The Blueprint: RAGA has Schimel up 3 on Kahl
ALSO: Governor Walker Calls Himself Underdog in Reelection Bid • Final WBA Advocacy Agenda for 2019-2020 To Be Considered Next Week • Coming Soon: Online Giving to BBW-PAC & Survey on Member Involvement in Government • From NAHB: FAA Bill Includes Key Housing Affordability Provisions
Republican Attorney General Association Has Schimel up 3 on Kahl
This week, the Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA) announced that their internal polling had Attorney General Brad Schimel up nearly 6 points on Democrat Josh Kaul. RAGA released a polling memo on the race that contained these highlights:
Generic ballot has Independent voters closely divided, 31% to 29% - but on the name ballot
Schimel is +13 with Independents ii.
Schimel is -9 among female voters
Schimel is pulling 7% of the Dem vote
Schimel leads head to head with Kahl by 3 points among likely voters.
The RAGA backs up the most recent Marquette University Law School Poll which had Schimel up 7 points with likely voters. The Marquette University Law School Poll was released two weeks ago, and will likely be out one more time before Election Day.
In addition to good news on the polling front, it appears that Schimel is also is situated to be better funded to close out the election cycle over the next four plus weeks. According to a chart released by RAGA there is over $3.6 million dollars that has been reserved in ads focusing on the AG’s race with $2.008 million of that amount going to support Schimel or take down Kahl. The GOP spending advantage with time purchased for television ads translates to 54.5% of all funds being spent on the pro-GOP side for Schimel.
As you may remember Schimel was endorsed by the WBA Board of Directors during the July summer meeting.
Please consider contributing to the Schimel campaign online today using the Builders Direct Fund Conduit and a personal credit card by clicking here, filling out your name, address, and adding “Contribution to AG Schimel” in the “Special Instructions” box.
Governor Walker Calls Himself the Underdog in Reelection Bid Against Evers
On Sunday, Governor Walker appeared “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” a news television program produced in partnership with the online news service WisPolitics.com, and he stated that he believes he is now the underdog in his third re-election bid this fall against Democrat Tony Evers.
Walker also stated that if he won a third term in office this fall, it would be his last and he committed to serving out the full four-year term.
In what are very likely to be themes of paid advertising by the Walker campaign in the days and weeks to come, Walker also stated he needed a third term to “finish the job” and he also stated that Evers would raise taxes on gas, income, and property.
Walker’s claim that he is now the underdog in his race comes after the last Marquette School Law School poll had him down 5 points to Tony Evers, 49% to 44%.
If you were thinking of making a contribution to Governor Walker this fall, now is the time to make that contribution using the WBA’s conduit account, the Builders Direct Fund. You can make a contribution right now online using a personal credit card by clicking here, filling out your name, address, and adding “Contribution to Governor Walker” in the “Special Instructions” box.
Final WBA Advocacy Agenda for 2019-2020 To Be Considered Next Week
Way back in January 2018, WBA members from across the state began talking about additional public policy items that they would like to address during the 2019-2020 legislative session. A list was started during the Advocacy Group meeting in January, and that conversation also took place in April, July, and will be completed with a vote by the Board of Directors during the next meeting on Thursday, October 11.
For the third time this year, members can attend a WBA Member Meeting Day which consists of the Advocacy Group and Membership and Local Officers Group meetings in the morning and the WBA Board of Directors meeting in the afternoon. The meeting next week will also be held virtually, allowing you to attend online from your PC or smartphone (you can also attend in-person at the UW Pyle Center in Madison or at a participating local association).
Any member of record from across the state is welcome to attend our upcoming meetings in person or online. All members can attend and vote during the group meetings in the morning, but only designated board members can vote during the Board of Directors meeting in the afternoon. For more information on our upcoming Member Meeting Day and to register, click here.
To view the current 2019-2020 Advocacy Agenda draft, (along with the entire Member Meeting Day packet) click here and go to page 14.
Coming Soon: Online Giving to the BBW-PAC & Survey on Member Involvement in Government
Two important topics that were discussed and approved during the last WBA Advocacy meeting that will be rolled out within the next few weeks. First, we will soon be sending out a short survey to all WBA members asking then to let us know if they currently serve as a member of a local unit of government (city council, town planning commission, school board) of they are a member of a state council or commission (Uniform Dwelling Code Council, Tourism Commission).
This request was part of the WBA Strategic Plan and was assigned to the Advocacy Group to complete before the end of 2019. Once we are able to gather all of this information, we will post it to the WBA website and make updates each year. We feel this information will be very helpful to help promote or defeat local policy items and is also helpful if we are ever looking for members to run for offices such as state senate and state assembly.
The second request of the Advocacy Group was to develop a website that could take personal member contributions to the WBA political action committee, Building A Better Wisconsin. For a number of years, members have been able to make a donation to a candidate online using our Builders Direct Fund, but have not had a direct online portal to make a contribution to our PAC.
Very soon that will change, and you will receive an email with instructions on how to make a contribution to the Building A Better Wisconsin PAC. Anyone giving a contribution online to either the Builders Direct Fund or the Building A Better Wisconsin PAC will also be giving credit to your local association for credit towards your local HBA political fundraising goal for 2019.
From NAHB: FAA Bill Includes Key Housing Affordability Provisions
The House has passed a five-year Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill that contains a key provision championed by NAHB that will delay a major building and affordability barrier that would have started in the Pacific Northwest and quickly spread throughout the country.
NAHB also posted important wins on the codes side of the ledger that will boost housing affordability.
At issue is a 2016 biological opinion issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service that would have required the National Flood Insurance Program to take the Endangered Species Act into consideration when building and updating flood maps, among a number of other programmatic changes.
These requirements would have drastically limited the location and size of development, added red tape and dramatically increased costs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manages the development of the flood maps at the federal level, and any changes in the rules to creating and maintaining maps would affect the entire country, regardless of the location of the initial Fisheries Service ruling.
The intent of the flood insurance program was never to protect endangered species, but to ensure the safety of development in the floodplain. NAHB will continue to work with Congress, and the states that are in line to be immediately affected — Oregon, California and Florida — to ensure that new construction continues to be safe and affordable, and not unnecessarily burdened.
Moreover, at NAHB’s urging, the legislation assures that states will be able to receive funds from FEMA if they adopt either of the two latest editions of the relevant consensus-based codes, such as the 2018 or 2015 editions of the International Building Code or International Residential Code.
Some lawmakers had urged that funds be made available only if states adopted the most recent building consensus code. NAHB successfully argued that this criteria would be too restrictive and needlessly harm housing affordability. This provision on the two-code cycle has a five-year sunset.
In another important win, we also worked with lawmakers to preserve the ability of states to amend the latest building codes to address the specific needs of local communities. This will encourage, through voluntary incentives, the construction of resilient homes, infrastructure and communities.
The Senate is expected to pass the FAA reauthorization bill next week.
For more information, contact Jessica Hall at 800-368-5242 x8253 or Lake Coulson at x8510.