#Wausau School District

[wausaupilotreview]

Heads-up. The first meeting is at 5:30 p.m. today.

[sanctified-conspiracy]

This is happening in Wausau Wisconsin rn. They are working to conjoin Wausau West and East into one of the buildings and there are a bunch of people worried about transportation because they already don't have enough bus drivers as is and will now have to transport half of the students even further. My dad works for a concrete cutting business and they were or are working on it right now (I'm not sure when I don't talk to him). I think schools are being conjoined more these days because many schools were built when the baby boomer generation was growing up -- of which there were many more kids. And now, with birth rates declining, school districts are preparing for even less kids than now. Not saying it's good or bad. Just a hypothesis.

remembering that time i met someone who attended high school in west bend, wisconsin and they told me how their school district works. to them it was completely normal while i was wondering if they were messing with me.

their schools are conjoined twins???

[kuhnertjournal]

Week 1: About Me

Good afternoon one and all! I’m Andy Kuhnert and this will be my blog/journal page if all was done correctly. I’m a 26 year old gym rat who is a full-time delivery driver for the Wausau School District, works part-time with the Army National Guard as a network specialist, attends online school half-time, and spends what little time I have left with my wife and three cats at home.

In all honesty, I took this class because it was one of my few General Education requirements that I had left. I cannot go as far as to say I don’t have any interest in design... my major is in Information Science and Technology, which almost by definition requires some design thinking. In saying that, I would say that my interest with design revolves around a technological standpoint.

I do not have any particular experience with design that would pertain to this class. I do realize however that we use this concept on a daily basis to make decisions whether we know it or not. This could be anything from choosing a specific type of boot to even deciding what kind of vehicle you will drive depending on the objective. Of course, this all stems from other individual’s designs, not my own.

I would have to say that if anything inspired me when it comes to the idea of design, it is the art side of things. For example, we discussed the concept of accessories looking different inside a new car depending on the make. Some may consider this in the grey area nearing the art side, but it is still part of the design feature of the car, allowing you to do something easier. It is those situations that draw my attention, allowing something to better allow accessibility but still attract the eye.

As a matter of fact, I have recently purchased a few things that were chosen specifically because of design. I bought a new ram a little over a year ago that I chose because of the engine design. With the hemi, they are specifically structured to give you more power and efficiency than the competitors (supposedly). This is what I look for in addition to the cosmetic items inside that are supposed to make your life easier. I actually purchased a new Indian Motorcycle this last summer as well. Similar to the truck, I chose this make of bike because the engine has been designed supposedly to have more power than the competing companies, such as Harley!

The bottom line is that I’m not sure what to expect from this class but I’m excited to see what lies ahead. I may even find a few topics that I never knew interested me!

[freenewstoday]

New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/01/22/a-slice-of-what-education-looks-like-in-pandemic-america/

A Slice of What Education Looks Like in Pandemic America

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

For almost a year, public school districts across the country have grappled with the daunting challenge of educating children in the midst of a pandemic. The strategies they have used are as varied as the political viewpoints, economics and demographics of the country itself. Policy is shaped by those very factors.

The New York Times’s National desk wanted to understand the different ways that schools were teaching and the circumstances facing students and educators.

“That sounds like a simple goal, but it’s really complicated because there are 13,000 school districts in America,” Jim Dao, deputy National editor, said.

In coordination with two fellow editors, Scott Dodd and Clinton Cargill, Mr. Dao dispatched journalists to follow seven school districts. The results are in a special report published Thursday.

The Times profiled public schools in Edison, N.J.; Cherokee County, Ga.; Wausau, Wis.; Providence, R.I.; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and the Roosevelt Independent School District near Lubbock, Texas. The stories, which appear as discrete pieces online, are packaged together in one print section.

“It’s always true in this country: If you’re going to public school, where you live determines your schooling experiences,” said Kate Taylor, an education reporter who observed Providence Public Schools, about an hour from her Boston-area home. “And those can be very, very different.”

In some cases, those differences are obvious: a big city versus a rural area, or a district relying on remote learning versus one that’s using a mix of remote and in-person classrooms. The idiosyncrasies of each district revealed to reporters compelling and unexpected elements inside the broader story.

For example, Washington, D.C., like many urban school districts, has held remote classes since March. So the Times reporter Abby Goodnough sought to examine the efforts being made to re-engage disaffected students. Much of Julie Bosman’s reporting in Wausau focused on how the district has toggled between remote and in-person learning because of a politically divided school board. In the Roosevelt Independent School District in Texas, remote learning wasn’t working, so the district scrapped it.

“You have to go to the classroom, or you have to go to a different district,” J. David Goodman, the reporter who covered Roosevelt, said.

Growing evidence bears out that school buildings are unlikely to seed coronavirus transmission when community spread is at moderate or low levels, provided that mitigation strategies, including adherence to social distancing and mask requirements, are implemented. Still, in-person schooling is not without risk, reporters found.

As the virus crept into all corners of the country last year, fears of infection took a more dominant hold in urban centers like San Diego, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, which have relied heavily on remote learning.

Jennifer Medina, who covered the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the issues plaguing it were emblematic of many urban districts with similar demographics.

“This just gets to the virus in general. There’s such a big divide of who’s feeling it and who isn’t,” said Ms. Medina, who lives in the city. “It’s so glaringly clear that the kids who need the most help have the least access to it.”

Yet Providence, where district students are predominantly poor and Latino, is an outlier. More than 70 percent of students returned to their classrooms this fall.

“I wanted to answer this question of why so many students came back in Providence when they didn’t in so many other cities,” Ms. Taylor said.

The answers, it turned out, were complex and multifaceted. And the task of determining what conclusions should be drawn was a feat all its own.

“No single piece explains what’s going on,” Mr. Dao said. “But if you look at them together, we hope you’ll get a clearer sense of how the nation as a whole is educating students in the pandemic.”

Although circumstances and solutions across school districts vary widely, a common reaction became apparent: an intractable worry about the long-term and, as of yet, unknown consequences the disruption of education will have on a generation of children.

“This isn’t the sort of thing that the moment classrooms open back up, everything is going to be back to normal,” Ms. Medina said. “This is going to have reverberations for years.”

Source

[wausaupilotreview]

Residents question tax impact of Wausau School District’s operational referendum

District leaders argue that state funding has not kept pace with inflation and rising costs. Wisconsin’s revenue limit for schools, established in 1993, has remained largely unchanged despite increasing expenses.

Damakant Jayshi Skepticism marked an informational session Wednesday as Wausau School District officials attempted to assure residents that an upcoming referendum to increase the revenue limit would not impact property taxes. The sparsely attended session, held at Wausau West High School, drew questions about why the district could not simply continue paying down debt to reduce its deficit…

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: 52 People Who Took Part in Wisconsin’s Primary Have Tested Positive for Coronavirus

(MADISON, Wis.) — There are no plans to postpone or otherwise alter a special congressional election in Wisconsin that is less than two weeks away, even though more than 50 people who voted in person or worked the polls during the state’s presidential primary this month have tested positive for COVID-19.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to change the April 7 election so that it would be conducted entirely by mail, but he was blocked by the Republican-led Legislature and conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court. Evers and others had warned that allowing in-person voting would cause a spike in coronavirus cases, but so far the impact appears to be limited.

Several of the 52 people who have tested positive and were at the polls on April 7 also reported other ways they may have been exposed to the virus, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said Tuesday. Because of that, it’s unclear if those people contracted the virus at the polls.

The 52 positive cases were in people who tested positive in the two weeks after the election, so by April 21. Most people show symptoms within 14 days of exposure, though some people who have the virus don’t show symptoms.

After next week, the state will no longer ask people who test positive for the virus whether they were at the polls on April 7 because of how much time has passed, said Julie Willems Van Dijk, who heads the state health agency.

“We’re getting to the point where the door will be closing on those,” she said.

Most of the positive cases were in Milwaukee County. The city’s health commissioner has said the data was being analyzed and an update was expected next week.

Statewide, there have been more than 6,200 confirmed cases and 300 deaths since the outbreak began.

Although voters had to wait in long lines on April 7, primarily in Milwaukee, that likely won’t happen with the May 12 special congressional election, where the largest city in the 7th Congressional District is Wausau, which is home to about 40,000 people. That House race is the only one on the ballot, unlike in this month’s election, which featured the presidential primary and a state Supreme Court race.

Election clerks in the district have said they’re ready for the election after they managed to make it through this month’s election despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic. There’s also a push to encourage absentee voting. About 71% of all voters in the April 7 election cast absentee ballots.

Evers has made no move to alter the special election even though as it currently stands, it would occur while his stay-at-home order is still in effect. The order is scheduled to run until May 26, but Republicans have asked the state Supreme Court to block it.

The 7th Congressional District covers all or parts of 26 northern and northwestern Wisconsin counties and is the state’s largest congressional district, geographically.

The race pits Democrat Tricia Zunker, president of the Wausau school board, against Republican state Sen. Tom Tiffany, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. Trump carried the heavily Republican district by 20 percentage points in 2016.

By Scott Bauer / AP on April 29, 2020 at 12:49PM

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

On May 12, the GOP won two special congressional elections handily: Republican Mike Garcia defeated Democratic Assemblywoman Christy Smith 55 percent to 45 percent in the California 25th District, and Republican state Sen. Tom Tiffany beat his Democratic opponent, Wausau School Board President Tricia Zunker, 57 percent to 43 percent in the Wisconsin 7th District.1 Garcia’s win was especially important, as it lowered the number of House seats Republicans need to flip in order to take back control in November from 18 to 17.2

These special elections may also throw cold water on the idea that 2020 will be another “blue wave” election. Although you shouldn’t infer too much from any one special election — particularly strong or weak candidates or idiosyncratic local issues can matter more in individual races — special elections in the aggregate have historically been predictive of the national political environment. In other words, a party that consistently punches above its weight in special elections tends to have a really good November.

So what are special elections saying so far about 2020? Counting the two earlier this month, there have now been six federal special elections so far this cycle — not a huge sample size, but enough to detect whether Republicans or Democrats are consistently overperforming the seat’s baseline partisanship. Except so far, the final vote-share margin in the average special election has not been any more Democratic-leaning (or, for that matter, Republican-leaning) than the seat’s FiveThirtyEight partisan lean score.3

No party has an edge in special elections this cycle

How the final vote margin compared with the seat’s FiveThirtyEight partisan lean in federal special elections so far

Year Date Seat Partisan Lean Vote Margin Margin Swing 2019 May 21 Pennsylvania 12th R+35 R+36 R+1 Sept. 10 North Carolina 3rd R+24 R+24 0 Sept. 10 North Carolina 9th† R+14 R+2 D+12 2020 April 28 Maryland 7th D+51 D+49 R+2 May 12 California 25th* EVEN R+10 R+10 May 12 Wisconsin 7th* R+18 R+14 D+4 Average R+6 R+6 0

Partisan lean is the average difference between how a state or district votes and how the country votes overall, with 2016 presidential election results weighted at 50 percent, 2012 presidential election results weighted at 25 percent and results from elections for the state legislature weighted at 25 percent. Note that FiveThirtyEight’s current partisan leans do not yet incorporate the results of the 2018 election.

*Unofficial results as of May 20.

†The North Carolina 9th election was technically a do-over election but otherwise had all the characteristics of a special election.

Sources: state election offices

In four of the six elections, the final result was quite close to the district’s partisan lean. And the other two races pointed in opposite directions. Republicans did 10 points better in the California 25th than we’d expect them to in a neutral political environment, while Democrats did 12 points better than their baseline in the North Carolina 9th do-over election last year. And these results can easily be explained by the strength of the candidates. Both Garcia and Dan McCready, the Democratic candidate in the North Carolina 9th, were moderates, veterans and prolific fundraisers.

By contrast, in 2017 and 2018, Democrats routinely posted amazing numbers. Even when they didn’t win, they performed far better than the seat’s baseline partisanship would predict. In the 11 federal special elections before November 2018, the average margin swing between a seat’s final margin and its partisan lean was 17 points toward Democrats.

Democrats overperformed last cycle

How the final vote margin compared with the seat’s FiveThirtyEight partisan lean in federal special elections

Year Date Seat Partisan Lean Vote Margin Margin Swing 2017 April 4 California 34th* D+68 D+87 D+20 April 11 Kansas 4th R+29 R+6 D+23 May 25 Montana at-large R+18 R+6 D+12 June 20 Georgia 6th R+15 R+4 D+11 June 20 South Carolina 5th R+20 R+3 D+17 Nov. 7 Utah 3rd R+39 R+32 D+6 Dec. 12 Alabama Senate R+27 D+2 D+28 2018 March 13 Pennsylvania 18th R+21 D+0.3 D+22 April 24 Arizona 8th R+26 R+5 D+22 June 30 Texas 27th* R+29 R+21 D+8 Aug. 7 Ohio 12th R+14 R+1 D+13 Average R+15 D+1 D+17

Partisan lean is the average difference between how a state or district votes and how the country votes overall, with 2016 presidential election results weighted at 50 percent, 2012 presidential election results weighted at 25 percent and results from elections for the state legislature weighted at 25 percent.

*Results are from either an all-party primary or an all-party general election, both of which include multiple candidates of the same party; vote margin is the total vote share of all Democratic candidates combined minus the total vote share of all Republican candidates combined.

Sources: state election offices

In 2018, this ended up foreshadowing a great general election for Democrats, who won the national House popular vote by 8.6 percentage points. If 2020 follows the same pattern, we could be in for a neutral political environment for the fall.

However, “if” is the operative word there. Special elections are just one indicator of the national mood, and others are notably rosier for Democrats. Polls of the generic congressional ballot, for instance, give Democrats an average lead of nearly 8 percentage points — comparable to what they said in 2018. In addition, most polls give presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden a solid lead over President Trump, and Democrats have enjoyed some unbelievable Senate polls lately. Republicans are also retiring from Congress at a far faster rate than Democrats. Finally, the economy is in a tailspin, which has historically been bad news for the president’s reelection chances.

So maybe this year will be like 2002, when special elections also had a margin swing of zero but Republicans won the national House popular vote by 5 points in a mini-wave. The relationship between special elections and the political environment isn’t perfect. Still, the current cycle’s inconsistent special-election results should make us more uncertain about which party will have the advantage in November. In 2018, virtually every indicator under the sun pointed to that blue wave. This year, we’re getting mixed signals.

[therealreverendchris]

IntroductionWelcome to the /r/politics discussion thread for the special elections being held in California's 25th Congressional District, and Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District. CA-25 was vacated on November 3, 2019 by former Congresswoman Katie Hill following a leak of nude photos of her in a relationship with a staffer, as well as a pending ethics investigation. WI-07 was vacated on September 23, 2019 by former Congressman Sean Duffy to spend time taking care of his youngest child, who has a heart complication, as well as to take a new position as a lobbyist.Despite the coronavirus pandemic, these elections will continue as scheduled. The primary election for CA-25 was held concurrently with the Presidential primary in California, with navy veteran and businessman Mike Garcia (R) and assemblywoman Christy Smith (D) advancing to the top two runoff. In WI-07, the primary was held in February, with state senator Tom Tiffany (R) and Ho-Chunk Nation associate justice and Wausau school board president Tricia Zunker advancing.The winners of these contests will serve out the remainder of the term for this year, though they are likely to each seek election to a full term as well.Please keep in mind our civility guideline when participating.CA-25Candidates:Assemblywoman Christy Smith (D)Navy Veteran and businessman Mike Garcia (R)Resources:Same Day Voter RegistrationPoll hours close 8PM local timeFind your polling location2016 presidential toplines - 50% Clinton to 44% TrumpWI-07Candidates:Ho-Chunk Nation Associate Justice and Wausau School Board President Tricia Zunker (D)State Senator Tom Tiffany (R)Resources:Poll hours 7AM to 8PM local timeFind your polling locationVoter ID requirements2016 presidential toplines - 37% Clinton to 58% TrumpResultsBusiness Insider [CA-25]TBD via /r/politics

[bloggingblue]

Endorsement In Special Election In WI-07.

Endorsement In Special Election In WI-07.

In tomorrow’s special election in the Wisconsin 7th Congressional District. The election is between Republican State Senator Tim Tiffany and Wausau School Board Member Tricia Zunker. The eventual winner will replace Rep. Sean Duffy who resigned the position late last year.

So the Democrats have a chance to send a new representative to Washington and solidify their majority in the House.

So…

[demcastusa]

Tricia Zunker

Download | iTunes | Spotify

Kelly chats with Tricia Zunker, Ho-Chunk Supreme Court Associate Justice, Wausau School Board President, Mother, and the Democratic nominee in the special election for the Wisconsin 7th Congressional District, which will be held on May 12, 2020.

Links

Tricia Zunker: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Our End Credits are read by Sonya Daniel. Two Broads Talking…

[hmoob-tv]

Wausau School Board passes resolution in support of Hmong community

WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A local school district has passed a resolution in support of the Hmong community in Central Wisconsin. On Monday afternoon the Wausau School Board discussed a proposed resolution …

Read more

[wausaupilotreview]

Wausau School Board: ‘No’ vote won’t guarantee lower property taxes

What the board wants voters to know:

Damakant Jayshi Even if voters reject the Wausau School District’s referendum in April, the district’s portion of the property tax bill will not necessarily decrease, a school board official said Monday. “The board intends to keep the tax rate flat. That’s either going to be with this referendum spending or by paying down future debt,” said Board Vice President Lance Trollop at the…

[crucialhire]

Wausau School District to Outsource Substitute Staffing - WSAU News https://t.co/wMuNQ110Q1

Wausau School District to Outsource Substitute Staffing - WSAU News https://t.co/wMuNQ110Q1

— Crucial Hire (@HireCrucial) July 9, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/HireCrucial July 08, 2019 at 04:20PM http://twitter.com/HireCrucial/status/1148416559607615491

[e2youngengineers]

Wausau School District planetarium founder Jon Harkness dies; lauded as science teacher https://t.co/Ze2T6EPQ4h

Wausau School District planetarium founder Jon Harkness dies; lauded as science teacher https://t.co/Ze2T6EPQ4h

— Young Engineers Central Mississauga (@e2youngenginee1) October 17, 2018

from Twitter https://twitter.com/e2youngenginee1 October 17, 2018 at 02:33AM http://twitter.com/e2youngenginee1/status/1052538034707677185

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Trump in most early polls, Democrats are leading polls of the generic congressional ballot by 2018-level margins, and general disapproval of the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic threatens to sink Republican prospects across the board. On Tuesday, we’ll get a taste of whether Democrats’ electoral advantage on paper will hold up in practice, as California and Wisconsin hold special elections for two vacant congressional seats. The main event is in the California 25th Congressional District, a bellwether seat in the north Los Angeles suburbs, where both parties see a chance to add to their ranks in the House. But if Democrats are also competitive in the quickly reddening, rural Wisconsin 7th Congressional District, it could signal another blue wave in the fall. Here’s everything you need to know about the two races.

California 25th

The California contest will test whether Democrats can hold onto a suburban and formerly GOP seat they captured during the 2018 blue wave. This election — precipitated by the resignation of Democratic Rep. Katie Hill in November after she admitted to an affair with a campaign staffer — marks the second round of voting as no candidate won an outright majority on March 3 to claim the seat. So now Democrat Christy Smith and Republican Mike Garcia — the top-two finishers in that initial vote — are battling it out on Tuesday to serve out the remainder of Hill’s term, which ends January 2021. But regardless of who wins, Smith and Garcia will face off again in November because they both advanced from the regular primary, also held on March 3.

We don’t have much polling to go on, but the contest looks close. The last public poll of the race dates back to an internal poll the Garcia campaign released in March. In it, Garcia led Smith, 43 percent to 39 percent. According to Inside Elections, private polling has consistently found Garcia leading by the low single digits. Election handicappers rate it a toss-up. And Smith — a first-term assemblywoman in California’s legislature — and Garcia — a businessman and former Navy fighter pilot — have each raised and spent around $2 million. (The national party campaign arms — the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee — have also been busy, too, collectively spending over $3 million in the district.) However, the once-conservative district has shifted left over the last few years: Mitt Romney won it by 2 points in 2012, but Hillary Clinton carried it by 7 points in 2016, according to data from Daily Kos Elections.

One of the big issues in the race, though, may be a state issue: Assembly Bill 5, a new law Smith supported in the legislature that limits businesses’ ability to label workers as independent contractors, rather than employees (who are entitled to employment-related benefits that independent contractors would otherwise not receive), has experienced widespread backlash. Critics argue it’s made it harder for freelancers and gig workers to find jobs, and the economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has made it a potential landmine for Smith — it’s one of Garcia’s main talking points. It’s not Smith’s only controversy either; she’s also received blowback after a video leaked in which she appeared to mock the Garcia campaign’s focus on highlighting his military service.

The special election will also be a testing ground for conducting an election during a pandemic. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring counties to mail every voter a ballot, though that doesn’t mean everyone will vote by mail. The district has a limited number of in-person voting sites, and the late addition of one in the city of Lancaster — a move supported by the city’s Republican mayor — prompted Trump to tweet that the election is being “rigged” by Democrats. But Garcia and Smith haven’t been able to rely on traditional get-out-the-vote techniques as they fight for every vote in the final days of the campaign. Instead, they’ve had to mount campaigns built more on videoconferencing, virtual town halls and phone banking than typical door-knocking.

And as always, who votes will matter. About 118,000 ballots had been returned as of May 11, according to Political Data, Inc, and at first blush, they bode well for Garcia — registered Republicans have cast 44.5 percent of them versus 35.6 percent by Democrats, plus 20.0 percent by independents or other parties. But these figures aren’t all that different from the ballots that had been returned the day before the March 3 contest, when registered Republicans had cast 45.0 percent of ballots compared to 36.6 percent by Democrats, plus 18.4 percent by others. Yet in the first round of voting, the Democratic candidates combined to win 51 percent of the vote, while Republicans won 49 percent. (It’s worth noting, though, that about twice as many voters have returned mail ballots for this election than just before the March 3 contest, as most votes will be cast by mail because of the pandemic.) In other words, party registration data at this point doesn’t tell the whole story because younger and minority voters are more likely to cast late-arriving ballots and they’re more likely to vote Democratic. In California, ballots must be postmarked on or by Election Day, but they can be received up to three days after.

There’s a lot at stake in the California 25th — and as is often the case with California, it could be a few days before we know the outcome.

Wisconsin 7th

Halfway across the country, Wisconsin is holding another election just five weeks after drawing widespread criticism for not canceling its presidential primary amid the pandemic. After the many mishaps of that election, Gov. Tony Evers reportedly considered postponing the 7th District special, but never pulled the trigger — perhaps fearing that a court would overturn his decision yet again.

So just like last month, polling places will be open in Wisconsin on Tuesday, and just like last month, some poll workers are begging out of working the election and the National Guard is being called in to help. It’s unclear, however, how many headaches will ensue. There have been no widespread reports of polling-place closures, and the ruralness of the district minimizes the potential for long lines. (In April, the longest lines were reported in urban areas like Milwaukee and Green Bay, which are not voting on Tuesday; the biggest city in the 7th District is Wausau, population less than 40,000.) Indeed, the Wisconsin Elections Commission insists that the state is better prepared for May’s election than it was for April’s, because there have been no legal challenges pushing to change the rules of the election and officials now have experience running an election mid-pandemic.

However, just like last month, many more Wisconsinites than normal are opting to vote by mail. As of Monday morning, local officials had reported receiving 112,892 absentee-ballot applications, a comparable number to the April election. Indeed, in the 21 counties wholly contained within the 7th District, 103,402 ballots had been requested for the special election compared with 101,846 for the April primary. Last month, this volume of absentee-ballot requests overwhelmed election offices and led to many people not getting mailed their ballot in time to vote.

However they vote, residents of the Wisconsin 7th will elect either Republican state Sen. Tom Tiffany or Democrat Tricia Zunker, the president of the Wausau School Board, to be their next member of Congress. This northwestern Wisconsin district was once a hotbed of Democratic populism, represented by progressive former Rep. Dave Obey for 42 years and voting for Barack Obama by 8 points in 2008.1 But a huge bloc of non-Hispanic white residents without bachelor’s degrees — 72 percent of the population age 25 or older — has turned the 7th District into Republican turf. Former Rep. Sean Duffy, whose resignation for family reasons in September triggered this special election, flipped the seat red in 2010, and Romney won here by a narrow margin in 2012. But Trump put an exclamation point on the district’s realignment when he carried it by more than 20 points in 2016.

Zunker can hope that the district’s ancestral Democratic tradition means there are latent Democratic votes for her to activate. But even the strongest liberal candidates have failed to carry the Wisconsin 7th in recent years. According to Daily Kos Elections, Sen. Tammy Baldwin lost it by 5 points in 2018, and according to J. Miles Coleman of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Jill Karofsky lost it by 6 points last month.

In addition, as of April 22, Tiffany had outspent Zunker $1.1 million to $328,000. So even though there have been no public polls of the race, the GOP is the clear favorite on Tuesday, with election handicappers rating it “Solid Republican.”

Still, pay attention to the final margin, both here and in California. When a party consistently overperforms its usual partisan baseline in special elections, it bodes well for that party in the general election as well. So even a narrow loss by Zunker, if paired with a comfortable Smith win, would add to the evidence that another Democratic wave is building.

[detectiveeducation]

Police officer among 4 dead in Wausau-area shootings – WBAY

WBAY

Police officer among 4 dead in Wausau-area shootings WBAY Our Gray TV sister station WSAW reports an ambulance went by after police said they were trying to engage the suspect. Shortly after the first shooting, nearby Aspirus Wausau Hospital and the D.C. Everest School District went into lockdown mode … and more »

Click here to read the complete article…

The read more news like – Police officer among 4 dead in Wausau-area shootings – WBAY, visit Detective.Education

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