Political Heat

The candidate sees a need — and potential — for economic development projects in the suburban city If you live in the city of Monona, you may have noticed a postcard in your mailbox this week asking you to vote for a candidate named Kristie Schilling. But when you go to vote on Tuesday, April 2, you won't see her name on the ballot. That's because Schilling, who is running for mayor of Monona, is doing so as a write-in candidate. Schilling is currently the CEO of the Monona East Side Business Alliance, and believes that new vision is needed for the city in the years ahead. As a curious voter myself, I sent a series of questions to Schilling hoping that she'd respond so that I could place her answers here, for other Monona voters to read and consider her candidacy. Her responses to my questions are below: --- According to the Herald Independent, you entered the race as a write-in candidate with only 10 days to go before election day. What drove you to make the de...

The ruling is a "strict constructionist" look at the Constitution — a doctrine Republicans typically adhere to (except when it goes against what they want, apparently) Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess ruled on Thursday that the lame-duck power grab "extraordinary" session , used by Republicans at the tail-end of 2018, violated provisions of the state Constitution when it stripped away powers of the executive branch after Democrats, including current Gov. Tony Evers, had won in the midterm elections. The power grab was blatantly political, a maneuver that only took place because former Gov. Scott Walker had lost his re-election bid. Had he won instead, it's unlikely Republicans would have sought to remove these powers from executive leaders. The political motivations, however, did not compel Judge Niess to render lawmakers' actions unconstitutional. Rather, the way in which the legislature convened itself did. But before we get into that, let...

The Constitution bars religious restrictions for office-holders to seek office — but restrictions for voters' considerations do not exist The Brian Hagedorn saga continues, this time with a questionable line of defense coming from an organization he's been paid to speak for in the past. Lawyer Timothy Chandler works for the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that takes up causes on behalf of Christians who often have extremist and bigoted viewpoints. Chandler recently wrote an op-ed for the Capital Times in Madison, where he argued on behalf of Hagedorn and defended his past comments as nothing more than a mere promotion of his Christian beliefs. Those who took issue with Hagedorn's comments were "guilty of applying a religious test that’s discriminatory and at odds with Article VI of the U.S. Constitution," Chandler wrote . "These words might first have been penned with quill and ink, but the message is timeless: No public office-holder should...

Hagedorn doesn't want you to "attack" his faith, but he did the same thing to Mormons in his past writings Judge Brian Hagedorn, a conservative candidate for this spring election's state Supreme Court race, has taken a lot of heat for the many writings he's made over the past decade that display a bigoted attitude toward entire groups of people. Notably, Hagedorn's attacks have centered on the LGBTQ* community. In one example of his hateful writings , the candidate said that a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2005, which deemed laws restricting people from engaging in "homosexual acts" as unconstitutional, would lead to other laws banning bestiality being deemed acceptable as well. (It should go without saying that comparisons to bestiality and homosexuality are not just nonsensical, but offensive as well.) Other comments like these abound, and put doubts in voters' minds that Hagedorn can be an impartial member of the state's highest c...

The students ended their school week on Friday afternoon by coming to the sidewalks, holding up signs in support of Black Lives Matter on a chilly winter day. Students at Nuestro Mundo Community School, a MMSD dual language (Spanish and English) charter school, came to the sidewalks on a chilly Friday afternoon to shout out their support for peace. The school, which is Madison-based but located in the heart of Monona, aims to "develop literacy in both languages, preparing students for success in an increasingly global economy, and to promote acceptance and understanding of cultural differences and strengths," according to Nuestro Mundo's website . Click the images to expand: Holding signs up that read, "Don't Judge People's Color," "We Don't See Hate, We See Love," and more, the students explained to me that they were out on Friday afternoon, around 3 p.m. and at the end of their school day, in support of the Black Live...