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.
In less than a week in Wisconsin, voters will head to the polls for the August partisan primary.
Statewide, voters will decide on a pair of proposed amendments to the state constitution. If you want to learn more about those, head over here and check out the latest from Marquette University professor Phil Rocco.
But that’s not the only thing voters will be deciding on next week. With new state legislative maps, there are more contested primaries happening in Senate and Assembly districts than there have been in more than a decade. There are also a number of primaries happening in congressional races.
Perhaps the most interesting of those primaries is the one happening in the 3rd Congressional District, where Democrats are looking to win back a seat now represented by Republican Derrick Van Orden.
The three candidates running are Rebecca Cooke, Katrina Shankland, and Eric Wilson. Cooke and Shankland are the top two contenders in this primary, and the race has gotten a little spicy as we get close to primary election day.
Joining us to talk about this race is Anthony Chergosky, political science professor at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.
We discussed the big picture of the campaign, the geographic divide in the race, some bad blood surfacing in the final weeks before the primary, and more.
One last thing: Be sure to VOTE on Aug. 13! Take a moment to check out what’s going to be on your ballot here.
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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PODCAST: Discussing the Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District with Anthony Chergosky of UW-La Crosse