☀️ Good morning!

It’s Sunday, October 5, 2025

🇺🇸 Is serving your country a partisan thing? 

It sure didn’t used to be, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to President Donald Trump relishing the opportunity to lay off thousands of federal employees who serve our nation. The president may think they work at “Democrat agencies,” but that’s because he has no sense of national service, only self-interest. These are people of all political stripes who are dedicated to helping Americans live longer and healthier lives, keeping our water clean, inspecting our food to keep it safe, teaching our children, maintaining our infrastructure, and on and on and on.

🤝 Republicans and Democrats used to work together to solve problems, even when they had wide differences in their initial approaches. Now, too many conservative politicians have no desire to address the challenges of our country. Trump’s approach is similar to Sen. Ron Johnson’s statement last year that he wants Congress to be useless.

“Republicans say, ‘We need to get a result, we need to effectively govern,’” Johnson said. “To me, that’s almost code words for we got to do Democrat-lite. I think we’d be far better off if we never passed another piece of legislation.” 

While Johnson and Trump might feel that to govern effectively is “Democrat-lite,” I would counter that choosing not to govern at all — while collecting a government paycheck — is committing fraud against American taxpayers. As I’ll say over and over: Those who hate government the most should be trusted least to run it well.

Enjoy your day. And stay up to date with our weekday newsletter, our social media posts, and our morning radio show.

⏮️ Last Week:  If given these three options, how does the federal government shutdown end:

A) Democrats cave and stop trying to undo Republicans’ healthcare cuts.

B) President Trump caves and pulls back on massive healthcare cuts.

C) Republicans and Democrats agree to undo some of the healthcare cuts, Trump vetoes the plan, and members of both parties come together to override the veto.

The vast majority of people who responded said they would prefer Option C, but felt one of the other two options was more likely. 

“I wish it would be C, but I think it will be A.”

“Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I’m really hoping for C.”

“I can only hope that the Republicans in Congress grow a pair. I’m not real optimistic.”

⏭️ This Week: We’re not sure when you were expecting it, but here it is: our first ever “way too early” preference poll of candidates for governor! 

To state the obvious: This isn’t scientific. It’s a snapshot of one group of newsletter readers, knowing the field of 2026 candidates is going to change. And we’re including two potential candidates who might not even get in, but their names get mentioned often enough to warrant our curiosity.

So, if you had to vote today in the Democratic primary for governor, who gets your support right now? (Listed alphabetically by first name.)

• Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley

• State Rep. Francesca Hong

• Attorney General Josh Kaul

• State Sen. Kelda Roys

• Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes

• Former WEDC CEO Missy Hughes

• Lt. Gov Sara Rodriguez

• Someone else? 

We’ll do a Republican survey too, once we see if the field of candidates grows beyond the current two.

To answer this week’s question, hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com, and we may share it in a future newsletter or on our radio show.

• Congressman Mark Pocan (Thursday 7:35am) 

• Chuck Collins of Patriotic Billionaires (Wednesday 8:35am)

• COURIER’s Cam Stevenson live from Capitol Hill (Tuesday 8:05am)

1️⃣  Governor 2026 – The Democratic field of candidates grew this week with a campaign announcement by Missy Hughes, former secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Hughes is running in the outsider lane of being a non-politician who has specialized in a wide range of job-creating deals, citing her role in convincing “major companies like Milwaukee Tool, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Kikkoman … to invest over $10 billion and create 45,000 good-paying jobs across Wisconsin.”

On the Republican side, former Gov. Tommy Thompson told WTMJ Radio he is “seriously considering” throwing his hat in the ring. Thompson was elected to four terms as governor, serving from 1987 to 2001. If elected, he would be sworn in at age 85.

2️⃣  Congress 2026 – Former state Rep. Fred Clark announced on our radio show that he is running for Congress in northern Wisconsin’s 7th District. Clark, a Democrat from Bayfield, had been considering a challenge to incumbent US Rep. Tom Tiffany, but with Tiffany now running for governor, the race is for an open seat. Clark believes voters want a Congress that provides a check on presidential power and isn’t so timid about President Trump’s social media posts.

“This year, our Congress has failed in that responsibility,” Clark said. “They won’t even oppose this administration in some of the most basic things because they’re afraid they’ll get tweeted at.”

3️⃣  Supreme Court 2026 – Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar announced her campaign for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court following the decision by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley not to seek another term. As noted by the Wisconsin Examiner, Lazar has been supported by a strong block of conservative groups (like Pro-Life Wisconsin) and 2020 election deniers that include former Justice Michael Gableman, Trump attorney and fake electors planner Jim Troupis, and fake elector and member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission Robert Spindell. 

📻 Catch our radio show weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on our Facebook and YouTube pages as well as stations across Wisconsin thanks to our friends at Civic Media. If you can’t listen live, listen on-demand by subscribing on Spotify.

📱 And stay up to date all day with all of our team’s work through our social media feeds, including Instagram and TikTok.

🏁 Thanks for reading our update.

Have a great week!