As part of the Wisconsin Main Street Agenda project, this fall the La Follette School co-hosted four public forums throughout the state to discuss the issues that were most important to voters leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. Each event featured a panel of La Follette faculty who shared their research expertise and a panel of community members who discussed the issues that most concern them—ranging from health and climate to inflation, the economy, and financial security. A survey of Wisconsinites, which received 2,323 responses from citizens throughout the state, informed the focus of each town hall.
In addition to the town hall meetings, La Follette School students and faculty had the opportunity to discuss policy issues through visits from Congressman Jamie Raskin, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, election forecaster Nate Silver, and longtime NBC Justice correspondent Pete Williams.
Jim Fitzhenry, an executive editor with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, moderates a citizen panel on Sept. 21 at the Milwaukee Public Library Central Branch. Photo by Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.At the October 6 town hall at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee, La Follette faculty members Susan Webb Yackee, Mark Copelovitch, and Ross Milton share their take on issues impacting inflation. Photo by Lauren Weitkamp.Wisconsin voters Kathryn Doering, Heidi Hallett, Carole Henning, Pierre Payne and Paul Stretcher participate in a citizens’ panel to discuss policy issues that matter most to them at the Pewaukee town hall. Photo by Quinn Clark / NOW News Group.David Haynes, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Ideas Lab, addresses a faculty panel comprised of La Follette faculty members Manny Teodoro, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, and Morgan Edwards at the Green Bay town hall on October 11. Photo by Samantha Madar / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.A citizen panel discusses the issues they are most worried about at a town hall in Wausau on November 1. Photo by Brittney Mitchell.La Follette students had the chance to meet with Congressman Jamie Raskin as part of the Cap Times Idea Fest. Photo by Lisa Ellinger.While U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield was in Madison for a distinguished alumni event, she made time to meet with a small group of current students from both the La Follette School and the Political Science Department to share how her time in Madison helped shape her 35-year diplomatic career. Photo courtesy of the office of Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.On October 26, the La Follette School’s fall 2022 Public Affairs Journalist in Residence, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, shared his experiences and insights around election forecasting and politics through a class visit, a conversation with local journalists, and a public talk. Here, Silver addresses students from Tim Smeeding’s public policy issues class and Jim Doyle’s politics of state issues class. Photo by Althea Dotzour.Nate Silver addresses a packed house during his public presentation at Shannon Hall. To see more photos of Nate Silver’s visit, check out this photo journal. Photo by Clint Thayer.On December 8, 2022, longtime (and recently retired) NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams visited La Follette School lecturer Eric Bolland’s PA 240: Evidence-Based Policy Making class. Photo by Breanna Schmitt.Students listen during Pete Williams’ classroom visit. Williams spent a week in Madison sharing a career’s worth of wisdom in early December as the Center for Journalism Ethics Journalist in Residence. Photo by Breanna Schmitt.
