The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin joined us at The Recombobulation Area.
We sat down for a roughly 35-minute interview, discussing a range of topics. In case you missed it, I wrote a little bit about the interview here.
During our interview, we talked about child care. We talked about PrideFest in Milwaukee, which she had just attended the day before, and talked about her work leading the way to pass the Respect for Marriage Act. We talked about her speech at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s convention, which was interrupted by pro-Palestine protestors, and we talked about her position on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
We talked about representing all of Wisconsin, and what Democrats sometimes get wrong competing in the state’s more rural or swing districts.
We talked about her likely Republican opponent, Eric Hovde. We talked about her bigger-picture assessment of how Joe Biden’s presidency is going, despite his low approval rating in Wisconsin.
We talked about the U.S. Supreme Court, and whether she thinks Justice Elena Kagen and / or Justice Sonia Sotomayor should step down now, while there’s a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate (as recently argued at Vox). We talked about her work with local partners in Milwaukee, and some of her latest policy priorities for the city. We recombobulated.
Here's when in the interview each topic comes up:
Child care: (0:34)
PrideFest, LGBTQ rights, passing the Respect for Marriage Act: (5:48)
Protests during the WisDems convention, policy on the conflict in Gaza: (12:44)
Representing the whole state of Wisconsin, and what Democrats sometimes get wrong about rural and swing areas: (16:36)
Thoughts on Eric Hovde: (21:25)
Big-picture view of the Biden presidency: (23:55)
The U.S. Supreme Court. Should Justice Kagan and / or Sotomayor step down now? (28:15)
Working with local partners in Milwaukee, and policy priorities for the city: (30:42)
This interview is available here at The Recombobulation Area for free. That is possible because of our subscribers. Yes, because of you.
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This video is also available in full on YouTube here. And if you look at the top of this post, you can access a full transcript of the interview, generated by Substack.
This video was recorded and produced at Podcamp Media, and edited by Katie Shafer.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also 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 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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INTERVIEW: One on one with Tammy Baldwin