Citizen Action Weekly: Friday, April 9th
Friday, April 9th
Jill Underly and 21 of 32 Citizen Action endorsed local candidates win this week!
Thank you to all the Citizen Action Organizing Co-op members who ran for office or helped endorsed local candidates running for office this Spring. Jill Underly’s victory was a huge win for public education in Wisconsin. We also excited about new progressive mayors in La Crosse (Mitch Reynolds) and Sheboygan (Ryan Sorenson).
Big congratulations goes out to newly elected Citizen Action Organizing Co-op members, Emily Siegrist (Brown Deer Trustee) and Rebecca Schwartz (LaCrosse City Council).
We are already planing for 2022! There will be critical elections next year at the federal, state and local level. If you are considering running for office please contact [email protected]
Join Us in Amplifying our Demands to Expand BadgerCare!
While we might have concluded our Health Care Week of Action, BadgerCare expansion is still on the line! Thousands of people across Wisconsin are left to purchase low quality plans that come with high deductibles and high co-pays so that many can’t afford to go to the doctor. For years, there have been resources to connect people with coverage through the marketplace — knowing about them or how to enroll isn’t the barrier, being able to afford a plan and use it, to see a doctor, get treatment, and heal from injury, is the problem.
We were joined this week by Senator Tammy Baldwin, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Representative Jodi Emerson and Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes to discuss the large impact a BadgerCare expansion would have on nearly 90,000 Wisconsinites!
Together, we can expand BadgerCare and bring American Rescue Act funds into Wisconsin.
Both press conferences are available for streaming on Facebook.
Are You Ready? Climate Week of Action is launching on Monday, April 19th!
Living through the overlapping crises of climate, social injustice, economic unfairness, and the COVID-19 pandemic shows us that we need each other. When we act together, we make a difference. When we go it alone, we fail. That’s why we need YOU to help us bridge across our differences rather than making them deeper.
We have your Earth Day plans covered, register now to attend our virtual town hall on Climate Equity streaming on April 22nd!
Sign up to be a part of our Climate Week of Action, we are working on lobby days, virtual, and outdoor events – keep your eyes peeled for more details next week!
Tell Wisconsin’s elected leaders that you support legalized cannabis in Wisconsin
Whether we are white or Black, Hmong or Latino, rural or urban we all want the same things for our families. We want to thrive economically. We want to support small, family owned farms. We want a more fair criminal justice system. We want safer options for pain management without the need for opioids. All of these things could be realized when our state legalizes cannabis.
Unfortunately certain politicians in Madison are blocking positive change. They are preventing Wisconsin from keeping up with our neighboring states. Wisconsin has shown, through both polling and local resolutions, that it supports cannabis reform. Legalization is an issue that has broad support across party lines in both rural and urban communities.
It is not often a state has the chance to reform laws that disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities across the state. Its not often a single piece of legislation can create hundreds of small businesses and thousands of family supporting jobs. It is not often that a state can directly lend a hand to struggling small farms and give them a new way to thrive. Every state that borders Wisconsin has legalized cannabis in some form. Wisconsin is being left behind.
In his 2021-2022 state budget Governor Tony Evers proposed legalization of both medical and recreational cannabis. It is time for ALL OF US TO MAKE OUR VOICE HEARD and let our elected leaders know that we support this plan. Please use this form to send an email to your elected leaders and tell them you support marijuana legalization in Wisconsin. Please feel free to customize this message and SHARE THIS PAGE far and wide!
Help Defend Democracy!
Our voting rights are facing an unprecedented assault from the Republican legislature. Help us fight back! Join the Citizen Action Southeast Organizing Co-op’s new Election Defense Team. We plan to organize a variety of actions that will protect and empower voters in Southeast Wisconsin. We’ll start by getting out the vote in 2022 for our endorsed candidates and recruiting poll workers for the City of Milwaukee, and we’ll expand our scope as we grow. Future actions could include gerrymandering, ranked choice voting, automatic voter registration and more.
So join the new Election Defense Team and help us defend democracy!
Click here to receive updates! or Contact Barbara, SEWI Co-Op Organizer, [email protected], if you have questions.
Celebrate Earth Month by competing in an Eco Challenge
April is Earth Month and it is time for each of us to take action to protect our planet! You can start by joining the Citizen Action of Wisconsin Driftless Organizing Co-op Eco Challenge team!
An Eco Challenge is a fun way to earn points while you take action to fight climate change. Some actions are personal like recycling, offsetting your carbon footprint or installing LED light bulbs. Some actions improve your community such as promoting mass transit or supporting community gardens. Some involve taking action directed at our elected leaders. You earn points with every action you take. You also learn about the impact small actions can have!
By joining our co-op Eco Challenge team you can compete with other teams or other team members. You can see what actions everyone on the team is taking. Signing up is quick and easy. After the month is over you will have made a difference and hopefully added new habits to our daily routine that will help fight climate change!
Click here to learn more our join our team!
If you live in Senate District 32 you can sign up for a lobby visit to promote Badgercare Expansion
Citizen Action of Wisconsin Driftless Organizing Co-op members will be meeting, virtually, with State Senator Brad Pfaff on April 15th at 3:00 PM to discuss the need to expand BadgerCare, control prescription drug costs and fund caregivers across the state.
We are looking for passionate activists from State Senate District 32 to come and tell their personal story or just join the call to show support.
You can sign up to join this visit here.
Your local organizer will follow up with you with more details and get you ready for the meeting.
Conservation and agriculture Round Table with State Senator Pfaff and Rep Billings
Sign up today for a virtual round table with State Senator Brad Pfaff and State Representative Jill Billings about conservation and agriculture related to the proposed state budget. It is so important that we address ALL aspects of the climate crisis, including agriculture issues.
WHO: DATCP Sec. Randy Romanski, Sen. Brad Pfaff, and Rep. Jill Billings
WHAT: Virtual Agriculture and Conservation Round Table
WHERE: Virtual, via Zoom
WHEN: Monday, April 12th, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Tell Your Legislators To Support BadgerCare Expansion!
Even before the pandemic, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites struggled to afford health insurance, were forced to buy very low quality coverage, or went uninsured because they were forced to choose between health care and other essentials like housing and food. The pandemic has only made it worse. Many people in our community who lost their jobs or had their income affected by the pandemic also lost their health insurance.
That’s why BadgerCare Expansion is now more important than ever. We have an opportunity to help our neighbors live healthy lives, no matter where they live, what they look like, or what’s in their wallets.
You can use the link below to send an email to your State Senator and State Representative in support of the BadgerCare Expansion. You may use our template email, or customize it with your own story.
Thank you for taking the time to contact your legislators about this critical issue.
Citizen Action in the News
Citizen Action’s Robert Kraig talked on the Jeff Santos show about the George Floyd Murder Trial and the moderate block on bold legislation in the U.S. Senate. Listen here.
Citizen Action’s building African American led organizing co-op, got press this week on the resumption of utility cut-offs. Over 93,000 Wisconsinites who fell behind on the utility bills during the pandemic face cut-offs starting April 15. Read here.
News coverage of Citizen Action’s press conference with Senator Tammy Baldwin, State Representative Jodi Emerson, and members Dr. Mark Neumann and Kim Larson went out across the state this week. You can watch two news clips here and here. You can also read about it from WisPolitics here.
“Public schools win in a landslide” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
We review the huge victory for public education in the Department of Public Instruction race, and the immediate threat by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to take it out on our schools. We discuss the shockingly successful GOP effort to take down progressive school board members who follow the science and our educators by only supporting the safe reopening of schools. Is this a new Republican wedge issue for moderate voters they will use in 2022 in state and federal races? Claire educates us on the Biden Administration’s decision to permanently end health-care denying work requirements to receive Medicaid. We talk about the COVID variants taking off with big spikes in 5 states (and counting), and the GOP use of the fraudulent vaccine passports issues to increase vaccine hesitancy, threatening to further delay heard immunity. Robert discusses Trump’s outrageous scamming of his own supporters, and its copycats in the Republican Party. We close by welcoming Hannah Faris from In These Times magazine to talk about the launch of a new rural focused reporting project called, “the Wisconsin Idea.” The project is a collaboration with People’s Action and Citizen Action of Wisconsin.
Listen Now More information on In These Times “Wisconsin Idea” project with Citizen Action and People’s Action.
Register to attend Gov. Evers Listening Session on the Budget: Justice Reform & Marijuana Legalization, April 14th, 6pm
Facebook post of the week
