Endorsements for the November 8 General Election

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Please Support Governor Tony Evers for Re-election

The Shepherd Express enthusiastically endorses Gov. Tony Evers for his re-election. Governor Evers has provided honest, competent government despite having to govern with one of the most gerrymandered legislatures in the country that gave the extreme wing of the Republican Party control on both chambers. He also had to work with Speaker Robin Vos, whose only interests are to remain in power, pay off all his major campaign contributors with tax cuts and state policy changes, and to use the state legislature to support his own business interests. 

Despite that challenge, the governor managed to both move the state forward with the help of federal government COVID response monies and to prevent the state from falling backward by vetoing over 125 extreme legislative measures, including several voter suppression laws, passed by the Republican legislature. Governor Evers did an excellent job of guiding our state through the worst months of the pandemic, which saved many lives. He knows how to manage complex issues.

Ever’s Opponent: Trump Endorsed Tim Michels

Governor Ever’s Republican opponent is the Trump-endorsed candidate, Tim Michels. Like Trump, Michels is not a self-made businessman. He inherited his father’s business and has no idea what it is like to be an employee or how the average Wisconsinites lives. He has basically lived in Connecticut and sent his children to private prep schools.

Michels is an aggressive opponent of a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices. Michels said that the current law governing Wisconsin, an 1849 anti-abortion law that bans virtually all abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest, perfectly mirrors his position. The only exception in the 1849 law is to save the life of the mother. In kind of a macho bravado, Michels said that his position on a woman’s choice is not a popular position, but he said that he can take the heat over this issue, and he is not changing his stand. After his macho declaration, he started to dance. “I’m not caving into any pressure,” he claims, but now he says he would sign a law that includes exceptions for rape and incest.

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Many people doubt his sincerity because he was such a strong anti-abortion activist. His family foundation, for example, has given over $200,000 to anti-gay and extreme anti-abortion groups. Weeks ago, he was aggressively proud of being unwilling to be flexible on the abortion issue, doubling down saying that it is actually “not unreasonable” for the government to force a rape victim to give birth to the rapist’s baby. f he is elected, the gerrymandered Republican legislature will send him bills that will make abortion even more difficult for Wisconsin women. People who know Michels claim he will sign any anti-abortion bill.

Some of Michel’s Other Extreme Issues

On some of the other public policy issues, Michels believes marriage is only between a man and woman; thinks we should cut public school funding; supports allowing 18 year old’s to buy assault style weapons with no cooling off or waiting period; opposes “Red Flag” laws that allow the police, family members or in some cases even a doctor to petition a court to temporarily remove a person’s guns if she or he are a threat to themselves or others. Finally, if he is governor in 2024, Michels would not commit to respecting the final vote count in the presidential election if the Republican candidate lost.

We don’t need a mini-Trump want-to-be as our next governor.

Please Support Governor Tony Evers for Re-election

The Shepherd Express Enthusiastically Endorses Josh Kaul for Attorney General

Josh Kaul has been viewed as one of the most capable state attorney generals in the country. As a former federal prosecutor and as Wisconsin’s attorney general, he has personally led the prosecution of a variety of cases including sexual assaults, homicides, internet crimes against children, drug trafficking and robberies. Kaul has a balanced approach with a strong emphasis on law enforcement but also an emphasis on fairness, social justice and public safety.

His opponent’s claim to fame is that now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, he will not hesitate to prosecute any doctor accused of breaking the 1849 anti-abortion.

Please Vote to Re-elect Josh Kaul for Wisconsin Attorney General

The Shepherd Express Strongly Supports Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes for U.S. Senate

Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes has served in the Wisconsin state assembly and for the past four years as our lieutenant governor. He is the proud son of a public-school teacher and a 3rd shift UAW worker at a GM plant. He has a strong history of fighting for working people and understands that the route out of poverty to the middleclass is education. His voting record when he was in the state assembly strongly supports these values.

Mandela always works to bring Wisconsinites together rather than divide people. For example, as lieutenant governor, he was selected to chair the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change. Barnes brought together the various interest groups including farmers, environmentalists, small business owners and corporate executives, to name just a few, to develop a consensus on 55 concrete strategies for a positive impact on climate change. We need consensus builders in our government positions at this moment in history. Unfortunately, his opponent continuously tries to divide Wisconsinites because he believes it furthers his chances to get reelected.

His Opponent: Ron Johnson

Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes is running against one of the most extreme members of the U.S. Senate. Ron Johnson enthusiastically supported overturning Roe v. Wade. He called it a “correct decision.” Johnson recently proposed changing how Social Security and Medicare are funded as the first step to cutting back on the programs. These two programs have dramatically reduced poverty for senior citizens. Currently both programs are self-funded by both employees and employers with a payroll tax. Johnson wants to have Congress decide each year how much it wants to fund these programs so he can slowly kill these very popular programs. He doesn’t personally need these programs, so he wants them eliminated.

Johnson married the daughter of a wealthy businessman and then ran his father-in-law’s business. Like Trump, he didn’t start the business, he just took it over. His big claim to fame is that he inserted a special tax break for pass-through businesses in Trump’s 2017 tax bill where most of the tax savings went to the top 1%. Johnson’s two largest campaign contributors and Wisconsin billionaires have since saved hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes because of Johnson’s provision. Johnson also personally benefitted from the large tax provision as a wealthy pass-through business owner.

Is this Just Shameless Lying?

Unfortunately, Johnson appears to be very comfortable lying. In response to a question from a constituent, he admitted on camera that Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 because “51,000 Republican voters did not vote for him.” After saying that on camera, he continues to say that the election was stolen. Attacking our elections and lying about them undermines our democracy and our democracy is one of the main pillars that makes our country great. Almost two years ago, Johnson read aloud on the floor of the Senate a lovely description of the violent insurrection by Trump’s mob as a happy Republican family picnic on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Johnson also participated in the illegal scheme to provide Vice President Pence with fake electors to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president. Participants in this illegal scheme are now under criminal investigation.

Over the past two years, Senator Johnson has been very active in spreading lies about the COVID vaccine, and these lies have caused many people to get very ill and some unfortunately die. He did this because he felt it would help him build support from Trump and his followers. In this current campaign, many of Johnson’s campaign ads against Mandela are both false and racist. Unfortunately, racist ads still work with many people in Wisconsin and Johnson is willing to go all in on racist advertising.

Please Support Mandala Barnes for US Senate, Our Democracy is at Stake.

The Shepherd Express Strongly Supports the Re-election of Secretary of State Doug La Follette

Doug La Follette has devoted his life to public service and has served as Wisconsin’s Secretary of State for over 40 years. He has a doctorate in chemistry from Columbia University and is a nationally and internationally recognized climate scientist.

In many states, the secretary of state oversees elections, but in Wisconsin about 50 years ago, the legislature set up a bipartisan State Election Board to try to minimize any political interference in elections. It worked well, actually too well, for the Republicans because they were losing honest elections. So, in response they killed the election board and set up a new mechanism, a commission, to oversee the elections. As the Republican party continued to move to the extreme right, the Republican controlled legislature decided that the commission was too independent.

So now the Republican legislature wants to elect their candidate as secretary of state and then legislatively put control of elections in the secretary of state’s office under their person. This type of activity is happening in other swing states where Republicans are passing various election laws that would enable the legislature to override the will of the voters. This is what Trump was trying to do in states like Georgia, for example, after he lost the election and wanted the Georgia Secretary of State to find 11,780 more votes for him. Wisconsin needs to maintain our clean and honest election system.

Please vote for Doug La Follette for Secretary of State.

The Shepherd Express endorses Aaron Richardson for State Treasurer

The Shepherd Express is supporting Aaron Richardson as the most qualified and capable choice for state treasurer. In addition to his history of public service, Aaron has the training with an MBA and the public sector budgeting and finance experience as Mayor of Fitchburg. Public sector budgeting is more complicated than private sector budgeting because you have dual bottom lines in that you have to make decisions that make business sense with a financial bottom line, but you also have to balance that with what is good for your constitutions and your city and state as a second bottom line.

Please Vote for Aaron Richardson for State Treasurer

The Shepherd Enthusiastically Endorses Gwen Moore for Congress, 4th Congressional District

Gwen Moore has served Milwaukee well since 1989, and her constituents continued to promote her from State Representative to State Senator and in 2004 to Congresswoman. With 18 years seniority, Moore now has a much greater influence in Congress through better committee assignments which enables her to better serve her constituency. After 34 years in public service, we know Gwen, we respect Gwen, and we ask you to please support Gwen for reelection.

Please Vote for Gwen Moore for Congress

The Shepherd Express strongly endorses Ann Roe for Congress, 1st Congressional District

One race that is not getting the attention that it should is the Congressional race in the 1st District CD which includes the cities of Racine, Kenosha, Janesville and Beloit. After redistricting, this district improved and became close to a 50/50 Democratic and Republican district. The Democratic challenger, Ann Roe, is a very impressive candidate and she is running a good campaign, getting out all over the district and listening to the voters.

Roe has had a very successful and varied 30-year career before entering politics. People who know her work have described her as a high energy problem solver who knows how to bring people together, build a consensus, and make something happen. She is the definition of an entrepreneur and community leader. During her career she has worked in the nonprofit world, the health care field, manufacturing, taught college classes for 20 years and owns a small business in Janesville. With all these various positions and challenges, the constant theme of her life is “public service.” Beside all these accomplishments, she is married and raised a couple of successful children.

With this background and history of public service, her main issues in this campaign are health care, education and creating more family supporting jobs. If anyone can move the ball forward, it’s Roe.

Her opponent has been living off his dad’s accomplishments and his connections as a successful Janesville attorney. Bryan Steil is strongly anti-choice with respect to a woman’s reproductive control over her own body. He even celebrated in a tweet after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He is much more interested in playing politics than actually listening to his constituents and trying to get something done.

Please Vote for Ann Roe for Congress.

State Legislative Races

Our state legislative districts have become even more extremely gerrymandered than the districts we have had for the past 10 years. After each census, which occurs every 10 years, the state legislature and governor must redraw the district lines for both the state legislature and the congressional districts. With split government in 2020, the Republican controlled state legislature drew extreme gerrymandered districts and, of course, Gov. Evers vetoed the maps. Then there were the lawsuits that follow, and the process ended up with the Wisconsin Supreme Court controlled by four rightwing justices.

The first pronouncement from the state supreme court was that the maps that they will approve must be the ones with the least changes from the maps that existed for the past 10 years. Keep in mind that the maps that we had for the past 10 were the most gerrymandered maps in the entire country and were even declared unconstitutional by a federal three judge panel where two of the three judges were Republican appointees. So, our rightwing state supreme court majority demanded the least changes to the already most gerrymandered maps in the country.              

The U.S. Supreme Court Makes an Exception to Play Politics

Various maps were presented and the map with the least changes came from Gov. Evers office. This least change map was a slight improvement over the map of the past 10 years. Then the Republicans sued in federal court to have them overrule our state supreme court. However, the U.S. Supreme Court had said that they will not intervene in these legislative redistricting fights because these were state issues, and they would leave that to the state courts. But when this case came before the U.S. Supreme Court, they decided to make an exception for Wisconsin and overruled the Wisconsin Supreme Court and asked them to reconsider the case. That action was so corrupt that no U.S. Supreme Court justice would put their name on the decision.

Now it was back in the hands of the four extremist state justices, and they choose maps that were more gerrymandered than the most gerrymandered maps in the nation that we lived under for the past 10 years.

The Shepherd is endorsing in five state legislative districts that are competitive and are in our media market.

State Senate:

The Shepherd Express endorses Jessica Katzenmeyer

The Shepherd Express endorses Jessica Katzenmeyer for State Senate 5th District. She is a leader but equally important she is a listener to the needs of the people in her district. She ran two years ago for state assembly and lost in a rather close election in a highly gerrymandered district. Now with the new redistricting, again extremely gerrymandered districts, she is running for state senate.

She has demonstrated her leadership as an active union member in her workplace where she was elected to a leadership position. She has also shown her leadership in her community where she serves on the West Allis’ Plan Commission. Jessica is a leader in the LGBTQ rights efforts and the state’s second-ever transgender candidate for a state office.

Her commitment to public service increased after she suffered a couple of tragedies, first with a house fire in 2019 and then the very next day ending up in the emergency room in a coma believed to be brought on by the house fire. With excellent medical care, she fully recovered and saw firsthand how public policy like the Affordable Care Act prevented her leaving the hospital with an $80,000 debt. This really brought home how good public policy affects everyday people.

Her opponent is Rob Hutton, a former state representative who lost reelection in his Republican favored gerrymandered district because he was a “do-nothing but collect a paycheck” legislator.  In his eight years in the assembly, Hutton had an extreme voting record that was out-of-step with most Republicans and definitely out-of-step with the 5th State Senate District. Despite being part of the majority party for his eight years in the legislature, he has no real accomplishment that he can promote. He was a strong and consistent vote against a woman’s right to choose with respect to her reproductive decisions. He voted against public education and consistently voted against any environmental issues that would help curb greenhouse gases.

Please Vote for Jessica Katzenmeyer for State Senate 5th District

Jessica Katzenmeyer’s website:  jessicaforwi.com

State Assembly:

Bob Tatterson for Assembly District 24

Bob Tatterson is the type of candidate that is easy to support. After a long and successful career, Ph.D. holder Tatterson has a depth of knowledge on policy issues and a genuine excitement to go to Madison and lead on new and innovative ideas. He is active in many community projects, including joining as an initial investor in the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace, a project that has been incredibly successful and important on Fund du Lac Avenue. 

The contrast he provides against his opponent, Dan Knodl, is striking. Few Republican Legislators have done less with their gerrymandered majority seat than Knodl. A perennial back bencher and all-around curmudgeon, Knodl has done so little with his opportunity to govern, we easily and enthusiastically endorse Bob Tatterson in the 24th District. 

Knodl survived consecutive close elections against Democrat Emily Siegrist in 2018 and 2020. His strongest re-election strategy has seemingly been to lean on Speaker Vos to insure that the new district lines are gerrymandered as much as possible to lean more Republican. But we believe Tatterson has the ability to break through and defeat Knodl.

We want Legislators that actually want to work and get things done and in the 24th Assembly District, that’s Bob Tatterson.

Please vote for Bob Tatterson

Tatterson’s website: bobtatterson.com

Nathan Jurowski in Assembly District 21

After earning his law degree, Nathan Jurowski began his career in public service as a state public defender and later helped support labor unions as the head of a skills trade union organization. Today he uses his legal skills to help employees fight for their rights. His commitment to the working people of Wisconsin inspires our endorsement.

On the other side of the ballot is the Republican incumbent, Jessie Rodriguez. Rodriguez is one of the most frustrating Republicans in Wisconsin. Rodriguez fails to earn our support because she has done little to ever peak out of Speaker Vos’s shadow and take a stand. We haven’t seen or heard from Rodriguez as her Republican colleagues have wasted our taxpayer dollars, including giving Michael Gableman a million dollars to peddle the Big Lie that Trump won the election and attack Wisconsin’s very professional voting system. Often these attacks target Milwaukee County and our elections. As a representative of Milwaukee County, Rodriguez’s silence tells us all we need to know.

Please Vote for Nathan Jurowski

Jurowski’s website: neighborsfornate.com/about-1

LuAnn Bird in Assembly District 84

LuAnn Bird is a ball of positive energy. The former director of the Wisconsin League of Women Voters and Whitnall School Board member is a caretaker at heart. Bird entered her life of advocacy after a construction accident left her Vietnam Veteran husband paralyzed. She took on local accessibility issues and won. That passion and persistence will serve her well in Madison.

Bird will face recent Milwaukee mayoral loser Bob Donovan who will say whatever he has to, whether it’s true or not, in order to win. A recent transplant to Greenfield, the former alderman is seeking a second political career in the suburbs. At City Hall, Donovan earned a reputation of being absent unless at a press conference complaining about Tom Barrett. While that would mean Donovan would fit in with the Republican Legislature, it is the opposite of what we need.

Unlike our other Assembly endorsements, District 84 is an open seat. New boundaries mean this seat is a true toss-up. It includes Hales Concerns, most of Greenfield, parts of Greendale and the City of Milwaukee.

Please Vote for LuAnn Bird

Bird’s website: luannbird.com

Tip McGuire in Assembly District 64

We endorse Tip McGuire, who several insiders point to as a rising star in Democratic politics. McGuire succeeded Revenue Secretary Peter Barca in 2019 after serving in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office. A graduate of Marquette University and UW-Law School, McGuire understands Wisconsin and has proven effective in his three years in office. He has prioritized middle class and main street economic policies that would bring immediate and needed aid to communities throughout the state.

McGuire’s opponent, Ed Hibsch, ran previously in this seat in 2020. Since being defeated two years ago, Hibsch has strayed further to the right and is more intent to carry the culture war against our educators and local elected officials. Hibsch offers no substance for Wisconsinites and will be little more than one more vote that Robin Vos directs.

Please Vote to Re-Elect Tip McGuire

McGuire’s website: tipforwi.com