A walking bridge over West Ave., suing over driveway basketball and dumbing down referendum questions with UW-L’s Chergosky

UW-L political science professor, Dr. Anthony Chergosky, in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk for a wide-ranging conversation on everything from West Avenue traffic, dumbing down ballot referendums, suing your neighbor for driveway basketball and the early start of the 2026 Wisconsin governor’s race.

La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk wherever you get your podcasts.

We kicked things off with a local “issue” — the traffic congestion along West Avenue, particularly around UW-La Crosse. One suggestion making the rounds on “La Crosse Reddit” involves building a pedestrian bridge to ease delays caused by students. We also noted how this hyperlocal problem compares to the much bigger traffic issues in places like the Twin Cities.

From that small-town issue to first-world problems, where we hit on a bizarre lawsuit in Saint Louis Park, Minn., where a family is suing their neighbor because the kids next door play basketball — something she can see from her kitchen window. The situation escalated to the point where they attempted (unsuccessfully) to get a restraining order against the children.

Back on the political front, Chergosky discussed Washington County executive Josh Schoemann becoming the first to announce a run for Wisconsin governor — ahead of even incumbent Gov. Tony Evers or any other potential candidates — with the election more than a year and a half away in November 2026.

We also dove into the differences between campaigning for local versus statewide and national offices — including the contrast in visibility, voter engagement, and payoff when serving on city councils, school boards, or in the state Legislature and Congress.

Finally, we wrapped with a look at a new bill in Wisconsin aimed at simplifying ballot referendum language, as Republicans continue pushing Constitutional Amendments to bypass the Democratic governor’s veto power.