The Political Beat
V.P. Pence Area Visit
It’s been fun to serve as the go-to political reporter in recent years. No year was any bigger for me than 2018, as the Badger State served as a focal point for national politics.
It was not lost on then-Vice President Mike Pence, who visited the area for a GOP fundraising address, just ahead of the midterm election that November.
Evers Wins Primary
The battle for governor was one of the two key races in Wisconsin for the 2018 election cycle. Tony Evers won the August Democratic primary and held a victory celebration to thank his supporters.
We reported live that night in Madison for our 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, then caught up with the winner for a few brief questions. This was our wrap of that interview, produced for our morning show.
The Voters Voice
The 2016 race for president brought so many opinions and emotions into the campaign. It offered us, however, a chance to cut through the stump-speech rhetoric and hear what voters really thought.
Three weeks before the election, we sat down with a group of voters - two voting for Donald Trump, two voting for Hillary Clinton, and one undecided - and asked them to gauge the race for the White House.
Click below watch the full voter forum.
Campaign Finance: Pt. 1
Raising money for a political campaign isn’t easy. We brought that notion to a head one night in 2018, when I spotlighted the money going into the Democratic primary race for governor. We talked three of the top four fund-raisers - including the then-front-runner and eventual winner in the November general election.
Campaign Finance: Pt. 2
It’s one thing to raise money for the major races, like president, Congress, or even governor. For the more-local races, it’s on the candidate to bring in the money.
We examined the money situation for one state assembly race, and tracked one candidate’s stumping for campaign cash.
Inside The Polling Data
During the 2018 primary campaigns, we started seeing some diverse polling numbers from the in-state Marquette Law School poll and the NBC News/Marist poll.
So, we asked polling experts for NBC, the Marquette poll, our station’s political analyst, and one candidate looking for favorable polling numbers to see what was behind the numbers.