Wisconsin Voters Step Up to Demand Better Politics and Governance
2025 will long be remembered as one of the most traumatic, chaotic and disturbing years in American history with the accession yet again to the Presidency of the most unstable, tyrannical individual ever to hold high political office in our nation’s history. Beginning on Inauguration Day, Donald Trump immediately began spreading terror and sowing chaos and uncertainty upon the people of the United States seemingly determined to establish himself as the first absolute monarch to rule this country since independence from King George III of Great Britain was declared in 1776.
As one of the most closely contested swing “purple” states in the country, Wisconsin immediately emerged as the nation’s first political “ground zero” and the barometer of how MAGA Trumpism was being received in 2025 because of the pivotal and nationally significant Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 1st. Trump’s close collaborator and the richest person on earth, Elon Musk, came into our state with about $30 million to try to buy the open state supreme court seat for the Trump-endorsed candidate in the most expensive judicial election anywhere in U.S. history.
But Musk and Trump failed spectacularly as their candidate lost on April 1st by more than 10 percentage points as Wisconsin voters turned out in unprecedented numbers to elect Susan Crawford to the court. Musk was not only driven out of Wisconsin but he was also largely evicted from his role as chief executioner of the Trump regime. Common Cause Wisconsin was proud to have played a leading role in informing Wisconsin voters about Musk’s attempt to hijack our election and supreme court.
After that decisive repudiation of Trumpism, Wisconsin citizens mobilized throughout the Summer and Fall of this year to protect against legislative attempts to restrict or make absentee and other forms of voting more difficult including a measure to once again prohibit the utilization of secure drop boxes for the timely return of absentee ballots. Wisconsinites stepped up and told their legislators and the Governor that they were not going to stand for Trump-directed attempts to suppress voter participation in our state elections or to stifle dissent from those of us who disagree with the wrong-headed policies and the subversion of democracy emanating from Trump and his allies in Wisconsin.
Also, this past Summer, after two years of concentrated work and effort (primarily by my CC/WI colleague, Erin Grunze), we helped lead to successful completion and promulgation by the Wisconsin Election Commission -- detailed and comprehensive election observer rules which had been absent and causing confusion and confrontation at polling places. The rules were adopted over the very vocal and aggressive opposition of election deniers and conspiracy theorists, with bipartisan support in both the Legislature and by WEC. This was a victory for common sense. And for voter participation and the rule of law.
And this Fall, after more than two years of intensive work, fair voting maps activists have put forward a detailed, comprehensive plan to establish a nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission to take over the critically important work from partisan state legislators of redrawing and reconfiguring state legislative and congressional district voting maps every ten years following the decennial Census. The overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites do not want to ever again see a repeat of the hyper partisan, unfair gerrymandering of our state legislative and congressional districts that occurred in 2011 and then again in 2021-22. Voters instead of politicians will oversee the redistricting process in Wisconsin and this legislative initiative will be introduced in early 2026.
So, while 2025 began with upheaval, turmoil and real fear for the future of democracy -- it is ending, at least in Wisconsin, with a sense of hope and even optimism about what lies ahead. “The will of the people shall be the law of the land,” said Wisconsin’s legendary U.S. Senator and Governor Robert M. “Fighting Bob” LaFollette more than a century ago. And so, it has been in Wisconsin in 2025 and hopefully will be for the years and decades ahead.
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After nearly 30 years as the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, I have decided to retire at the end of this year. It has been quite simply the honor of a lifetime to be able to work in this position and to be able to try to make this state that I love a little bit better and to try to improve the civic lives of the people who live here and whom I cherish. I’m not sure that I have always succeeded in this endeavor but I have enjoyed my tenure immensely and now it is time to move on.
My incredibly talented and able colleague Erin Grunze will continue on as the Program Manager here at CC/WI and I am deeply grateful to her for her years of amazingly good work and expertise on all that we do. Likewise, my gratitude to our stellar state advisory board chaired by Penny Bernard Schaber and to all of the many wonderful people who have so ably and unselfishly served as board members and advisors over the years. And to you the members and activists that have made CC/WI the terrific organization that has been for over a half century. Thank you.
Bianca Shaw will be taking over as state director next year. You will hear from her and get to know her soon and I know she will do a wonderful job leading Wisconsin in the months and years ahead. I will be around until mid-January and will have something more to say before leaving.
Thank you for everything and best wishes for a joyful holiday season and a peaceful New Year!
Jay
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152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
