Democratic Party Chair Martha Laning wishes you a happy holiday season and talks about spring program preparations, listening, the VAN Grant program, Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump silence on Buy America, and more...

MADISON - There is a lot to discuss this week but before diving in I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season and new year. This will be my last Chair Update until January - stay warm, rest up, and let's get to work with renewed efforts in 2017!

The Big Idea

We are doing a number of things to get our spring program underway including:

• Hosting candidate recruitment conference calls with county parties.
• Calling around to various county party chairs to talk about recruitment.
• Creating resources for spring candidates and county parties.
• Partnering with Wisconsin Progress on some of their training sessions.
• Designing training programs for spring candidates and county parties.
• General consulting with candidates, similar to how we operated this fall.

We are committed to working closely with our local parties, activists, and candidates to ensure we can start taking back our Republican-led state.

Deep Dive Update

In the past week we met in Hayward and Eau Claire to hear from our volunteers, party members like yourselves, candidates, and staff members. It has been extremely helpful gathering this information, which we will use when we meet in February we will use this information to strategically plan how we move our party forward.

Things You May Have Missed But Need To See Now

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is committed to supporting and electing progressive candidates to several local offices across Wisconsin. That’s why this year, we’re continuing our local candidate VAN Grant Program! Through the VAN Grant program, candidates who meet the program’s criteria and are committed to voter contact will have the VAN in-kinded to their campaign.
Read more about the VAN Grant Program here.

DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile called on Congress to launch a thorough, independent, and bipartisan investigation into the Russian government’s unprecedented interference in the 2016 election.  The intelligence community concluded that the Russian government orchestrated a series of cyberattacks on campaign committees and organizations over the past two years and used stolen information to influence both the Presidential campaign and Congressional races over the past two years.
Read Donna Brazille's Statement on Russia's involvement here.

UW-Madison says state cuts threaten research stature
"UW-Madison slipped to sixth place overall, a seemingly small drop. But it was among only four universities in the National Science Foundation's top 30 — and the only one among the top 10 — to report a decline in research and development spending in the last fiscal year. And its 3.6% single-year slide was the largest among the top 30, the NSF data showed."
Read the full story here.

Tammy Baldwin announces federal funding to combat opioid epidemic
"A task force for combating Wisconsin’s opioid epidemic could have a little more to work with. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, announced Friday that $1 billion in federal money has become available for states to fight the ever-growing epidemic of painkiller abuse and heroin addiction, which has been on a steady rise nationwide for more than a decade."
Read the full story here.

U.S. Officials: Putin Personally Involved In U.S. Election Hack
"Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said." 
Read the full story here.

Silence from Trump Tower on Buy America
"The time is now for Donald Trump to take a stand in support of American workers by calling on Republican leadership in Congress to support strong Buy America requirements in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), also known as the Water Infrastructure Improvements Act (WIIN). Just one week ago in Cincinnati, President-elect Trump said his infrastructure plan would follow two simple rules: “Buy American and hire American.” I support that position, but unfortunately, the Republican establishment in Washington didn’t hear him. They have removed my Buy America standard from water infrastructure legislation and Trump Tower has since remained silent."

Read all of Senator Tammy Baldwin's Article Here.