he likes the work I do with my journalism students. Two more points for Joel Brennan! He stated that his parents were Milwaukee newspaper reporters in the 50s, which fascinated me because they probably worked with my grandparents. He lathered it on thick. Which isn’t a dumb strategy considering the eventual nominee needs independents.

In truth, Joel Brennan would be tough for Republicans to beat in this cycle. He was DOA secretary for Evers and ran Discovery World and doesn’t seem like a nut, although he did arc to the left on stage. But no one knows who he is, and he’s got basically 0 in the polls, as the Democrat Party is increasingly dominated by a disenfranchised revolutionary wing, and he seems almost corporate. Joel assured me he’s sticking around and not following Missy Hughes, the other moderate, out the door, as Democrat establishment types attempt to streamline the field to help boring Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez oust feisty front runners Hong and Mandela Barnes. Then some frazzled campaign woman scurried up and yanked Joel away. I wouldn’t let him talk to me either, although I was just there to get a sense of them all.

Two Corporate Journalists

The forum began, and it basically consisted of two corporate journalists from a liberal-leaning newspaper, Mary Spicuzza and James Causey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, serving as moderators. She recently authored a story claiming Tiffany split with Republican lieutenant governor candidate Will Martin over Juneteenth that I felt wasn’t fully true. Causey is a really mild-mannered guy who started at the newspaper years ago through a high school program.

Causey claimed they’re “independent journalists.” Their questions were baked with liberal slant, and were basically giant softballs lobbed at the candidates. More like giant souffles. All squishy. So the candidates just puffed out generic babble in response. Mary referred to illegal immigrants as “undocumented” at one point. The bias is baked in, maybe subconscious.

I spoke with Mandela Barnes afterwards and his press secretary was standing nearby. Unbelievably, he didn’t try to spirit him away. They both just stood there being nice and talking. Point also where it’s due. In truth, Mandela is a charismatic and pretty friendly guy. If you overlook the fact he thinks illegal immigrants should get in-state tuition and stuff, he’s nice. Anyway his press guy remarked that the lack of follow-up questions on stage made it seem like everyone had the same views, and that’s true. If there are differences, they were more on style and tone.

I also asked Mandela if he thinks the Democratic establishment is out to get him and Hong, and he said no. Then he asked me what I think and I said they are. Then we had a fairly nuanced conversation on immigration. He has baggage but he wouldn’t be a walkover. If I’m Tiffany, I’d hope for Hong. When I pressed Mandela on ICE detainers, he eventually admitted he’s for them when it comes to really violent offenses.
On stage, they all climbed into the left-wing clown car.

Multiple candidates piled on 287g programs (which elected sheriffs sometimes choose to enter so they can screen INMATES in JAILS to see if accused criminals are illegal immigrants.) Mary and James held these lightning rounds where the candidates were given little paddles that said yes or no. All the Democrats want to give driver’s licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. They all support renewable energy requirements for utilities and air monitoring in “high-risk” communities. They all want to use clemency (commutations, pardons etc) and put it on fire – ie emptying out the prisons (Mary and James framed it as “mass incarceration.” They all want local governments to have the final say on data centers. None of the candidates wants local cops cooperating with ICE. Only Manske deviated here or there.

Again, I was longing for Tiffany’s campaign to beam him into the room. So he could say, “You betcha, this is insane. Are you all nuts?”

At this point, I also wanted to jump on stage, grab the microphone from Causey and ask them some pointed follow up questions, like don’t you even want ICE getting violent criminals out of this country? I wanted to ask Hong, you’re for abolishing police and prisons… where would you put the killers? When Kelda Roys ranted about wanting to end the voucher “scheme,” I wanted to say, you’ll really make all those choice kids leave schools that are helping them?

But I didn’t because that would have been inappropriate.

I was surprised the forum focused so much on “mass incarceration” and immigration actually. The moderators asked almost nothing about taxes and economics, education, and health care. This might be good for Tiffany because, on prisons and police, the Democrats are really off the ledge. Get them talking about it as much as possible.

So who was the unlikable one?

Sara “I am a nurse” Rodriguez was surprisingly dour. My mom and other people in the audience noted that she looked down a lot and looked really unhappy throughout the entire thing. My mom thought she seemed “entitled.” She was not likable and not warm. She looked annoyed the entire night. She also made a major mistake. She has no accomplishments that I know of as lieutenant governor, which she knows is a problem probably, so she latched onto Evers’ commutation scheme and is calling it the “Evers-Rodriguez” process, which she pledged to continue. The issue here is that this process allows cop killers serving life prison terms and other killers to qualify after 20 years, and now Rodriguez has to own it. Rodriguez also said the quiet part out loud, praising Minnesota.

Brennan kept name dropping his work with Evers so much you’d almost think HE was lieutenant governor. Brennan lost a point when he praised Evers’ judicial appointments, though. My God, Joel, Evers has planted lots of weak public defenders on the bench.

With all this blather about prisons and ICE and police, you know the word not a single person on stage mentioned? Victims.

Hong wasn’t unlikable. She was actually more of a shrinking violet than I was expecting. I was expecting Patty Hearst in a beret because the media have built her into this fire-breathing revolutionary, but she is a slight figure who talks delicately and who kind of toned down the crazy, which popped out here and there, since as when she referred to ICE as “enforcers of fascism” and said no young people should be sentenced to prison.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley had some charming moments when he revealed he doesn’t think Trump is wrong on everything (he cited “baby bonds” and stopping equity firms from buying up homes.) I’ve heard on the sly that Crowley actually has more of a conservative streak than he lets on. For most of the debate, he followed the other lemmings off the crazy cliff though.

But the really unlikable candidate on the stage?

State Sen. Kelda Roys. She makes Hillary Clinton look warm and fuzzy. She is shrill, nasty, divisive and as left wing as Hong, she just packages it differently.

I am going to have nightmares tonight about Gov. Roys (probably won’t happen; she won’t get out of the primary.) She called hard working local cops “dragoons,” wants to eradicate school choice, ranted and raved about a “dangerous authoritarian regime” and thinks Evers should have been MORE “aggressive” in freeing and pardoning inmates (even though he pardoned more people than any governor in state history.) Roys ranted that “we need to abolish ICE” calling the agency “incompatible with a free society.” She then indicated that some federal agents should be imprisoned.

Got that? She apparently is fine if violent illegal immigrants are let go, but she wants law enforcement officers imprisoned. My God!

If Manske is Ferris Bueller, Roys is Cruella de Vil. I half expected a group of Dalmatians to bound in.

Fran Hong is the buzzy one getting the press. But Roys is the dangerous one. She’s be a nightmarish governor who has “bills all ready to go” if the Democrats get their treasured trifecta. I find her terrifying.

After the forum, I went up to Rodriguez and asked her a question, but I’ll save that for another post.