2025: The Year in Recombobulation
Our annual look back at the year that was.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
What a year.
A terrible year, mostly. An especially discombobulating one, certainly. But a memorable one nonetheless, with one of the true hopeful and inspiring moments of the year in politics delivered from right here in Wisconsin.
And so this week is Christmas. Another year over. But before a new one begins, let’s take a look back at what we’ve done in 2025 here at The Recombobulation Area. That’s right, it’s time for our annual Year in Recombobulation, as we’ve done in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
So, let’s recombobulate (2025 year-end edition):
That Evers column
Our most-read story of the year, and the one that certainly garnered the most attention, was my June 10 column, “Pass the Torch: Tony Evers should not run for a third term as governor.”
While this column made quite the splash, I’m not so naive as to think this had any actual impact on Tony Evers’ decision on his political future. I do, however, think this helped start an important conversation about where Wisconsin is heading in 2026, and about when it’s time for a governor to hang up the ol’ veto pen and pass the torch to the next generation of leaders. As I wrote after the governor made his decision, “Evers should be commended for this bold and selfless decision not to seek a third term. He is doing what so many others in the Democratic Party have struggled so mightily to do — pass the torch when the time is right.”
This column also led to one of the single weirdest reactions I’ve ever had anywhere to my work, when NewsTalk 1130 host Dan O’Donnell suggested this column was part of a nefarious “coup” to “push Evers aside” and install Ben Wikler as the Democratic candidate for governor.
So yeah, that didn’t happen. And I suppose certain parts of this conversation weren’t exactly the most productive. But by and large, I am very glad I wrote this column and published it when I did. And I am grateful that Gov. Evers is again doing the right thing for Wisconsin by stepping down at the right time, allowing the next generation of Democrats to flourish, and setting the stage for an important conversation about the state’s future in the 2026 midterm elections. We’ll be covering this race closely over the next year, to be sure.
The early days of the governor’s race
Perhaps because of my Evers column, perhaps it’s just the overall interest in the first open race for governor in more than 15 years, but people have been very interested in my thoughts on this race here in its early going.
Here are three columns I’ve written over the past few months. The first, my “too-early breakdown” of how the Democratic party might take shape, the second on why Tom Tiffany is the frontrunner to become the GOP nominee, and the third looking at a Mandela Barnes 2026 candidacy through the lens of his 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate.
The 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race
Among the bigger bright spots of 2025 was the everything-on-the-line election for Wisconsin Supreme Court, won in dramatic fashion by Susan Crawford, the liberal-leaning candidate backed by the state Democratic Party who weathered an onslaught of astronomical political spending from Elon Musk and emerged victorious with a statement-making double-digit victory.
As Crawford said in Madison the night before the election, “I never thought as a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, that I’d be going up against the richest man in the world to fight for justice in our state, but here we are.”
We covered the results live on Civic Media as part of a special broadcast for the Spring Election, with yours truly and Todd Allbaugh anchoring from Madison, with members of the Civic Media news team calling in from around the state.
In the following days, I wrote two columns about the results. The first, on Crawford herself meeting the moment, and the second, my typical post-election “10 Takeaways” column, recombobulating on all the results.
In the weeks and months prior to the Spring Election Day, we covered this race closely. For a moment there, it seemed like Wisconsin voters were the last line of defense against a full-on oligarchic takeover, as Democrats floundered while Trump and Musk brought a frightening degree of destruction and chaos to the first few months of the administration. With this election being held just 71 days after the inauguration, it was inevitable that this race would be colored by what was happening nationally, and given what was happening, it was up to us here in Wisconsin to send a message.
Here are a few more highlights of our coverage of the race here at The Recombobulation Area, featuring contributions from Angela Lang, Matt Rothschild, and more.
More top political stories from Dan Shafer
This was a remarkably discombobulating year in politics, giving us more than a few opportunities to recombobulate. Here are some of the most-read and most listened-to columns, podcasts and stories from 2025, ranging from sit-down interviews (Ben Wikler, Sen. Raphael Warnock), coverage of events (the WisDems convention), top state political stories (the passing of the biennial budget), more elections (the state superintendent race), the latest effort to bring independent redistricting to Wisconsin, an important conversation about immigration in the Trump Era, and making sense of the new Pro Wrestling Republicans.
Our contributors are incredible
We had some amazing contributions from so many people this year. We were thrilled to be able to welcome more regular contributors — Emily Tseffos and Emily Mills — and continue working with longtime (award-winning!) contributor Angela Lang.
Here are a few highlights of their work at The Recombobulation Area from the past year:
From Angela Lang:
From Emily Tseffos:
From Emily Mills:
We also brought in a host of voices who had important things to say on a variety of different issues. See some highlights here.
From Todd Allbaugh:
From Mandela Barnes:
"Pawn in a billionaire's game": A federal worker fired by DOGE shares her story with Mandela Barnes
From Tim Faust:
From Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich:
From Corrine Hendrickson:
From Reggie Jackson:
From Jordan Morales:
Awards!
This year, The Recombobulation Area won six Milwaukee Press Club awards, a new high for the publication, with a Gold honor for Angela Lang in the category of Best Single Editorial, Statement of Editorial Position or Opinion.
Overall, we won six awards, including one gold, four silver, and one bronze honor.
Civic Media and a whole lot of radio
This year was also our first full year as part of the Civic Media network, and as you may have seen from all of our regular “Recombobulating on the radio” roundups, I spent a whole lot of time on the airwaves this year.
I also helped launch our new daily, statewide newsletter, “Civic Media Today.”
And we bid a fond farewell to the legend herself, Jane Matenaer, who retired on her own terms after more than 44 years in radio.
Finally, thanks to all of YOU who subscribed, supported, followed, shared, retweeted, listened to or read our work this year. It’s because of all of you that this silly little publication exists in the first place, and we are endlessly grateful for that.
Enjoy your holiday season, and be well in the new year. Maybe this year will be better than the last.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.