Jay Weber Show transcript 6-26-25
This is good news for Josh Shoeman: 55 percent of Wisconsinites tell the Marquette pollsters that they don’t’ want to see Tony Evers run for a third term as governor.
That’s at least an ‘open window’ for anyone who wants to challenge Evers next fall.
I was talking with JR Ross-just yesterday- about this: it might be annoying to all sorts of people in this mostly conservative audience-but the truth is- Gov Evers has been a relatively popular governor, overall, during his tenure.
Now-
I’d attribute a lot of that to republican-crafted budgets and tax reductions that then Evers was simply smart enough to sign.
I’d attribute it to the fact that-because republicans have remained in charge of most of the major decisions when it comes to running the state- and Governor Evers has simply benefitted from that-
But it is what it is: Tony Evers has basically had a 50 to 54 percent approval rating in most of the polls taken during his time in office.
So- as i was saying to JR yesterday: if he wants to run for a third term – his party’s leaders would love to see it. Both here in WI, and nationally.
The party wants proven and popular incumbents on the ticket next year-and they see Evers as one of them- and as their ‘best bet’ at keeping the governor’s chair.
Especially when -aside from Tommy Thompson-there hasn’t been a modern-era WI governor who has served three terms. Scott Walker won three elections-due to the recall election in 2012- but he failed to win a third term in 2018.
And according to Charles Franklin....61 percent of Wisconsinites were against the idea of a third walker term-at that time.
Now Gov Evers is looking at nearly the same number of Wisconsinites: a little less than six in ten saying that they don’t want him to run for a third term, either.
I doubt this changes the calculation for Evers’ team or the state democrat party much...but...it’s bound to give a boost to josh Shoeman and/or anyone else who’s considering getting into this race next year.
I also talked with JR about the rumor we insiders have been hearing for some time now: that, hey, Ben Wickler really wants to run for governor if Evers doesn’t run...and will primary him if he does.
Jr quickly said, ‘no’. At least to the ‘primarying Evers’ part. I wasn’t putting much stock in the rumor, because I assumed Wickler wasn’t dumb enough to primary a popular incumbent whose party leaders -want him-in the race...
But...would Wickler run if Evers doesn’t?
Maybe. I have no special insight into whether he really wants to run for elected office, or not.
There’s also at least a ‘small effort’ to discourage Tony Evers from running again-because he’s too old.
I believe it’s people like Dan Shafer- over at his recombobulation blog- who are suggesting Evers will have a ‘Joe Biden’ problem if he runs again: voters will view him as too old.
Well- given that Evers isn’t showing any signs of dementia that I’m aware of- I don’t think that’s a significant concern.
In fact, the few republicans who I’ve talked to about strategy – are saying that if Evers does run again-he needs to be blasted as the ‘education governor’ who has let education erode to terrible levels here.
The guy pretends to be ‘for the kids etc... but our public and private school standards and test scores have only slid...under Evers as governor.
Which is also true.
But I haven’t heard anyone suggest we’ve got to roast Evers over his age.
That’s always a delicate edge to walk...without sounding too mean.
And to prove democrat support for an Evers third term is high- Marquette’s new poll finds
So, imagine the left-wing dope who would challenge him in a primary.
I don’t think it’ll be Ben Wickler.
There was also this finding-which is characterized as voters being ‘split’ on more UW System funding.
Franklin posted it on x this way:
(read)
How is that ‘about evenly split?”
I’d call that- incredibly lopsided: half of us say the level of u-w finding is fine right now. Another one-quarter say u-w funding should be cut...and only one in four say we need more u-w funding.
How about splitting?
Not to pick on Charles Franklin or the poll-but- the spin here is evident: if the question is: do you believe the UW system should receive more funding?...
Well. The answer is ‘resoundingly no’. Half say the current level is just fine and a quarter say- it should be cut!
There is no ambiguity or ‘split’ to be found in those findings.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > Is this the end of the Tony Evers era?