Wisconsin influential talk radio hosts could have a say in the state's Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.
Long before Scott Walker's
ascension to the governorship and road to national notoriety, he was a
familiar face on the Sunday morning TV shows of Wisconsin's two most
powerful radio hosts, Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes.
Belling, who continues to host the No. 1 rated late-afternoon drive program on Milwaukee's WISN-AM and occasionally fills in for Rush Limbaugh, and Sykes, who for more than two decades has dominated political talk during the morning rush hour on WTMJ-AM, made no secret about their affection for the ambitious Walker, then just a lowly assemblyman.
The duo provided him with prominent, consistent platforms on dueling media for his run for Milwaukee County executive and eventually his successful 2010 campaign for governor.
A December 2006 email exchange between Walker and Sykes captured the coziness. Ahead of the holidays that year, Walker wrote Sykes to let him know he stopped by the station in the morning and "dropped off some our frosted pecans for the holidays."
"Many thanks for the Christmas treats," Sykes replied, "they were delicious!!!!!!!"
During his primary for governor in 2010, Walker called into Belling's show so often, he was granted access to an emergency phone line, according to The New Republic.
While Walker lost many of the outstate counties that year to his chief GOP opponent, former Rep. Mark Neumann, he rolled up large margins in southeast Wisconsin, which encompass much of the Milwaukee suburbs where Belling and Sykes broadcast.
"If you look at that map," Sykes recalled to TNR, "you see talk-radio land."
Campaign hands who have worked the Badger State learn quickly about the power of conservative talk radio in Wisconsin. They say it is unparalleled anywhere else in America – a force to be courted and never underestimated on the Republican side.
One manager, who helmed an unsuccessful GOP campaign there, grumbles, "I still have PTSD over them."
The unique dynamic – where a handful of trusted, familiar voices reverberate through car stereos and computer speakers on a daily basis – explains the problem Donald Trump is confronting ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary there.
The talkers – led by Belling and Sykes – don't like Trump. They've been pummeling him relentlessly on the air for months now, even promoting the #NeverTrump movement designed to oppose the Republican front-runner at any and all costs
"We have an environment where every one of the major hosts has been very anti-Trump," says Sykes. "I've been pounding him since last summer. I said I had Trump derangement syndrome in the fall."
This week, they put him through a merciless grilling on their programs,
which generated considerable national media attention, especially since
Trump admitted to being unwittingly unaware of their vehement
resistance to him.
For much of their 17-minute conversation Tuesday, Sykes soberly chided Trump for his general temperament, for his stubborn refusal to apologize for insults and for acting like an unruly child on a playground.
Jerry Bader, a Green Bay radio host, began his interview by delving directly into some of Trump's ripest controversies – from retweeting an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz to repeatedly attacking Fox News' Megyn Kelly.
Vicki McKenna, a conservative host of a midday talk show on WISN-AM, lectured Trump that Hillary Clinton was beating him in polls there and nationally. She also told him his divisive nature was antithetical to the unity among the array of conservative groups in Wisconsin.
"It's a different state, sir, then you might be used to," she said.
After a combative 25-minute back-and-forth with McKenna, Trump hung up.
"I mean, that was fun," she quipped.
Kellyanne Conway, the GOP pollster who is heading a super PAC for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said the string of bumpy talk radio appearances underscored Trump's lack of preparation.
"He's hitting a buzz saw now," Conway said of Trump during Sykes' stinging inquisition. "Charlie was just so calm, so surgical."
In almost any other scenario, the normally Teflon-coated Trump might be able to shrug off the collective adverse appraisal of such media figures – which ranges from hardened skepticism to outright hostility – but GOP operatives think he may have finally met his match in Wisconsin talk radio.
"They have tremendous influence, not only in primaries but on issues as well. Their endorsements are literally the most meaningful ones you can get in a Republican primary," says Stephan Thompson, a top political aide to Walker. "It's different when it's local and you¹ve got guys talking about your local school board races and issues. [Voters] trust them at a level you can't replicate."
The manager with experience in the state says flatly, "Trump would win Wisconsin absent talk radio."
Brian Sikma, who has taken leave from a conservative media tracking group in Wisconsin to volunteer for Cruz, said he noticed the anti-Trump media movement gain particular buoyancy after Trump's first primary win in New Hampshire.
The result was that daily listeners – totaling around 500,000 in the Milwaukee area alone – could hear arguments hurled against Trump from dawn until dusk.
"All of them, without any coordination, were just very very skeptical of Donald Trump," Sikma says. "What the talk radio sphere did was make it OK to challenge Donald Trump. We don't have to agree with his ideas just because he's running as a Republican."
Cruz seized on the sentiment coursing through the state, by kicking off his campaign on Sykes' program the day after the Arizona and Utah primaries and quickly opening 10 field offices – a total that exceeds the amount Mitt Romney had in the 2012 primary. Ironically, Cruz backers see their path to victory running very close to Romney's – dependent on strong margins in southeast Wisconsin – to counter Trump's expected advantage in rural areas outstate.
Meanwhile, Trump lists just two campaign offices on his website and Simka says even Ohio Gov. John Kasich has a superior organization to Trump, "which is saying something."
Trump's point man in the state, Van Mobley, the president of the board of trustees in Thiensville, Wisconsin, did not return several messages for an interview.
A Marquette University poll released Wednesday found Cruz with a 10-point lead over Trump.
But Sykes professed confidence in a Trump defeat even before the respected survey's release.
He told Bloomberg with 80 percent certainty, Cruz would win.
But after parsing the Marquette data, he was heartened to see that the Texan's strength comes from, as he puts it, "talk radio-land."
"Cruz is not a natural fit for Wisconsin," Sykes says. "But check it out by market. Look at southeast Wisconsin. They are blowout numbers." source:usnews
Belling, who continues to host the No. 1 rated late-afternoon drive program on Milwaukee's WISN-AM and occasionally fills in for Rush Limbaugh, and Sykes, who for more than two decades has dominated political talk during the morning rush hour on WTMJ-AM, made no secret about their affection for the ambitious Walker, then just a lowly assemblyman.
The duo provided him with prominent, consistent platforms on dueling media for his run for Milwaukee County executive and eventually his successful 2010 campaign for governor.
A December 2006 email exchange between Walker and Sykes captured the coziness. Ahead of the holidays that year, Walker wrote Sykes to let him know he stopped by the station in the morning and "dropped off some our frosted pecans for the holidays."
"Many thanks for the Christmas treats," Sykes replied, "they were delicious!!!!!!!"
During his primary for governor in 2010, Walker called into Belling's show so often, he was granted access to an emergency phone line, according to The New Republic.
While Walker lost many of the outstate counties that year to his chief GOP opponent, former Rep. Mark Neumann, he rolled up large margins in southeast Wisconsin, which encompass much of the Milwaukee suburbs where Belling and Sykes broadcast.
"If you look at that map," Sykes recalled to TNR, "you see talk-radio land."
Campaign hands who have worked the Badger State learn quickly about the power of conservative talk radio in Wisconsin. They say it is unparalleled anywhere else in America – a force to be courted and never underestimated on the Republican side.
One manager, who helmed an unsuccessful GOP campaign there, grumbles, "I still have PTSD over them."
The unique dynamic – where a handful of trusted, familiar voices reverberate through car stereos and computer speakers on a daily basis – explains the problem Donald Trump is confronting ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary there.
The talkers – led by Belling and Sykes – don't like Trump. They've been pummeling him relentlessly on the air for months now, even promoting the #NeverTrump movement designed to oppose the Republican front-runner at any and all costs
"We have an environment where every one of the major hosts has been very anti-Trump," says Sykes. "I've been pounding him since last summer. I said I had Trump derangement syndrome in the fall."
Charlie Sykes
For much of their 17-minute conversation Tuesday, Sykes soberly chided Trump for his general temperament, for his stubborn refusal to apologize for insults and for acting like an unruly child on a playground.
Jerry Bader, a Green Bay radio host, began his interview by delving directly into some of Trump's ripest controversies – from retweeting an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz to repeatedly attacking Fox News' Megyn Kelly.
Vicki McKenna, a conservative host of a midday talk show on WISN-AM, lectured Trump that Hillary Clinton was beating him in polls there and nationally. She also told him his divisive nature was antithetical to the unity among the array of conservative groups in Wisconsin.
"It's a different state, sir, then you might be used to," she said.
After a combative 25-minute back-and-forth with McKenna, Trump hung up.
"I mean, that was fun," she quipped.
Kellyanne Conway, the GOP pollster who is heading a super PAC for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said the string of bumpy talk radio appearances underscored Trump's lack of preparation.
"He's hitting a buzz saw now," Conway said of Trump during Sykes' stinging inquisition. "Charlie was just so calm, so surgical."
In almost any other scenario, the normally Teflon-coated Trump might be able to shrug off the collective adverse appraisal of such media figures – which ranges from hardened skepticism to outright hostility – but GOP operatives think he may have finally met his match in Wisconsin talk radio.
"They have tremendous influence, not only in primaries but on issues as well. Their endorsements are literally the most meaningful ones you can get in a Republican primary," says Stephan Thompson, a top political aide to Walker. "It's different when it's local and you¹ve got guys talking about your local school board races and issues. [Voters] trust them at a level you can't replicate."
The manager with experience in the state says flatly, "Trump would win Wisconsin absent talk radio."
Brian Sikma, who has taken leave from a conservative media tracking group in Wisconsin to volunteer for Cruz, said he noticed the anti-Trump media movement gain particular buoyancy after Trump's first primary win in New Hampshire.
The result was that daily listeners – totaling around 500,000 in the Milwaukee area alone – could hear arguments hurled against Trump from dawn until dusk.
"All of them, without any coordination, were just very very skeptical of Donald Trump," Sikma says. "What the talk radio sphere did was make it OK to challenge Donald Trump. We don't have to agree with his ideas just because he's running as a Republican."
Cruz seized on the sentiment coursing through the state, by kicking off his campaign on Sykes' program the day after the Arizona and Utah primaries and quickly opening 10 field offices – a total that exceeds the amount Mitt Romney had in the 2012 primary. Ironically, Cruz backers see their path to victory running very close to Romney's – dependent on strong margins in southeast Wisconsin – to counter Trump's expected advantage in rural areas outstate.
Meanwhile, Trump lists just two campaign offices on his website and Simka says even Ohio Gov. John Kasich has a superior organization to Trump, "which is saying something."
Trump's point man in the state, Van Mobley, the president of the board of trustees in Thiensville, Wisconsin, did not return several messages for an interview.
A Marquette University poll released Wednesday found Cruz with a 10-point lead over Trump.
But Sykes professed confidence in a Trump defeat even before the respected survey's release.
He told Bloomberg with 80 percent certainty, Cruz would win.
But after parsing the Marquette data, he was heartened to see that the Texan's strength comes from, as he puts it, "talk radio-land."
"Cruz is not a natural fit for Wisconsin," Sykes says. "But check it out by market. Look at southeast Wisconsin. They are blowout numbers." source:usnews
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