Daniel Bice was a political reporter and watchdog columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He worked there for 33 years. Bice had just turned 62 on April 21 when he died from complications of esophageal cancer. Bice's colleagues, like Journal Sentinel Investigative Political Reporter Mary Spicuzza, have described him as feared and fearless and kind and patient. Spicuzza joined WUWM's Eddie Morales to share stories about Bice and to discuss the impact of his work.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Eddie Morales: How are you doing, and how is the Journal Sentinel newsroom doing?
Mary Spicuzza: I am taking it one day at a time. I was talking to Bill Glauber today that I kind of feel like I lost part of my brain because I'm so used to bouncing ideas off Dan Bice and it's a little incomprehensible to think that I won't be able to do that.
He was so patient and so generous with his time and his knowledge, which was vast, especially when it came to Wisconsin politics. He really did it all and was incredibly talented as a reporter and as a writer. I think a lot of us are just really going to miss him.
What role do columnists who do work like Bice play in the community these days — especially at a time when newspapers maybe have fewer local staff or aren't investing in people who do that kind of work?
He was such a unique creature — a unique columnist. I really think of him as truly the most feared or one of the most feared men in Wisconsin politics. I can't count the number of elected officials or candidates who would tell me that they feared seeing Dan Bice come up on their phone. Like, if they saw that Dan Bice was calling them or an email from Dan Bice, it was like, 'oh God, what's coming?' He was just such a watchdog for the community dating back to his times with working with Cary Spivak, which was kind of before my era at the paper.
They were known as the Spice Boys. There are these legendary stories about the two of them showing up at people's doorsteps to do a confrontational interview with them or catching the former mayor in an elevator to ask him questions about some allegations against him. It's crazy because I think Bice is pretty intimidating.
I can imagine being a source or somebody who was doing something wrong who Bice was busting being pretty terrified. I can't imagine what it would be like to have Cary Spivak and Dan Bice at your door. I don't think I'd want to be in that position, especially if I had done something wrong. He was such a central figure in Wisconsin politics. I felt like every source I talked to who had this kind of fear/respect for Bice, and he just feels very irreplaceable to me.
What impact has his work had, and how does that impact help keep that work going now?
I think he has had quite a legacy, and I know that legacy will live on. I think once you've built up that body of work, it never goes away. Just the amount of stories that he's broken over his career is phenomenal. The number of campaigns or careers he's probably ended or altered, I don't think I could count. I think any of us would dream of the kind of career that he's had and the respect that he's built.
He was very unflappable, so somebody would be just chewing him out and he would just be kind of calmly listening or sometimes maybe asking them snarky questions. Sometimes he'd get pretty vicious hate mail or emails and he would at times send a calm response, pointing out maybe typos in their email or something like that. I'm sure he was a pain in the butt to some sources.
I got a call from a longtime City Hall source who said they couldn't believe the news about Bice. They said he was a good man, 'a pain in the blank, but a good man.' And I was like, that's also true. So I think just that kind of legacy, I think, will live on for a very long time in Wisconsin.
