This Week's Sneak Peek

I have an update for my recent caricature of local congressional candidate Mitchell Berman.

Contribution reports for the third quarter have Berman outraising Incumbent Congressman Bryan Steil; Berman's principal donors include labor unions and the Democratic Party, but the majority of contributions have been smaller donations from individuals.

The punditocracy is chattering about Democrats having a chance here this year, and Steil has taken notice. He has a new ad on TV in which a woman, who appears to be in her bathrobe in her kitchen, says she has hear that "radical activist Mitchell Berman went to a local school and confronted school officials. With children inside, he was escorted out. His actions put the school in lockdown."

She doesn't want Berman's antics at her children's school, or in Congress. A black-and-white photo of Berman takes over the screen, and a narrator pronounces him "too radical, too crazy."

Racine County Eye fills in the missing details of this story.

Long story short: Berman lives in Raymond, a rural township in Racine County. Moms for Liberty candidates won a majority on the Raymond School Board in 2021; the next year, they decided to fire Raymond School Principal Jeff Peterson for being gay.

That's not the official reason, of course. They just wanted to replace him with a principal who wasn't gay.

Peterson had grown up in Raymond; his mother had been in the Raymond Parent-Teacher Organization, his father had served on the school board, and his sister taught at the school. He had supporters in the community, and Berman was one of them.

In December of 2022, the Raymond School Board met at the home of one of its Moms for Liberty members, in violation of the state's open meetings law; they later claimed that it wasn't a "meeting" but a "retreat." On September 27, 2023, Berman went to the Raymond School to ask for the minutes of that meeting. He was eventually told that they couldn't find the minutes, and he was escorted out of the building.

Berman's behavior during his wait depends on which side of the Peterson business you're on. For some reason, someone decided to put the school on "soft lock-down," while Berman sat quietly scrolling through his phone. 

Superintendent Michael Garvey did not respond to direct questions from the Racine County Eye. Instead, he sent the statement the school issued reiterating there was no threat to students, just a fear of disruptions.

There were panicked parents who came to take their children home due to the soft lockdown, so that "fear of disruptions" was a self-fulling prophecy.

And a conveniently scary campaign ad.