Two prominent Wisconsin politicians recently crossed paths here in the epicenter of the state debate over land stewardship and acquisitions.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor rallied the troops at Elderberry Manor on County M.
Jodi Habush Sinykin
A day later State Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, the leading Democratic spokesperson for environment and conservation, held a press conference at Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve to decry the “missed opportunity” in the aftermath of the June 30 death knell of the once bi-partisan Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
The Tiffany rally featured free picnic food, lots of red, white and blue signs and clothing. It was kicked off with a rah, rah introduction by Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, who withdrew from the governor’s race after Tiffany entered it.
The huge wedding barn and its patio accommodates 180 people and was nearly filled. That’s not surprising, given its location in two counties that have long been on the red side of the political aisle.
Washington County went 68% for Donald Trump in 2024 and Ozaukee was 54%, down from 58% in 2016. He carried Wisconsin, a purple state, by less than one percentage point.
Tom Tiffany
Tiffany asked for support from the rock-ribbed Republican Party members. He did not mention his strong allegiance to Trump and criticized two of the six Democratic governor candidates Francesca Hong for her socialism and former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes for his leftist positions.
Tiffany’s yard signs notably do not use the word “Republican.” He is in the MAGA wing of the GOP, having, for example, supported the decertification of the 2020 election that Trump lost and being one of the 14 congressmen members to vote against making “Juneteenth” a federal holiday. Trump has endorsed Tiffany.
Duey Stroebel
Sinykin, a former environmental lawyer, was helped in winning her seat in 2024 by incumbent Sen. Duey Strobel’s failure to support outright the acquisition of 1300 feet of bluff and Lake Michigan shoreline south of Port Washington. He was vice chairman of the Joint Finance Committee that hung the project out to dry. The conservation community was incensed.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers came to the rescue with other funds.
It is now being developed into the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve, a beautiful book-end to the Lion’s Den get-away.
It was that fight over Clay Bluffs that turned the Knowles-Nelson funding, a bi-partisan state initiative for 35 years, into a partisan issue. It became a sad chapter in Wisconsin history.
The conservationists took the governance of stewardship funds by Joint Finance to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the liberal majority on the court came down against the heavy hand of JFC on DNR-approved projects.
The conservationists won that court fight, but lost the war. The renewal of funding for Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund was stripped from the state budget by the Republican majority.
In Sinykin’s view, the Republican leadership took umbrage with the court’s decision and made the issue “personal,” “petty” and refused to let a Democratic compromise bill go to the floor for a vote.
As a last ditch measure, Sinykin proposed a one-year Band-Aid to allow for a new approach. It, too, failed to reach the floor.
“We need more bi-partisan success,” she said in closing.
Is there a way forward? It depends heavily on the outcome of the Nov. general election. All six of the remaining Democratic candidates for governor support Stewardship in one way or another. David Crowley, Milwaukee County executive, would seek “ a more durable funding structure.”
Tiffany voted to extend stewardship funding while in the legislature, but with reservations. He wrote with Stroebel that said the program “in its current form has run its course.”
Tom Stolp, executive director of “Restoring Lands,” the former Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, said one suggestion was to create an excise tax on the new AI data centers in the state, instead of using bonds/debt.
The next opportunity for breathing new life into Knowles-Nelson, which is still in the statutes, is the state budget process that will get serious in the first six months of 2027.
Let’s be realistic: state and national Republicans have been chipping away at conservation and environmental protections for the last decade. They show no signs of change. President Trump has heavily favored extraction over conservation.
With at least three-quarters of Wisconsinites heavily in favor of conservation, GOP candidates oppose “green” legislation at their own risk.
Witness Sinykin’s defeat of Stroebel, largely over the stewardship issues.
