Does the WI Supreme Court race determine the fate of America? Get facts from Dan O'Donnell of WISN

The April 4 Wisconsin Supreme Court race is one of the most important elections in the country, and Dan O'Donnell of News/Talk 1130 WISN Milwaukee explains why. It's a tight race between conservative Dan Kelly and soft-on-crime Janet Protasiewicz, and liberal groups and media are up to their usual tricks. Wisconsinites can keep both their courts and elections fair if conservatives get out and vote. Watch now to learn why everyone is talking about this race and why you, your family, and your friends need to VOTE NOW!Show more

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Doug Truax: Welcome to the First Right Podcast, a weekly conservative news show brought to you by Restoration of America. I'm Doug Truax, founder and president of Restoration of America. Today we were blessed to have a return guest from the all important state of Wisconsin. His name is Dan O'Donnell, host of a popular morning talk radio show on Milwaukee on W I S N 1130. Hey Dan, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Dan O'Donnell: Well, the pleasure is all mine.

Doug Truax: All right, good. So big stuff in Wisconsin. All right, big race. Everybody's talking about it. So just as a starting point, since we get this out around the country also in in Wisconsin, but around the country, just give the viewers a quick rundown on why everybody's talking about this race in Wisconsin.

Dan O'Donnell: Well, because this is for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, there was a conservative justice, former Chief Justice, Patience Roggensack, who decided not to seek another 10 year term because she's 80 years old. So she's taking a much deserved retirement and that's opened up a seat. Now as things stand now with Roggensack's retirement, there are three conservatives and three liberals, the race that will be concluded on Tuesdays between a former justice named Dan Kelly, who's an ardent conservative. He unfortunately lost his seat on the court in 2020 and he's running against an Uber liberal Milwaukee County judge by the name of Janet Protasiewicz. And the reason that this is considered to be such a big race because it doesn't just impact things in Wisconsin. You might not know this, but there is a presidential race next year. I think people are starting to talk about that a little bit.
Wisconsin, of course is and probably always will be considered one of the key swing states. Well, Wisconsin, with the conservative Supreme Court majority that we've had for about the last 15 years now has been able to pass under former Republican Governor Scott Walker, voter id. The Wisconsin Supreme Court with its conservative majority just banned ballot harvesting in the state of Wisconsin, just gave a definitive ruling that ballot harvesting is illegal. If conservatives lose the court on Tuesday, mark my words, voter ID will be gone. By the time that Americans are casting their ballots in 2024 ballot harvesting will again be legal. We may even have a challenge to Wisconsin's electoral maps, which could mean that the control of the United States House, if we lose two Republican Congressmen, Brian Steil and Derrek Van Orden here, that that Republican majority, which is razor thin as it is, could be gone. It, it's not just enough to say that Wisconsin is at stake. I don't think it's any hyperbole to say that the future of the country is at stake here.

Doug Truax: Yeah, how about it? And Chuck, another one up. Lemme just put an ad in here. For Republicans doing a much better job as we go forward on advanced planning and being proactive as we see these things come because the left, they're all over it. They got the long-term plan, they got the organizations, they're working it. We're always a little late. I think we're doing much better in this race than we've probably ever been doing, but we gotta get better at this side of it and there's gonna be more super important races down the road. I couldn't agree with you more. This is, implications on this thing are huge. So, so when you talk about the race and, and the polling and, and there's a lot going on, I think Pro Seitz is pretty, when it all started, she was pretty far out front, but there's been other polling going on. Give us your sense of what you're seeing on the ground for the polling and not just the polling, but how you feel this is turning right now.

Dan O'Donnell: Boy, anybody who thinks that anyone is going to win a race in Wisconsin by more than about five points nowadays is nuts. The last time we had really a, a runaway statewide winner was when Tammy Baldwin ran for reelection. She won by about I think eight or nine points in 2018. Outside of that, pretty much every statewide race in Wisconsin is within four or five points. The very good, very conservative senator Ron Johnson just won reelection by the skin of his teeth over a radical leftist, our former lieutenant governor. So I think this is going to come down to turnout. I I, I hate to sound cliche, but this is really anyone's race. And if you take a look at the, the sort of ads that Pro Seitz is running here in Wisconsin, especially in the Milwaukee and Madison media markets, the two biggest cities where she absolutely has to run up the score, she is not sounding like a candidate who thinks she's up by a lot.
And what's telling me that she's a little nervous is that she's not pounding the table with abortion. Now of course, she's promised to be the deciding vote to legalize abortion again here in Wisconsin, but she's essentially with her advertising in the last days of this campaign, accusing Dan Kelly of being corrupt, like literally using the word corrupt to describe Dan Kelly in her advertising. That's not something to me that someone does when they think they're way ahead, when they bring out these wild allegations like this. So I think this is really anyone's race. My guess it's two points either way, but honestly this is the first time in a long time. I really don't have a sense of which way this one is going.

Doug Truax: Wow. That's, that's surprising that you don't have that sense cuz you're the guy that usually does. And that just goes to show that, like you said, this is, this is always tight and you know, just it's an April election. There's a lot of nuance here around the turnout in general. It's, you know, potentially a low turnout race, but then now you have all this attention. So that's, so we're gonna see how that all those factors are gonna play in here in a couple days. And, and so, so thanks for, for sharing that. We're obviously pulling for all those, those republicans in Wisconsin that are getting the vote out and making sure everybody knows to go vote. So, so I wanna talk to you about the, about the media and, you know, their ability to ignore stories. You know, you've, you've broken a lot of good things over over time here. The vote buying scheme possible. Yep. Possible illegal registration, voter registration going on. And so tell us a little bit more about all that and, and where you think that stands. Will we get any traction on those issues now?

Dan O'Donnell: Well, about a month ago I broke a, a scheme by a former member of the state Democratic party who has come up with what appears to be a scam pack called Wisconsin Takes Action. And what they're doing is paying people in the form of digital gift cards in order to text their friends and families about voting. And if you text 60 people, you get $60. So they're essentially paying a dollar per voter that you contact. Well, the problem with this is under Wisconsin's statutes, this falls under election bribery. It is illegal in Wisconsin to pay anything to any elector to cast a ballot to induce any other person to vote. What they're doing is a clear example of election bribery. I can tell you that there is almost certainly at least one investigation that's going on right now into this activity. But as far as how effective it is, let's face it, you know, your, your average liberal 20 something who is being targeted with this scheme isn't going to take the time to text 60 different people.
I think you have to text them four or five different times right up to and including on election day to make sure that they voted in order to get like 150 or $250 in gift cards. It just seems like a lot of work in terms of what I believe to be unlawful voter registration. It seems like Milwaukee Public Schools, the state's largest school district is actually sharing student voter registration data with the League of Women Voters and other various third party liberal groups. Now, I just got an email back three weeks after I broke this story from Milwaukee Public Schools saying, no, we, we aren't doing anything illegal. Okay, well why did you wait three weeks before getting back to me after you've clearly done all of your get out the vote drives. So the status of that is a little less clear. I haven't heard if there are gonna be any lawsuits or anything about that.
But what I have been using my platforms to do here in Wisconsin is to encourage conservatives to do the exact same thing to text friends and family about voting to now I obviously can't pay them in gift cards or anything like that, but to get out, out and vote early. Remember in 2022 in November the the places where conservatives where Republicans made big gains or in New York and California and of course Florida, all places were early voting and ballot harvesting are essentially being done as a matter of chorus. So the quicker that other conservatives in other states like Wisconsin hop on board, I think the better off that we're going to be.

Doug Truax: Yeah, that's the one thing I keep saying a lot is that we actually, going forward now we have to have two thoughts in mind. We have to do everything we can to win and whatever that means, as long as it's legal, you know, the voting early, helping people get their ballots in all those types of things are different in different states. But if it's legal, let's do it to the best of our ability. Yep. And then when we win and we're back in power, then we can have that conversation about, okay, we need to go back closer to election day and fewer ballots in the mail, all those things that we wanna like, get it back to the way it should be so that there's less opportunity to cheat. But we gotta do, we gotta do both things.

Dan O'Donnell: And, and the other thing, I'm, I'm sorry to cut you off, but this is the most important point that I'm stressing. If we can beat liberals at their own game of early voting and mail-in balloting, they will be begging us to change the law back to just election day. I promise you the best way to return to election day from what we have now, which is essentially election month, remember we're like the only first world country that does voting this way, where you essentially just, you know, send in your ballots like it's American idol for goodness ex every other country doesn't do mail-in balloting because of the potential for fraud. If conservatives master mail-in balloting, if conservatives start winning elections consistently using mail-in balloting, I promise you the left will want to return to one day only voting excuse only early or absentee voting and we'll get a victory without actually having to change laws over the objections of Democrats.

Doug Truax: Yeah, no, that's a great point. You know, just gotta get good at it. You're right. And then they'll be like, ah, we can't do this anymore. We're getting beat. And cuz I think, you know, it's still a center right country and I, I think we just have to do a better job of getting our folks out and making it happen. It's just not been one of those things that we've been, you know, great at over the years is the voter registration drives and all these things that they're just killing us at now, but we're like waking up to it. One other thing I was gonna ask you about though too is like, you see all these things, like you're talking about the gift cards and the bribery and everything and you know, we're, we're very frustrated on the right with the lack of, it's just, it's just lawlessness and then there's a lack of enforcement.
And so I think we're probably gonna start seeing, you know, I can get your opinion on this, start seeing more and more people that now have standing because their vote didn't count cuz somebody got bribed to vote over here they have standing filing, filing li civil lawsuits against these people on the ground ground that are actually doing these things because, you know, is is anybody, is any law enforcement official gonna go after 'em? I don't know in this environment. Probably not. It's super frustrating. They should, but if they don't, they'll take it in their own hands and get, get, you know, I hate to say it, get the lawyers out right. And go after some of these

Dan O'Donnell: People. Well, yeah. Oh absolutely. Absolutely. That's what I've been telling people. Yeah. If you do believe you have standing, we have a great organization here in Wisconsin called Will the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. I'm willing to wager that there are other groups in states that our viewers might be watching us in that do fundamentally the same thing that will take up lawsuits like this. If you believe you do have standing to sue over something that you believe was unlawful or something that might have in fact in essence disenfranchised, you absolutely get lawyers involved. Make sure that any sort of election irregularity is tied up in the courts. Try to get an injunction, at least a temporary injunction to stop it before election day. I mean, this is what the, the left has Mark Elias, who is a former Clinton lawyer, and he has been doing this sort of stuff for years. Every time Republicans try to put any sort of check on, you know, voter ID or anything like that, trying to verify who it is that's actually casting a ballot, Elias and the various law firms that he's been with will sue conservatives need to learn to play the left's game and play it better than them. And if we know anything about liberals is that as soon as you beat them, they will whine, they will cry and they will demand that the rules are, excuse me, that the rules are changed.

Doug Truax: Absolutely. Yeah. Gotta go back at 'em as hard as we can. And I would just encourage all of our viewers too, if you know out there conservative lawyers who are willing to fight it out, praise them, encourage them, because this is another area too. I think that, you know, we, we don't wanna do frivolous things and we don't want lawyers get in trouble because they put out stuff that just has no real, you know, value or standing to it. But I do admire now these conservative lawyers around the country, they're like, you know what, we gotta fight this out. We gotta go after 'em. Because to your point about all Elias, I think they have a lot of their own people besides Elias that are willing to do this. We just have to go and, and and do it. Our our guys have to do it too.
It's just a super heated environment, you know, the media's after you and everything else, but we just have to recognize this is what it is and, and we gotta be willing to fight it out. So yeah, those, those guys that will are, are great. So Totally agree. One last thing I want to ask you about. So on Restoration News, we, we've been reporting about Janet Zeitz is light sentencing and, and we've got this Perez case and the the most recent this murder, it's a terrible thing, all this stuff, and it plays into what's going on with the campaign and her light sentencing of this guy who may have done this thing, but they don't want to cover it. So, so talk to us a little bit about how the, you know, it looks like the media's in full lockdown mode to try to help her get over the finish line in spite of her light sentencing problems.

Dan O'Donnell: Well, not only that, they actually, today the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put out a story in which one of the victims of a rape in which protasiewicz give a whole lot of prison time to the defendant, to the rapist actually came out. She wasn't identified because she is a sexual assault victim, but she came out and blasted the use of her case as a political ad. So not only is the Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal and TV stations and radio stations, Wisconsin Public Radio here in Wisconsin refusing to cover these light sentences, you now have the media actively seeking out a victim so that she can blast associates and allies of Dan Kelly for daring to highlight how lenient Janet protasiewicz I myself have broken at least four or five of these stories, these cases. I mean, there was one where a man raped his unconscious cousin, protasiewicz actually praised his character during the sentencing hearing, gave him 14 months after accepting a plea deal when he went from a maximum sentence of about 40 years in prison to 10.
I, I mean, it is just case after case, after case after case, all saying the same thing. The media doesn't just refuse to report on it, but will actively attack anyone who daress to bring this sort of thing up. What this does tell me, however, is that pro se what's in her allies, i e the media think that this is an issue on which she is extremely vulnerable. You don't do a story like this unless you believe that the stories of what we are now calling her no jail Janet has been doing while on the bench in Milwaukee. You don't do these unless you believe that the no jail Janet nickname and the whole theme of her just being incredibly lenient is having an impact. I think it is. And that's why I think we're seeing this organized press blackout, which actually is kind of amazing.
It, it, it, we never used to see this where the press would just pretend that something didn't exist. They would cover a story and try their best to minimize it. Now we're just seeing if there is a story that doesn't fit their narrative, it's gone. You just, you do not see it. For example, let me, let me, let me ask you this. Did you know that protasiewicz former stepson accused her of violently beating his father, her former husband who he, she was married to back in the 1990s when she was 34 and he was 70, and also he accused protasiewicz of using the n word to refer to people who came before her when she was an assistant district attorney. I'm willing to wager none of your viewers ever heard of that because the media simply refused to give it any oxygen after it was initially reported by a great website called Wisconsin right now.com.

Doug Truax: Absolutely. No, I I I know what you're talking about, but you're right, it's not out there very much at all because they don't wanna talk about it. And it is the strangest thing now. I mean, it's a natural outcome. We kind of saw this coming, right, because it moved from what you said. Well, let's just, let's talk about it, let's put it on page six and let, let's put that there and don't talk and, you know, you kind of think it through. Well, if that's not working for 'em, they're just gonna go full lockdown and not even talk about it. I mean, there's, they're just total Democrat operatives and Oh yeah, yeah, they got a built in, they got a built in PR system that's working for 'em. So, yeah. Well, we're fighting back. And so I do have one more thing I wanna ask you. So what do you think Dan Kelly needs to do in the final days here to pull this off?

Dan O'Donnell: Just keep encouraging people to get out and vote. And not only that text, like 10 20 of your right-leaning friends. I was actually shocked when talking to people who are actually making phone calls on behalf of Kelly at how many people in rural, northern and western Wisconsin don't even know that there's a Supreme Court race. Okay, you need to, if you are in Wisconsin, you're watching this, you're listening to this, whatever it is, text as many people as you know and make sure they vote. And don't just vote, vote early. We've got a couple more days of in-person absentee voting. There's still time to get your mail-in ballot back. Make sure you get out and vote. Don't leave it to chance by waiting for election day on Tuesday. Get out and vote now.

Doug Truax: Yeah, amen. Gotta do it. We gotta tell each other what's going on, especially these small ra these off cycle races. Totally. We gotta let everybody know. Yeah, I, I see that too. It's, it's a little discouraging, but I do think there's enough heat on this whole thing and there's enough ads and there's a lot of money going into this, into the state right now. I think the awareness level's going up, which then goes back to center, right. People, people in the middle, they don't want to be attacked by somebody got a light sentence. I mean, you know, it starts to turn into like, well, this could happen to me. It's not just off someplace else. Right? So they're thinking, I gotta, I gotta do the right thing here. So I, I, you know, I'm always the eternal optimist. It's gonna go our way, but we'll see what happens. So, hey Dan, well thanks so much for all that you do and your courage and reporting all these things and breaking these stories and, and hang in there and let us know what, what we can do to help you out there. Okay?

Dan O'Donnell: Absolutely.

Doug Truax: Have a good one. All right. That's our show for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and for supporting conservative media. Don't ever forget that by working together and staying diligent, we conservatives can bring our country back to true greatness. Until next week, let's all keep praying that God will continue to bless America

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