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Campaign Ads, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Politics, Populists, Schimel, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 3.5.25: No Time Like the Present for an Ad Against Musk

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with 42. Sunrise is 6:23 and sunset is 5:49, for 11 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 38.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Starin Park Water Tower Committee meets at 6 PM and the Landmarks Commission meets at 7 PM.

On this day in 1770, at the Boston Massacre, five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War five years later.

I’m not a Democrat, but from my NeverTrump perspective, there’s no time like the present for a ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign:

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is working to tie state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel to Elon Musk with an ad campaign titled the “People v. Musk.”

The move comes as Musk’s prominence has grown in national politics for his role cutting government spending under President Donald Trump, and after groups backed by Musk have spent millions attacking Schimel’s opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.

The first ad from what the state Democratic Party is calling a “seven-figure” campaign references the firing of air traffic controllers and federal funding cuts initiated by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The ad repeatedly shows video of video of Musk making a straight-armed gesture on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

See Rich Kremer, Democrats launch ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign in Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Public Radio, March 5, 2025.

It’s lawful to spend money on the race, and it’s lawful to criticize others for their spending on the race. Both are true.

Musk, however, is only appealing to people who will accept anything in the place of a good thing. Keep going.

See also FREE WHITEWATER, Musk’s PAC Puts in Six Figures for Schimel and Musk Drops More on Schimel in Wisconsin (Of Course He Does).

Eaglets:

Campaign Ads, Conflicts of Interest, Courts, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.21.25: Musk Drops More on Schimel in Wisconsin (Of Course He Does)

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 25. Sunrise is 6:42 and sunset is 5:34, for 10 hours, 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1975, former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

Not long ago, reporting had Musk dropping six figures on Brad Schimel. It’s seven figures now:

Elon Musk’s super PAC just dropped $1 million on increasing voter turnout for conservative Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, according to state election records.

America PAC, an unregistered committee, is spending $1 million on canvassing and field operations to aid Schimel in his race against liberal Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford. The winner of the April 1 election will decide the ideological bent of the high court.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X, has provided most of the funding for America PAC, which focuses on turning out low-propensity and first-time voters. The super PAC was active in Wisconsin before the November general election, helping President Donald Trump narrowly win the state.

See Daniel Bice, Elon Musk super PAC drops $1 million into voter turnout for Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 20, 2025.

From backyard garden to high-tech strawberry farm:

In Fort Atkinson, Warm Belly Farm combines technology with sustainable agriculture under horticulturist Erin Warner’s guidance. The operation features 18,000 hydroponic strawberry plants in raised gutter systems, making picking accessible to all visitors. The farm monitors for optimal growing conditions while minimizing environmental impact.

Campaign Ads, Conflicts of Interest, Courts, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.18.25: Musk’s PAC Puts in Six Figures for Schimel

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 8. Sunrise is 6:47 and sunset is 5:30, for 10 hours, 44 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 69.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1930,  Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

Fair use, Link

Not content with the federal government, Musk again sets his gaze on Wisconsin:

A political action committee backed by billionaire Elon Musk has scheduled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of TV ads in Wisconsin this week with the state Supreme Court election fast approaching.

The ads are expected to aid conservative Brad Schimel who is running against liberal Susan Crawford in a race that will determine the ideological balance of the court. 

The ads from the Musk-backed Building America’s Future will start running on stations around Wisconsin Thursday and will continue through early March.

Available contracts posted by the Federal Communications Commission show more than $400,000 worth of ads will run in the Madison, Eau Claire, Wausauand Green Bay areas. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports more than $255,000 more will also be running in and around Milwaukee.

The FCC data doesn’t identify the content of Building America’s ads. However, the ads are expected to aid Schimel, the state’s former Republican attorney general.

See Rich Kremer, Group tied to Elon Musk investing in Wisconsin ahead of Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Public Radio, February 17, 2025.

Musk’s Tesla, by the way, is now suing the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in state court, Outagamie County, over that department’s decision against Tesla’s request to open dealerships in Wisconsin.

You never know, but just perhaps that’s litigation, should it one day reach Wisconsin’s highest court, that might be of interest to a Musk-backed Justice Schimel.

See also Musk Attacks Two Wisconsin Lutheran Groups (from 2.6.25) and World’s Richest Man Weighs In On Wisconsin Supreme Court Race (from 1.24.25).

Ice ‘Volcanoes’ in New York:

Campaign Ads, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.10.25: Wisconsin’s Next Big Election

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be snowy & cloudy with a high of 29. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset is 4:40, for 9 hours, 16 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 2 PM.

On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.

Yesterday, I posted on the statewide race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and mentioned local races that were contested. One Wisconsin election, however, is sure to attract attention far beyond the Badger State:

About $5 million has already been raised by two judges vying to be the next justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the candidate backed by Democrats, claiming she’s outraised former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel by $600,000.

While detailed reports aren’t due until Jan. 15, both candidates released fundraising totals Wednesday covering a period ending Dec. 31.

Schimel’s campaign said it raised $1.5 million between July 1 and Dec. 31, and a grand total of $2.2 million since he got into the race in November 2023.

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Crawford’s campaign said she raised $2.8 million since entering the race in June 2024, seven months after Schimel. During the July to December reporting period, Crawford’s campaign said it raised more than $2.4 million from donors in 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and ended the period with $2.1 million in the bank.

See Rich Kremer, Crawford, Schimel both report ‘historic’ donations in state Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 9, 2025.

There’s Wisconsin’s big contest for 2025, with only few other high-profile elections nationally (notably, gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia). Our Wisconsin Supreme Court election will receive attention, and money, from across America.

The 2023 election spending between Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly was well over $50 million, and it’s a comfortable guess that this race will top that figure.

US hiring grows, unemployment down, report shows:

Employers added 256,000 workers last month, surpassing economist expectations of 155,000 jobs added, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on Friday showed.

Campaign Ads, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.30.24: Media Manipulation and Political Campaign Lies in 2024

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:51, and sunset is 6:36, for 11 hours, 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 4.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1859, Abraham Lincoln delivers remarks to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society at the Wisconsin State Fair. The last paragraph of that address remains is both haunting and hopeful:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet let us hope it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Wolf pups in California:

Campaign Ads, Daily Bread, Elections, Politics, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.28.24: Hundreds of Millions in Wisconsin Campaign Spending

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 67. Sunrise is 5:50 and sunset 7:53 for 14h 02m 20s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 79.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1947,   Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

Robert D’Andrea reports Campaigns will spend ‘hundreds of millions’ in Wisconsin, party chairs say (‘Republican chair pledges to use all ‘things that are legal and on the books,’ including early voting’):

Political campaigns will likely spend hundreds of millions of dollars on elections in Wisconsin this year, agreed the state chairs of both major political parties at a forum in Madison on Thursday. 

Democrat Ben Wikler and Republican Brian Schimming would not commit to a specific dollar amount, but they agreed spending will be high for contests up and down the ballot. 

Wisconsin is a pivotal state in the presidential race. There are also competitive races for the U.S. Senate, two congressional seats and new state legislative districts. 

Could spending in Wisconsin indeed be in the hundreds of millions? Yes. Campaign spending in the 2022 Wisconsin gubernatorial race was $164 million, campaign spending in the 2022 U.S. Senate race was $205 million, and spending on 2022 Wisconsin legislative races totaled $41 million.

The World’s Oldest Hat Shop:

Campaign Ads, Daily Bread, US Senate Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.3.24: Eric Hovde Should Fire His Political Consultants and Hire a Therapist

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 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 68. Sunrise is 6:24 and sunset 5:48 for 11h 23m 40s of daytime. The moon is in its third quarter with 50.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1931, the United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.

Jennifer Brooks writes Shirtless politician plunges into icy lake to prove to Wisconsin he’s got what it takes (‘Nobody said running for a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin would be easy’): 

“It was hard to break through but it’s good to get out here for a good cold plunge,” a voice narrates, poking at the icy crust that still glazed the lake. Slowly, the camera pans to reveal a shirtless Hovde, nipple-deep in Lake Mendota.

Hovde, a Republican, is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin while also running a company that is not based in the Badger State. He reportedly shot the video near a home he owns on Lake Mendota.

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“So the Dems and Sen. Baldwin keep saying I’m not from Wisconsin, which is a complete joke,” Hovde continued, back hair fluttering in the frigid breeze. “Alright Sen. Baldwin, why don’t you get out here in this frozen lake and let’s really see who’s from Wisconsin.”

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin had a one-word response to Hovde’s invitation to go jump in a lake to prove how Wisconsin-y she is. “No.”

Wisconsin Democrats were not so amused by the stunt.

“If California bank owner Eric Hovde thinks sitting in a lake is going to stop us from telling Wisconsinites about his California bank, California megamansion, and California ties, he’s going to be swimming a whole lot for the next eight months,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Rapid Response Director Arik Wolk said in a statement.

Holy Moly, Hovde must be totally nuts a tad insecure to film a stunt like this. He doesn’t need political consultants — he needs counseling. 

See also Tim Michels 2.0 Eric Hovde Announces U.S. Senate Run and SHOCKING: WISGOP SCIENTISTS INVENT TIME MACHINE. 

4-vehicle crash leaves truck dangling over the side of a bridge above river:

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Campaign Ads, China, Corruption, Foreign Affairs, Trump, Unfit

’Chyna’

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The Trump campaign has been running ads accusing Biden of being soft on China. That avenue of attack – always dubious, as it was Trump who started a trade war with China to the detriment of American consumers and farmers – has now slipped away, as the allegation’s in Bolton’s book now place Trump at…

Campaign Ads, Elections, Recall

Sen. Fitzgerald’s foolish contention that recall challenger Lori Compas isn’t running her own campaign

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In the 13th district recall battle between Sen. Majority Leader Fitzgerald and challenger Lori Compas, Fitzgerald recently expressed his doubts about Compas’s control of her own campaign: For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn’t buy Compas’ Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks…