MILWAUKEE, WI - DNC Chairman Tom Perez blasted Donald Trump for his broken promises on health care to Wisconsinites at a roundtable at Coffee Makes You Black in Milwaukee yesterday. Trump has repeatedly tried to take protections away from Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions and has fought against legislation that would lower prescription drug costs, despite promising to do just the opposite. 

See some of the coverage from the event below.

WISN: DNC chairman: Wisconsin 'the tipping point state'

WPR: “During a visit to Milwaukee Thursday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called out President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans for breaking their promise to offer people better, more affordable health care coverage. ‘There are 2.4 million Wisconsin residents with a pit in their stomach because their health care is in danger,’ Perez said during a round table discussion at Coffee Makes You Black, a coffee shop on Milwaukee’s north side…The events were part of a tour Perez is on across battleground states to discuss health care following last month's passage in the House of Representatives of a bill that would allow the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. The bill, HR 3, is titled the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, is not expected to get through the U.S. Senate, and the White House has announced that Trump would veto it if it came to his desk, according to NPR.

Says he no longer has the resources to continue his bid for the Democratic nomination.

WASHINGTON, DC - Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced on Monday that he would suspend his presidential campaign, acknowledging that he no longer saw a path to the Democratic nomination.

"I will carry this fight forward -- I just won’t be doing it as a candidate for president this year," Booker said in an email to supporters.

"It’s with a full heart that I share this news -- I’ve made the decision to suspend my campaign for president."

Read the developing report here

Ed Fallone is running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court this spring.

STATEWIDE - This spring, we have a chance to make a real difference on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. We don’t have to settle for the same type of judicial candidate, from the same mold as our current Justices. The voters have a choice on February 18.

Ask yourself: “What sort of Justice would you like to see sitting on our state’s highest court?” Chances are, you would like to see a Justice with a wide range of legal experience … someone who is highly respected in the legal community … someone who is committed to defending our civil rights … and someone who is a staunch defender of the public’s right to know the workings of our government. Chances are, you would like to elect a Justice who will follow in the footsteps of Justice Shirley Abrahamson, who was a law professor before her appointment to the Court.

You can measure a person by the stands they took - even when no one was paying attention. Just last week, the GOP resurrected a bill to make English the official language of Wisconsin. Ed was fighting against English Only legislation in 1996. You know what you’re getting when you vote for Ed.

With Ed Fallone, we have a chance to elect a constitutional law professor, an outspoken advocate of our right to vote and our right to equal protection under the law, and someone who has spent decades helping working families navigate the justice system.  This is our chance to add Ed’s experience and perspective to the Court. We can’t miss this opportunity! The next election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court won’t occur until 2023.

Donate today, and let’s make sure that we put Ed’s voice on the Court.

Let’s seize this opportunity.

Team Fallone

P.S. Watch Ed’s most recent interview on PBS “Here and Now,” and join us in Door County on Friday!

Trailed by another progressive, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, then Pete Buttigieg.

DES MOINES, IOWA - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken in the lead in Iowa, according to a Des Moines Register/CNN poll released on Friday that shows the Vermont senator jumping past his top rivals after a third-place finish in the poll in November.

Read the full story here

HOWARD, WI - AJ Walker from Leeds Castle Drive has announced his candidacy for Brown County Board Supervisor in District 24. The district covers western wards in Howard and parts of Hobart-Oneida.

Plan to vote for AJ Walker if you live in the District on April 7, 2020. We need more local leaders like AJ.

Progressives ask "Is Biden this cycle’s Clinton?"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - When Joe Biden was asked last week at an Iowa town hall if he was running a better campaign than Hillary Clinton had in 2016, it highlighted a question on the minds of some Democrats: Is Biden this cycle’s Clinton?

The question is becoming more significant as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) gains traction.

Read the full story here

It Is Time for Change says Milwaukee Representative.

MILWAUKEE, WI - This week, the Delaware Supreme Court added the first African-American Justice in that state’s history.

This month also saw the swearing in of the first Native American Justice ever to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court.

But in Wisconsin, the story is very different. The Hispanic National Bar Association recently noted that it was “alarmed by a recent study . . . that found that twenty-four states in the U.S. currently have an all-white supreme court bench, including Wisconsin.”

The disparity between an all-white supreme court and the growing diversity of the Wisconsin population as a whole undermines the community’s faith in the justice system. In the words of former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown, “The public’s perception of justice suffers . . . when the only people of color in a courthouse are in handcuffs.”

It is past time for Wisconsin to embrace diversity in our court system. If elected, Ed Fallone will become the first Latino to serve on our state’s Supreme Court. His qualifications as a constitutional law professor, criminal defense lawyer, and leader in the provision of legal services to working families should be obvious. Ed not only brings a diverse life experience to the Court, he will also bring a different legal perspective.

In this election, let’s make history together. And let’s make sure that Wisconsin lives up to its motto to continue moving “Forward.”

Please donate to Ed’s campaign today.

Thank you,

David Bowen
Wisconsin State Representative

Ben Wikler, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, comments on how none of the problems and hardships Trump has manufactured for Wisconsinites are going away anytime soon.

Klobuchar shines, Biden brings a new sharpness.

LOS ANGELES, CA - The final Democratic debate of 2019 took place in Los Angeles on Thursday, with less than two months to go before the Iowa caucuses.

What were the main takeaways?

Read the full story here

Trump and his right-wing lackeys are trying to rig the election. Dems pledge fight.

MADISON, WI - Donald Trump and his right-wing henchman are already hard at work trying to rig the 2020 election as they try to purge 234,000 voters from the rolls.

“Trump and his right-wing allies know that after three years of broken promises to lower prescription drug costs, raise wages, and improve trade markets for our farmers and manufacturers, Wisconsinites can’t afford four more years of this president,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Philip Shulman said. “Now, he and his right-wing lackeys are trying to rig the election by kicking Democratic voters off the rolls instead of winning fair and square. Wisconsin Democrats are committed to fighting back, by contacting anyone who is purged and making sure they are reregistered -- foul play by Trump and his fellow antagonists of democracy won’t stop us from winning this election and taking back our country.”

See coverage of the voter purge below.

NPR -- All Things Considered: Ben WIkler: The thing we know is that these kinds of purges disproportionately affect young people and people of color. And those are folks who are more likely to be Democrats. So this is a purge that is motivated by partisan interests. It's intended to knock more Democrats than Republicans off the rolls. And it's a cause for us to organize to make sure those folks get reregistered and vote...So the first thing we do is we get a list of the folks that were purged, and we start texting and calling and reaching out to them to make sure that they know that they have been deregistered. This will come as a surprise and a shock to a lot of them. And frankly, people get angry when they find that they've been kicked off the voting rolls. So our plan is to make sure these folks hear from us early and often.  

New York Times: “Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the lawsuit was the ‘product of a right-wing legal and political strategy to prevent eligible voters from voting.’ He added, ‘It should be a concern to anyone who believes in the core idea of democracy.’”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Democrats say if the order removes registrations of voters who haven’t moved, this presents unconstitutional hurdles for them during the next election. ‘The fight moves up the court system. No matter where it goes, we’ll keep fighting,’ Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said in a tweet.”

CBS 58: “Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement that the the judge's decision should be overturned. ‘But whether or not it is, it’s on us to organize the Dems that the GOP is trying to suppress and make their plan backfire,’ Wikler said.”

WJFW: "’We're supposed to have a system where voters choose their elected officials, not a system where the powerful choose who the voters will be,’ said Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin plans to contact voters on the list to make sure they re-register before several elections take place this spring. While Wisconsin does have same day voter registration, Wikler says the process can still dissuade likely voters.”

Additional Background

• Circuit Court Judge Paul Malloy, a Republican appointee, made the decision to disenfranchise 234,000 voters by kicking them off the voter rolls before the 2020 election.
• Before Malloy intervened, these voters weren’t supposed to be removed from the voter rolls until 2021.
• Of the 234,000 letters that were sent, 23% of them went to residents in the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison, despite only 14% of registered voters being from those areas.
• State Attorney General Josh Kaul filed an appeal that would stay Judge Malloy’s decision.
• The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a suit in federal court that would put a hold on the Democratic voter purge.