U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore isn’t ruling out endorsing in the Democratic primary for governor ahead of the Aug. 11 election.

“It’s not going to happen today here on your program,” Moore said on WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “I have been very committed to a team nominee, and I think, as I see, and a lot of people have stayed on the sidelines just to let the people speak up. But David (Crowley) has sort of changed that calculation, and so we’ll see what happens.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, one of five candidates remaining in the race.

“I think, although he’s endorsed Rodriguez, I think that being from Milwaukee County that a lot of his voters will go to Mandela Barnes despite his endorsement of Sara Rodriguez,” Moore said. “I think Sara will benefit from his doing that, and based on what he has said is that he is encouraging other candidates to drop out as well, to coalesce around the candidate that he has chosen. So I think it’s going to be a very energetic campaign.”

Moore said she now sees a “very competitive three-person race” between: Barnes, the former lieutenant governor and past U.S. Senate nominee; Rodriguez, the current lieutenant governor; and Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist lawmaker from Madison.

Moore said she’s not sure Hong would win with some of her messaging. Still, she said Republicans are going call the eventual Dem nominee a socialist no matter who it is.

“I don’t think we should be bullied by the use of socialism. No matter who our nominee is, they’re going to be called a socialist,” Moore said. 

Alson on the program, GOP state Rep. Robert Wittke says lawmakers are seeking answers from the Department of Health Services over a proposed change to IRIS, the state’s Medicaid-funded long-term care program.

“The only thing I can say is that they may have put the brakes on a little bit based on some of the outside things that they see with the lawsuits in New York,” Wittke told “UpFront.” “The biggest question that we have wanted to ascertain is why go to a single payer? There’s nothing in this document that we’ve received that tells us why.”

Wittke and State Sen. Eric Wimberger, co-chairs of the Legislative Audit Committee, sent a letter to DHS officials requesting documents and answers to a list of questions after the company initially selected to manage the program was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in New York.

“Once this lawsuit came up, we got very concerned, mainly because we’re concerned with the people it serves,” Wittke said.

Earlier this year, DHS announced its notice of intent to select Public Partnerships LLC as the new vendor to handle finances and paperwork for the state’s IRIS program, consolidating the program from multiple vendors to one.

Since then, the U.S. DOJ sued PPL and the New York Health Department over accusations of Medicaid fraud and accused the state of failing to police the company. The company has also faced a bipartisan firestorm of criticism from state lawmakers over how it was chosen and the company’s rollout in New York.

“One of the things I would like to see is the brakes put on,” Wittke said. “No contract executed. Questions answered. And then go through if you have to and redo the process that’s more transparent to people and move forward that way.”

The state’s transition to PPL is now on pause while DHS reviews formal protests that have been filed with the state.

In another segment, Milwaukee police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Milwaukee County Sheriff Danita Ball are warning candidates for governor about rhetoric centered around defunding police.

“All I can say is be careful what you ask for,” Norman said for a story reported by “UpFront.” “You get the police department that you invest in, and we need to understand that there is a value added to having a strong support for public safety.”

Ball added, “Just about everything we do has a level of public safety involved. If people don’t feel safe, they’re not going to live in a community. People are not going to build. They’re not going to invest, you know? And so public safety is something that is important for all of us, and so I would hope those who are advocating for reducing the amount of money that we have really look at the effects that it could have on a community as a whole.”

The issue has been part of the Democratic primary for governor. Francesca Hong has previously called publicly to defund the police, and Mandela Barnes has faced criticism on the issue both in his 2022 U.S. Senate bid and this year’s race for governor.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said he hoped “there’s no candidate, no candidate for governor who is requesting a reduction in support for public safety.”

See more from the show.