Ok, on this week's episode of the Up North Podcast, we invited Deb McGrath, Democratic candidate for Congress in Wisconsin's 3rd District, on the show.
Deb was an officer in the army and served in the CIA, so we couldn't think of anyone more qualified to reflect on last week's Jan 6 hearings which dealt with the militias and extremists that caused violence on that day.
Deb has been on the ground in countries that have had their democracies overthrown by violent insurrections. She has been trained in how to quell domestic terrorism, and her thoughts on what happened on January 6th and what needs to be done today to prevent future insurrections showed leadership, intelligence, and wisdom.
And that's why we endorsed her ahead of the Democratic Primary.
Please listen to what she has to say in this podcast, and if you're in the 3rd CD that includes LaCrosse, Stevens Point, Eau Claire, and much of Western Wisconsin, we encourage you to vote for her in the August primary.
And while we're on the topic of the 3rd Congressional District, We've got to express our displeasure at Congressman Ron Kind for voting against the Active Shooter Alert Act, which created an Amber Alert for active shooter events.
This "no-brainer" of an act passed overwhelmingly with 43 Republicans bucking their leadership and voting for the bill. But Ron Kind was the ONLY Democrat in the entire U.S. House of Representatives who voted against it.
Ron Kind served Wisconsin admirably for over two decades, and we thank him for his service.
But that doesn't mean we can't disagree with him.
Even before this head-scratching vote, probably made to seal his legacy as a pro-gun moderate Democrat, Congressman Kind chose NOT to use the advantage of his incumbency to run again in 2022, but chose instead to retire.
We believe he did this not because he necessarily wanted to retire, but because his last two elections were VERY close, and he didn't want his legacy to show that he lost his last congressional election.
If we are wrong about this, and his choice came because of some needed health or family reason, then we apologize in advance.
By choosing to retire, Kind greatly diminished Democrat's chances of retaining this all-important seat next November, which arguably is the most important election in our nation's history.
If Democrats lose majorities in either the House or the Senate this coming November, a Republican majority may simply refuse to let a Democrat become the President if he or she wins legitimately in 2024, throwing our nation into a constitutional crisis and potentially a Civil War.
We argue that choosing to fight and losing when it mattered the MOST would have cemented Kind's legacy as a patriot WAY MORE than having a perfect record of congressional electoral wins.
So now we're gonna get a little political. Brad Pfaff is Ron Kind's chosen Democratic successor in this race, and he is competing against our preferred candidate Deb McGrath.
Make no mistake, we will support the Democrat who wins this primary no matter what, but we do think that since Pfaff has enjoyed the endorsement of the current Congressman in this district, he should weigh in on whether he would have taken that same vote against creating amber alerts during active shooter events.
Pfaff has marched lock-step with Kind for his entire career. Would he also vote against common-sense gun legislation when we have such an obvious gun epidemic in this country?
Is Brad Pfaff equally afraid of losing the most-likely-non-existent-but-oh-so-scary "moderate Democrat who belongs to the NRA" in heavily rural Western Wisconsin?
If so, he doesn't deserve your vote. No longer can a Democrat running for any office, no matter how rural the district is, hide his or her head in the sand when it comes to our nation's gun problem.
And here's a last bit of inside political baseball for you.
Although WE HATE THE INFLUX OF MONEY IN POLITICS, it has become standard practice to measure a candidate's viability by how much money he/she has raised to support their candidacy.
We're happy to announce that Deb McGrath raised more than any of her Democratic competitors in the last quarter by a fairly large margin, which means she has establishment Democratic support beyond the reach of Congressman Kind's incumbency machine. And this means she is best poised to get her message out to voters before the primary.
We're proud of Deb for running a great campaign thus far, and for being the obvious choice for voters who care about the meat and potatoes of public policy--not the whims of endorsements based on how loyal your protege has been to you for 20 years.