So- Janel Brandtjen is ‘in’.
She’s the Assemblywoman who went ‘all in’ on helping Adam Steen and Michael Gableman unseat Robin Vos as assembly speaker.
Adam Steen released tapes of phone calls that exposed Brandtjen as routinely giving him advice on how to run his campaign. It made her look terrible, regardless of how much she helped.
But it was no secret that Brandtjen had clashed with Robin Vos before, and wanted to see him replaced atop the assembly caucus, as speaker...
And so, when Vos won re-election and was reaffirmed as the speaker of the caucus by nearly every member voting in favor of him-
Brandtjen quickly found herself in a tough spot.
I broke the story that nearly all the GOP members who attended that first ‘organizing’ caucus after the election- voted to bar Brandtjen from the closed-door caucus meetings.
The reason they cited in a letter informing her of this is that they felt they couldn’t trust her, anymore, after they became convinced that several news stories that had leaked-out of caucus- had been leaked by her.
Again- whether that was true-that was their belief, and that was her punishment.
Then-in an interesting twist- weeks after Brandtjen was censored this way by her own side of the aisle and her fellow caucus members- senator Alberta darling decided to retire from the -other-legislative chamber. The state senate.
Well, Janel branding’s assembly district is-within- Alberta darling’s senate district...and it’s a very natural progression to see assembly members within a senate district-run for the upper chamber-when they have the opportunity.
And so-
One of them-Dan Knodl-broke the news on this show last Thursday that he is running...and yesterday...Janel Brandtjen announced her run.
Not on my show. Via press release.
And here’s the thing: Brandtjen’s dogged focus on the discrepancies of the 2020 election and both legitimate questions surrounding it- and conspiracy theories- has made her a controversial figure in Madison.
But...from what I can tell. She’s still beloved in her own district, and to win the senate election, she needs to convince-the people-she’s worthy of the seat.... not her fellow GOP lawmakers in Madison...
Now, I suppose Robin Vos and other party leaders could try to work against her and/or endorse Knodl to keep her out of the Senate, but...frankly? Janel Brandtjen is a very appealing woman- in person-and out on the campaign trail in front of a crowd.
I have seen her speak often at GOP and conservative gatherings and she’s good. She knows what sort of red-meat issues are going to connect with the crowd.
I wouldn’t count out Brandtjen -at all-in this senate race. In fact, if it comes down to a two-and-a-half-month spring of hard work and connecting with audiences at small group events-as it should- I’d give Brandtjen the edge over Knodl here. She’s an appealing, energetic, spitfire of a woman.
Unless.
Unless-she’s going to spend most of her time on the stump looking back at the 2020 election and continuing to hyper-focus on trump loss and election issues. I sense a lot of voter fatigue when it comes to that topic...
And so...in a way. Brandtjen’s mission is like Donald Trump’s: just ‘get over it’, already. Stop shoving people so hard and insisting that ‘you’re right’ on the election fraud stuff when most voters don’t care, anymore, and talk about the other issues.
Dan Knodl says he’s focusing on people’s paychecks, inflation, education, and crime. If he focuses on that-and Janel focuses on ‘Trump won, and we got to make it right’....
I don’t see her coming out on top in that primary race. It’d be easy to campaign with a chip on her shoulder and badmouth Vos and Madison republicans at every opportunity, but it won’t be a winning message. My unsolicited advice to her is-don’t fall into that 2020 election trap. Drain the bile. Get back to being the happy conservative warrior you’ve always been...focus on that-and don’t let either the left-wing media-nor the right-wing media- keep sucking you back into the election controversies.
photo credit: Janel's Facebook page