Bruce Johnson
Citizens protest Gov. Scott Walker's invite-only listening sessions at an event June 20 in Pepin.
When Madison resident Frieda Schowalter heard that Gov. Scott Walker was holding “listening sessions” to connect with constituents across the state, she felt a glimmer of hope about Wisconsin’s top elected official.
“I got kind of excited about the idea of Walker going around the state and listening to people’s concerns,” says Schowalter, 59, who describes herself as a “politically engaged” citizen and typically disagrees with the governor. “It didn’t really sound like Walker, but I thought it sounded like a really great thing to do.”
Walker announced the listening session campaign, called the 2020 Vision Project, at his Jan. 20 State of the State address (although, the sessions had started the month before). "The idea is to bring together a diverse mix of people in small group settings all across the state,” Walker said in his speech. “I want to hear from you about what makes Wisconsin great, where we want our state to be in the next two decades and how we should measure success." A July 11 event in Cornell marked the 50th listening session in the campaign. The events, which are billed as “candid discussions about the issues facing their communities and the state,” have been attended by more than 1,500 people so far, according to the governor’s office.
Schowalter called the Capitol to find out more about the sessions and learned that they are invitation-only, closed to members of the press and not publicly announced ahead of time. According to the governor’s office, the policy is designed “to encourage an honest and candid conversation between attendees.” Walker regularly meets with local reporters for interviews after the listening sessions conclude.
Schowalter says she spoke with Matthew Van Asten, a legislative liaison for the governor’s office who is in charge of organizing the sessions, about the possibility of getting an invite. He told her that the Dane County listening session had already happened, but he was open to putting her on the list for a future event somewhere else in the state, Schowalter says. Van Asten listed a few upcoming events for Schowalter’s consideration, and she settled on the July 11 event in Cornell, which is near Eau Claire.
Schowalter, pleased with the seemingly helpful interaction, waited eagerly for Van Asten to follow up with a confirmation email, as she says he promised to do. It never came. She called back to see if there was a problem, but Van Asten suddenly wasn’t available. As the date of the listening session grew closer, she called more frequently -- she needed to plan her trip. Still no luck, she says.
“Finally, I get really frustrated,” she says. “Then I’m getting a little suspicious.”
Just days before the listening session, Schowalter says she finally got ahold of Van Asten, who told her there was a misunderstanding -- he hadn’t actually invited her.
“No, there was no misunderstanding,” Schowalter recalls saying. “You invited me, and now you’re lying to me.”
Van Asten did not respond to an Isthmus request for comment. A Walker spokeswoman provided a link to a promotional video showing feedback from citizens who attended listening sessions and declined to comment further.
Schowalter believes that her past record of political activism raised a red flag within the governor’s office, which pre-screens prospective listening session attendees “to ensure that there are no threatening criminal backgrounds and to avoid people whose intent is to be disruptive,” according to a release. Schowalter signed the petition to recall Walker, was arrested at the Capitol in the 2013 crackdown on the Solidarity Sing Along, and frequently calls the governor’s office to voice her opinion on political issues.
“I think what happened is [Van Asten] said, ‘Yes, you can come,’ then he hung up the phone and looked at my resume [and decided otherwise,]” she says.
Schowalter admits she was angry when she hung up the phone with Van Asten. But the saga doesn’t stop there. Shortly after they spoke, she says she got another phone call from the Capitol. This time, it was the Capitol Police.
“[The officer] was told I was a threat and that I needed to be investigated,” Schowalter says.
Schowalter is disappointed that her efforts to engage with a public official were unsuccessful -- and outraged that they ended with a referral to law enforcement. She says the ordeal has reaffirmed her belief that “democracy under Walker is a sham.”
“It wouldn’t make me so mad, except that he calls them listening sessions,” she says. “It’s astoundingly hypocritical.”
Democrats have roundly criticized Walker for his invitation-only sessions, saying the practice excludes citizens and stacks the forums with Republican supporters. Walker has said that before every listening session, his office is in contact with area state legislators, “no matter what party they represent … to help us reach out and invite a good cross-section of people with different experiences and opinions.”
Walker’s listening session tour has heavily favored conservative territory so far, with 32 of the 51 events held since December occurring in Republican-controlled districts, according to an Isthmus tally. Ten have been held in Democrat-controlled districts, and there have been nine in districts with bipartisan representation.
In January, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report found that the invite lists “showed a mix of veterans, farmers, local officials, pastors and business owners, with some Walker donors among them and a few people who had signed the petition to recall the governor.” A more recent Cap Times report found that among the attendees for 21 listening sessions from December through March, about 32% have made political donations. Of those donations, more than 80% have been for Republican candidates and causes.
Walker has recently blamed negative media coverage for his low approval ratings, saying that in the listening sessions, he hears “good things” from those who attend.
Many, including Schowalter, aren’t buying it.
“It’s like saying, ‘Everybody at my birthday party likes me, because I invited people who like me,’” Schowalter says. “Citizens are not stupid.”
Linda Kleinschmidt, and aide for Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) says the governor’s office did reach out and request a list of names to be considered for an invitation to a Pepin session. But since approval was not guaranteed and the invitation would come from the governor’s office instead of Vinehout’s office, the legislator was troubled by the process, Kleinschmidt says.
“[Vinehout] just felt uncomfortable creating a list and talking to [constituents] about whether or not they wanted to go, [only to have] those folks not be invited,” Kleinschmidt says. “It creates an expectation. Then you just feel bad.”
Adds Kleinschmidt: “I’ve been working in this business for a long time, and I don’t remember any kind of listening session with that kind of invitation process.”
About 40 people showed up to the listening session in Pepin on June 20 hoping to attend, but they were barred from entering the meeting hall by local police and Walker’s security, according to a statement from Bruce Johnson, a Pepin resident. Johnson organized a protest outside after the citizens were denied entrance.
“We didn’t prevent any of the invited guests from being heard, but we thought that if the governor was coming all the way from Madison on the taxpayer’s dime, he should listen to more than a hand-picked set of local citizens,” Johnson wrote in the statement.
Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) also declined to provide a list of names prior to listening sessions in La Crosse and Vernon Counties, instead urging Walker to make the events open to the public.
Rep. Chris Danou (D-Trempealeau) actually did submit a list of names, but everyone he wanted to invite ended up being out of town or busy on the date of the listening session. Danou is also critical of the invite-only policy, but after talking it over with his staff, decided to go himself. He wasn’t surprised to see that the crowd skewed heavily Republican, but he did notice something interesting.
“The key issues people brought up were clean water and environmental concerns, support for rural schools, and concern about rural infrastructure,” he says. “These are issues that the governor is not very good on. The crowd was invited because they like the governor, but I wanted to say, ‘I think some of you are in the wrong party.’”
Adds Danou: “Even in front of an invited group of people, in rural Wisconsin these are the issues people care about. Maybe we’re not as divided as we think.”
