The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
Programming note: We are working with a brand new video setup for live, in-person interviews, so bear with us as we learn on the fly. The full, unedited version of this video was available first for paid subscribers only. We are now posting an edited version of the video here and on The Recombobulation Area’s YouTube Channel, along with a podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and here on Substack.
The last two weeks of campaign politics in Wisconsin have been extremely discombobulating, to say the least.
Since Tuesday, July 7, the following has happened:
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley ended his campaign
Crowley endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez
Rodriguez announced she was firing her campaign manager over a major campaign finance crisis
Campaigns filed their finance reports, covering the period from Jan. 1 - June 30
The Republican Governor’s Association made a multi-million dollar ad buy widely believed to be designed to boost Francesca Hong’s campaign
Rodriguez ended her campaign
Crowley announced he was be re-joining the race, and did so with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers
It’s been a lot.
Amid all of this, so much of the talk seemed to surround a certain candidate in the race, so we wanted to hear from her herself.
What does she think of Crowley rejoining the race, with Evers’ endorsement? Does she see this as “the establishment” lining up against her? What does the term “the establishment” even mean to her?
What does she think of Act 12, the consequential piece of legislation many Crowley supporters were talking about at his campaign re-launch event? What’s happening with her campaign’s vaunted ground game? What is her big picture view of Tony Evers’ time as governor? And if she comes up short in the Aug. 11 primary, would she back whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being?
She answered those questions and more, speaking in downtown Milwaukee.
You can watch or listen to this interview here on Substack or on YouTube.
Listen as an audio podcast on Spotify (embedded below) or on Apple Podcasts (available here, since we can’t embed episodes here).
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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. 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 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.
