Jay Weber Show transcript 10-19-22 8:10am (seg 1)
Okay...we are about three weeks away from election day....and it is about time to start adding the final brushstrokes to some of the most important races now...
And I want to start with the Evers/Michels race.
The polls show this race tied-despite the fact that the democrats have been outspending the Michels campaign by a rate of about three-to-one in recent weeks.
Evers ads are all over, portraying him as a competent governor. A steady hand at the wheel. A protector of Wisconsinites.
But the opposite has been true: Tony Evers got elected and then, instead of being the more moderate, unifying figure that he portrayed himself to be in the 2018 election, he instead surrounded himself with rabid anti-walker, far left, bitter activists like Maggie Gau....he shut off all avenues of cooperation with the legislative republicans...
And he’s been a weak figure head for the state who has mostly been ‘missing in action’ when anything big happens.
That’s simply the truth: name a crisis that has faced Wisconsin over the last four years, and i can recount for you- a rather lazy, low energy governor who has failed to respond to it in any suitable manner.
When covid hit and he and health officials wanted to close Wisconsin businesses by never-ending govt decree...Evers didn’t have the power to do it...but tried to, anyway.He pretended as if he had that authority and his team tried to bully the republicans and the six-million people of this state into quick compliance.
Only a savvy lawsuit by state republicans stopped it-and kept most businesses open- and kept Wisconsin from suffering the sort of never-ending financial hardship and close-down orders that the other blue states did.
And then-when many Wisconsinites were laid off and found themselves unemployed and looking desperately for their unemployment check- Tony Evers not only- didn’t deliver-
He blamed the delays on a substandard system in a govt agency and did nothing to fix it. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
And this led to tens of thousands of Wisconsinites waiting two, three, five months for unemployment checks that they should have had immediately. It left many .to wipe out their savings...or beg friends and relatives for help paying their bills...because tony Evers and his team of uncaring liberals did nothing to fix the system-
All they did is deflect blame.
Name a crisis Wisconsin faced over the last four years-and I will show you a dud of a governor who couldn’t be bothered to address it outside of his six-hour workday....and a group of his handlers who were equally incompetent and uncaring.
Evers’ response to the Kenosha riots has been detailed repeatedly on talk radio, but it was amazingly counterproductive and tone deaf: first he and Mandela Barnes helped fan the flames of the Jacob Blake shooting and practically validated the ‘right to riot’...and then Evers and his team went three days before properly reacting.
Evers wouldn’t even get out of bed on that first night of rioting, if the reports are accurate.
A few weeks ago-Matt Kittle over at Empower Wisconsin engaged in a flaming act of journalism...and got Gov Evers’ daily calendars via an open records request.
And what Kittle found was-completely ignored-by the left-wing media, of course...
But what he found-was validation of what I have been saying on this program from the earliest days of the Evers administration.
My sources quickly told me: this guy gets up late...only makes it to the Capitol by nine or later-if he comes at all- just as often, he decides to work out of the Gov’s mansion.
And then, regardless of where he’s doing the job, he’s pretty much done by two in the afternoon and heading back to the mansion. Or over to his private quarters.
I reported -very early on-that Tony Evers was working what amounted to a five- or six-hour day. My joke at the time was related to how he had to be back at the mansion by two to have his afternoon pudding....
Well- a review of nearly four years of Gov Evers’ daily schedules-validated that- according to matt Kittles analysis.
This needs to be said: this is a job that Tony Evers-said! -he wanted. This is a job that he went out of his way to -run for. Campaign for. And be trusted with...by the voters of this state.
And then he won the job and... pretty much immediately...started to half-ass it?
That is what his schedule shows...and that is what is clear public record shows...yes.
Very early on in this admin I was told by Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald and other legislative leaders that Tony, and his team were refusing to ‘engage’. Refusing to take phone calls. Refusing to meet about legislation or issues facing the state.
Nope. Evers and Gau and their team wanted nothing to do with the legislative leaders, apparently, because they were Walker-era republicans and Evers had surrounded himself with -true blue Scott Walker haters.
And sure enough...we talked about this over the years...
Sure enough.... Evers’ team members decided that they were so bitter and so angry at Walker and Wisconsin Republicans...that they were going to refuse to cooperate with them in any way: that’d show them. Tony Evers and his minions will hide in their offices on their side of the capitol. And stew...and given them nothing’...
Well...okay.
And according to those same legislative leaders-four years later-it’s still that way: i think you will remember that-early on-in one of the rare instances in which the governor and his aides agreed to meet with Vos and Fitzgerald-they secretly taped the meeting.
Remember?
It’s interesting how this stuff-never comes up-in the MSM that is allegedly covering this Evers/Michels race.
Remember how Tony Evers finally agreed to meet with legislative republicans and then secretly taped the meeting?
The story got out when some stooge on Evers’ side tried to use something said during the meeting to smear and embarrass Vos and Fitz. I forget what it even was, now...but most of you will remember the story.
Those republicans only found out that they had been taped- after the fact-and as someone on Evers’ team was trying to use it to embarrass them. And at that point- any bonds of trust that might have developed between our elected officials behind the scenes-evaporated.
And Tony Evers and Maggie Gau-really are-responsible for the bitter political atmosphere at the state capitol, now.
And I know it might be hard to believe for some of you-but up until the Evers administration- lawmakers on the two sides of the aisle...really were...cordial to each other and really did work well together on many things.
Not the most controversial or divisive things, no, but on the 80 percent of the state govt’s work that-isn’t? -controversial? The two sides have-historically-worked quite well together.
That ended in the Evers era. And it was a conscious choice by Evers and his team.They could have been cooperative-and refused.
In fact-here’s another ‘truth’ that the WI MSM refuses to report: that Tony Evers and his team didn’t even talk to-or cooperate with- the dem leaders in the legislature.
Folks, Tony Evers and the minions who were actually doing the work, also ‘blew off’ their own party members....in the legislature.
Evers and Gau haven’t even been coordinating or colluding on issues...to present a unified front to the legislative agenda that the republicans have been forwarding.
Maybe that’s why Robin Vos, Devin LeMahieu, and their republican caucuses have been so effective-even in the Evers era-when it comes to lowering taxes...passing responsible budgets and keeping out budget surplus growing.
It definitely worked to the GOP advantage that Evers and his team didn’t even feel the need to cooperate and strategize with their own legislative leaders...but they didn’t...and that might be an argument for dem voters to jettison this pathetic administration on November 8th.
Tim Michels has run an impressive campaign and-is- an impressive man. He’s accomplished a lot. Is obviously a hard worker. And obviously wants this job and sees the potential in it.
Tony Evers...was ‘tired tony’ from the very beginning.
Jay Weber Show transcript 10-19-22 8:30am (seg 2)
The last segment was a lengthy indictment of Tony Evers and his administration because... Now that we are about three weeks away from election day....and really is time to get serious about replacing Tony Evers.
And I’d like these segments to act as a reminder-and a nudge- to all those independent, moderate, and democrat voters who have been less-than-impressed with this governor but aren’t yet convinced that Tim Michels could do better.
My take on that would be Tim Michels has already proven he could do better-just based on the campaign he has run. Michel’s started out the primary against Rebecca Kleefisch .... sort of vague on the issues and married to his talking points...but he very quickly developed his own voice. Clearly- did a deeper dive into the issues-and now- has very informed takes and very detailed plans on how he would tackle everything from crime, to education, to the Wisconsin brain drain, and all the other issues facing Wisconsinites.
I supported him in the primary, yes, but i have been very happy to see how impressive Tim Michels has turned out to be as a person. As a business leader. As a charitable giver. As an advocate for life and family.
Tim Michels is an impressive, energetic man who will take this job seriously if he wins it.
Tony Evers, by contrast, I have just detailed as a man who won the position because he seemed to be interested in doing the job....and then...who quickly abandoned any of the hard work or relationship building that might have come with it-and had his activist, GOP-hating minions do it all. To the detriment of Wisconsin and its residents.
Tony Evers got elected, surrounded himself with bitter Scott Walker haters, and immediately hut off all avenues of cooperation with the legislative leaders-and on both sides of the aisle.
Evers and his team haven’t cooperated or coordinated with the democrat lawmakers in Madison any more than they have cooperated with the republicans.
He has been a ‘bunker mentality’ governor for four years. And it has served no one.
It’s why Gov Evers was such a stuttering mess during last Friday’s debate. I went back and watched it-and Tony Evers struggled and stammered on every question as Tim Michels ran rhetorical circles around him. And on every issue.
The moderators were obviously liberals, and most of the questions were slanted and loaded with leftist language and on left-wing topics-
And Tim Michels was still! Rock solid in virtually all his answers.
Tony Evers was standing there...non-plussed...with his hands in front of him as if he was praying for an escape hatch to magically open in the floor.
This man was a life-long educational bureaucrat before he was governor. He had nearly two decades to do something about the terrible quality of education in Milwaukee area schools and address other weaknesses in our k-12 system and he did nothing...
And whether that was because he’s inherently lazy with that ‘bureaucrats’ sort of mentality...or whether it was because he happily allowed himself to be ‘owned’ by the teacher’s union...so long as he did nothing.
For whatever reason...Tony Evers’ career of public service has been pathetic to the point that it is difficult to find any ‘service’ that he’s provided...in the decades that he has been accepting a paycheck from the taxpayers.
Tim Michels, by contrast, is a very impressive fellow. He and his brothers took a family business with about 400 employers and made it a nationwide company with over 8-thousand employees...and a company that has worked on major, vital, infrastructure projects of all sorts...
Michel’s was an integral part of growing and operating a company that has made all sorts of his family members and employee’s families- well off. And now, after growing the company to that point and having the personal wealth that he does Tim Michels and his wife decided to run for public office and try to serve the taxpayers of Wisconsin...in that way.
The kids are out of the house, but the Michel’s are still young, and feel they have more to give...and so...as part of this journey they have invested more than 20-million dollars of their personal wealth into this campaign.
Meanwhile, Tony Evers and the democrats have spent three-times that amount-in other people’s money- trying to convince you that Tony Evers deserves to cling to this job for another four years.
When he has shown us nothing.
Nothing-aside from indifference and incompetence and a quick willingness to go along with the latest socialist progressive nonsense.
In no realm...and by no measure does Tony Evers deserve another four years in this governor’s chair....and anyone who is being honest about it...probably acknowledges it.
And the alternative is a non-traditional, private sector, mavericky sort of character who is making some of Madison’s republicans nervous because they think he might be inclined to buck the party’s agenda on some stuff.
Yep. He probably will.
But when he does- Michaels will very likely have a well-thought-out explanation of why he’s doing so. It won’t be a decision made from blind party allegiance.
I don’t see Michels bucking the party on much...and he has already vowed to sign the packages that they intend to send him on election reform, and crime, and on most of the other 130 items that Gov Evers vetoed...
And vetoed...reflexively...just out of blind, political reflex. It was a GOP idea-so-veto it.
Michels will sign the reforms that were blocked during the Evers era on numerous important issues-including election reform and education.
And yes, I do believe that Tim Michels is going to win this race-given that the polls show a dead-heat, and those same polls show that Tony Evers cannot get more than 47 percent of the vote.
He’s been stuck there-for months.
That means something.
Tim Michel’s numbers have steadily grown, by contrast, as he has relentlessly toured the state, often making three, four, five stops in a single day.
Tony Evers is not doing that. His campaign schedule has been as light as his daily schedule...over the last four pathetic years.
There’s another ‘intangible’ that I have seen with Tim Michels as well-that suggests he is really connecting with voters from all walks of life. He has been campaigning in urban areas. In Madison and Milwaukee. Out in the sticks. He seems to have a good ‘average joe’ sort of factory and farmer following.
I do believe that we will see more union members vote for Tim Michels than democrat strategists and the ‘smart crowd’ are expecting.
It’s mostly a gut feeling and based on random observations...but it’s what i think...and I’m rarely wrong on this stuff.
I certainly haven’t been wrong on this race, have i? From the beginning-I’ve had a strong sense of things.
And yes, Tim Michels has run an impressive campaign and-is- an impressive man. He’s accomplished a lot. Is obviously a hard worker. And obviously wants this job and sees the potential in it.
Tony Evers...is...genuinely. No fooling’. -Tired Tony.
photo credit: Getty Images