Robin Vos rep spkr

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A gop DUDE decent on trump coup? but all in on gerry minority rules

crimes?

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an 4 26

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Republican lawmakers are letting taxpayers foot $500-an-hour attorney fees to defend against a lawsuit challenging them “over that very practice” of “using taxpayer money to hire private attorneys.”

“The lawsuit, which was filed by liberal law firm Law Forward in February, followed a 2025 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation that found the state Legislature had spent about $26 million in taxpayer money on legal fees to private law firms since 2017,” reports MJS.

The paper notes that the lawyer fees really kicked in after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul won the November 2018 election, defeating Republican former Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General Brad Schimel. The sharp increase in spending also followed a 2018 law passed by Republican legislators, authorizing legislative leaders to hire private lawyers with taxpayer money.

That 2018 law sets no limit to the amount of taxpayer money the Legislature can spend on outside counsel.

Milwaukee-based law firm Fox, O'Neill & Shannon is charging taxpayers $460 and hour to defend Republicans’ new right to hire them. Colorado firm Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell will charge the Senate “a blended rate of $550 an hour for all lawyers who work on this matter," reports MJS.

"It's pretty ironic that the taxpayer will once again be on the hook for the Legislature's inclination to spend, spend, spend on outside lawyers," Jeff Mandell, president and general counsel of Law Forward, said in an emailed statement. "Wisconsin taxpayers are on the hook for a pretty hefty bill, not just from the Assembly, but from the Senate as well."

Neither Assembly Speaker Robin Vos nor Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu responded to requests for an interview.

The Sentinel reports Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to require a vote by the full Assembly or Senate before either house could hire private counsel at taxpayer expense. That same proposal would require the vote of the full Legislature for a joint appointment.

But Republican leadership killed that bill before a floor vote.

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an 2 25

Wisconsinites voted for Donald Trump by a narrow margin in November. Does that mean a majority of voters here want to cancel farmers’ federal contracts, shut down Head Start centers across the state and turn loose Elon Musk to feed federal agencies into the woodchipper while hoovering up private citizens’ financial information?

The new Trump era is putting Republican nihilism to the test. In our closely divided swing state, the first official indication of whether Trump voters are developing buyers’ remorse will come, fittingly, on April Fool’s Day.

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, candidate Brad Schimel has received Elon Musk’s endorsement and is benefitting from a huge ad buy by Musk’s political action committee. And while some Republicans have expressed qualmsabout Trump and Musk’s assertions that they have unchecked power to ride roughshod over judges and the U.S. Constitution, Schimel has, notably, sided with Trump and Musk against the courts.

Last month, Schimel took to Vicki McKenna’s rightwing talk radio show to denounce the prosecution and sentencing of the Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol after Trump lost in 2020, saying juries in Washington, D.C., were too liberal to deliver a fair verdict. Recently, on the same talk radio program, he criticized federal judges for blocking the ransacking of federal agencies by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), accusing the judges of “acting corruptly” by daring to issue temporary restraining orders.

The race between Schimel and Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford will determine the ideological balance of the Court and, it seems, whether a majority of justices believe in the integrity of the court system at all.

Also on the April 1 ballot is the race for state schools superintendent, which pits a lobbyist for the private school voucher industry against a defender of public schools — an existential choice as the growth of schools vouchers is on track to bankrupt our state’s public school system and enrollment caps on voucher programs are set to come off next year.

The ideological struggle over the future of our state was on stark display this week as Gov. Tony Evers presented his budget plan — an expansive vision that uses the state surplus to boost funding for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin, health care, clean water and rural infrastructure, and leaves a cushion to help protect communities against what Evers called the “needless chaos caused by the federal government” under Trump.

In a familiar ritual, Republican legislators immediately shot down Evers’ plan, denounced it as “reckless spending” and promised to throw it in the trash and replace it with a stripped-down alternative based on austerity and tax cuts.

“Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump and his agenda to cut spending and find inefficiency in government,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos declared.

But did they?

It’s not clear that most Wisconsinites wanted what Trump and Musk are delivering — cuts to health care and veterans’ services, the claw-back of infrastructure projects, mass firings at the park service and the chaotic suspension of promised federal funds for child care and other essential services in Wisconsin.

For generations, Republicans have complained about “red tape” and “big government” and promised “freedom” and lower taxes to constituents who liked the sound of all that. Under Trump, we are seeing anti-government ideology reach its full, unchecked fruition. Trump’s No. 1 private donor, the richest man in the world, is laughing all the way to the bank. He’s using his access to trillions of dollars in taxpayer funds to cancel food programs for poor children and to bolster federal contracts that enrich himself.

This, in the end, is what privatization is all about — taking the collective wealth of millions of people who contribute to maintaining a decent, healthy society and concentrating it in the hands of one very rich, self-interested man.

The long-term, existential struggle between private wealth and the public good in Wisconsin includes the fight over whether to fund public schools or give away money to subsidize the tuition of private school families. It includes whether to be the second-to-last state to finally offer 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage to new mothers — something even our Republican legislators support, minus Vos. The two sides of our divided government are locked in a battle over whether our universities, public parks, infrastructure, clean water and affordable housing are a boondoggle or something we ought to protect.

Given what’s happening to our country, Wisconsinites will have to think hard about which side they’re on.

Wisconsin Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com.

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fuckery

alternet- 2 24 no lnx

Wisconsin Ethics Commission recommends felony charges for Trump fundraising committee

Alex Henderson

February 23, 2024

Wisconsin is one of the key battleground states where President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will need to campaign extra hard if 2024 brings, as expected, a Biden/Trump rematch. If Trump is the nominee, the Biden campaign will no doubt be reminding Wisconsin voters of all the legal problems the GOP presidential frontrunner is facing — legal problems that may have become even more complicated now that the bipartisan Wisconsin Ethics Commission is recommending criminal charges against the Trump-associated Save America Joint Fundraising Committee.

The Washington Post's Patrick Marley reports that the Ethics Commission has "found probable cause that Trump's Save America committee and several state and local Republican officials committed felonies and recommended several district attorneys investigate and prosecute them, according to records released Friday, (February 23)."

The Wisconsin Ethics Commission, according to Marley, alleges that Save America was involved in "a scheme that they say was meant to circumvent campaign finance laws to take out a powerful GOP lawmaker who has turned against Trump."

READ MORE:Ex-federal prosecutor: Why 'criticism' of Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump 'lacks merit'

Marley reports, "The (Ethics) Commission's investigation centers on the 2022 primary race between Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, one of the most powerful Republicans in Wisconsin, and Adam Steen, a political newcomer who embraced Trump…. The Commission alleges Steen, Steen's campaign and three county Republican parties arranged to sidestep campaign finance laws by having donors give money to one of the county parties, which would then steer it to Steen's campaign or his vendors, according to the records released Friday.

READ MORE: Trump wants daughter-in-law to co-chair RNC — but 'didn’t even like her' for 'many years'

Read the Washington Post's full report at this link (subscription required).

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an 8 23

Alarm grows over Wisconsin GOP's Supreme Court impeachment threats

Jake JohnsonandCommon Dreams August 31, 2023

Wisconsin Democrats are urging the U.S. public to pay close attention to the Republican Party's maneuvering in the key battleground state, where GOP lawmakers are floating impeachment proceedings against a recently elected liberal Supreme Court justice if she doesn't recuse herself from cases related to the state's gerrymandered legislative maps.

"We've been sounding the alarm bells on the dangerous threats from Republicans to impeach justices who don't follow their orders. And yesterday, they doubled down," Wisconsin Senate Democrats wrote in a social media post on Wednesday after state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-63) left open the possibility of an impeachment push against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Vos suggested that Protasiewicz has "pre-judged" a potential case challenging the legality of Wisconsin's legislative maps. If Protasiewicz doesn't recuse, Vos said that would be "a pretty clear violation" and indicated impeachment proceedings would be on the table.

Wisconsin Republicans have the simple Assembly majority needed to impeach and the two-thirds Senate majority needed to convict. State Republicans are also currently attempting to remove Wisconsin's nonpartisan head of elections.

"This is crazy," Wisconsin Senate Democrats wrote Wednesday. "The entire country should know what's happening here in Wisconsin. Spread this far and wide."

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard (D-16) said that "considering impeachment mere weeks after Justice Protasiewicz has been sworn in is utterly absurd."

"Legislative Republicans will jump over any hurdle to usurp the will of the majority," said Agard.

Earlier this month, a day after Protasiewicz was sworn in, voting rights organizations filed a legal challenge urging the Wisconsin Supreme Court to toss out the state's maps, which the groups argue have entrenched an unfair electoral advantage for Republicans and allowed them to cling to power in the Legislature for more than a decade.

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A second legal challenge against the maps was filed days later.

Protasiewicz's victory over right-wing former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly in April wrested control of the state's high court from conservatives for the first time in 15 years.

During her campaign, Protasiewicz described Wisconsin's legislative maps as "rigged" and "unfair," an assessment that is widely shared by legal experts and voting rights campaigners. Protasiewicz did not say how she would rule should the Wisconsin Supreme Court take up a gerrymandering case.

Vos and other Wisconsin Republicans nevertheless seized upon Protasiewicz's comments as evidence that she has already decided how she would rule and should therefore recuse from any redistricting cases. Last week, Wisconsin Senate Republicans filed a motion demanding Protasiewicz's recusal from challenges to the constitutionality of the state's maps, which are so warped that they've been described as "Swiss cheese."

In response to the Republican motion, law firms that are suing over the state's maps argued that Republicans are pushing for Protasiewicz's recusal because they are "unhappy" with her election victory, "which they could not prevent through gerrymandering."

Wisconsin Republicans "now seek to nullify the election and pick their judges," the firms added. "Respondents' arguments in support of recusal are without merit, and this motion should be denied."

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https://www.alternet.org/how-lawless-maga-republicans-are-trying-to-overthrow-democracy/

an 8 23 no lnx

these are not normal times. Still, as Will Bunch observed in a powerful column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, out of force of habit, laziness or just plain denial, a lot of journalists continue to treat the Republican presidential contest as if it were a regular political event instead of the lawless authoritarian movement it really is.

The Republican party has been hijacked by Donald Trump. His enablers here in Wisconsin are part of a destructive cabal that is undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law.

That’s the context around Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler’s denunciation of the “rogue lawlessness” of the new liberal court majority for daring to set procedural rules.

Ziegler’s claim that the court’s 4-3 liberal majority has staged a “coup” and conducted an “illegal experiment” by choosing a new administrator of state courts and changing some procedural rules is demonstrably false. In a calm, clear email response grounded in reality and the Wisconsin Constitution, Justice Rebecca Dallet explains why Ziegler is wrong.

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The Wisconsin Constitution clearly states that a four-person quorum of justices constitutes a majority for the conduct of the court’s business, including setting internal operating procedures. The chief justice exercises “administrative authority pursuant to procedures adopted by the supreme court.”

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Ziegler doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

From one angle, this looks like a tempest in a teapot. Dueling late-August memos about internal court procedures don’t generally rise to the level of headline news.

But the battle for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a right-wing minority that lost its power in the recent spring election is part of a bigger plot by MAGA Republicans to flout the will of the voters and entrench minority rule

Take this week’s seemingly unrelated AP story about the right-wing groups preparing to gut the federal government if they succeed in getting Trump reelected. Project 25, funded by the Heritage Foundation and fueled by former Trump administration officials, “is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term,” AP reports. The idea is to “gut the ‘administrative state’ from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.”

The Project 25 handbook includes a suggested purge of tens of thousands of federal employees, replacing civil service jobs with patronage positions, stopping the FBI from working to curb the spread of misinformation and stepped-up prosecution of anyone who helps provide abortion pills by mail. It’s scary stuff.

Anti-government rhetoric has been a Republican staple for decades. But the willingness to spread lies, destroy democratic institutions and subvert elections to hold onto power is something new.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has threatened to launch impeachment proceedings against Justice Janet Protasieiwiczunless she recuses herself from a challenge to the Republicans’ gerrymandered voting maps. By stating the truth during her campaign that the current maps are “rigged” to give Republicans a disproportionate legislative majority — an observable fact with which a federal court, a majority of Wisconsin voters and even Vos himself have agreed — Protasiewicz opens herself up to “corruption” charges if she doesn’t disqualify herself, Vos says.

The impeachment threat, like the caterwauling by the Chief Justice, is absurd. The judicial branch, as a coequal branch of government, has its own recusal rules. Those rules do not require justices to recuse themselves from cases because of remarks they made during a campaign. If the Legislature intervenes and impeaches a justice who follows the rules, it violates the separation of powers among the branches of government. But the emboldened right-wing majority in the Assembly might give it a try anyway, as The Washington Post reports, in order to set up a process by which the Republicans can block a gerrymandering lawsuit that could diminish their power. The point would not be to convict Protasiewicz of anything, just to gum up the workings of the Court long enough to slow down a challenge to the gerrymandered map.

A successful impeachment vote in the Assembly would force a justice to stop hearing or weighing in on cases until the Senate holds a vote on removal from office. Given the Senate’s track record of delaying confirmation hearings for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ nominees, it’s easy to foresee the foot-dragging that would ensue, at least until the 2024 election is over.

Stop calling them ‘conservatives’

On the same day the dueling memos between the new Wisconsin Supreme Court majority and the power-grabbing right-wing minority came out, the Senate held a public hearing on whether or not Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe should be allowed to continue in her job. The hearing went forward against the advice of legislative attorneys and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul,who have held that the Senate does not have the power to remove Wolfe. It featured MAGA cult members Michael Gableman, who was fired as head of the Legislature’s bumbling “investigation” of the 2020 election, and Racine County election conspiracy theorist Harry Wait, who is facing criminal charges for making fraudulent absentee ballot requests.

One thing Gableman, Wait andChief Justice Ziegler all have in common is that they supported Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election results in Wisconsin. Had a lone conservative on the court, Brian Hagedorn, not voted with the liberal minority, Trump’s challenge would have been upheld.

Ziegler joined team MAGA — and very nearly made the Wisconsin Supreme Court the only forum in the nation to allow Trump’s spurious challenge to the election results to move forward.

Let’s stop calling these people “conservatives.” The Republican Party has devolved into a cult of personality, working to install a strongman in the White House who has been charged with 91 felonies and who could easily be convicted and sentenced before the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee. It’s a real possibility that Trump could deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination from prison.

Wisconsin is going to play a key role in the next election, and defending democracy and justice in this state is going to be critical to preventing our country’s slide authoritarianism.

To protect the elected majority on the state’s highest court, theoretically, Protasiewicz could seek an injunction against the Legislature and prevent them from impeaching her in violation of her free speech rights.

In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court held in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White that the First Amendment protects the rights of candidates for judicial election to announce their views on disputed legal and political issues. The opinion written by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia,

Time is of the essence, though. That lawsuit would have to be filed promptly to head off the Legislature’s impeachment delaying tactic.

Another possibility is that Protasiewicz, if impeached by the Assembly, could resign. Then Democratic Gov. Evers could appoint another justice to take her place. Evers could choose someone like former Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor or progressive Judge Everett Mitchell. The new appointee would finish out Protasiewicz’s term, which runs until 2027. Protasiewicz could then run against MAGA Justice Rebecca Bradely in 2026. Given the outcome of recent Wisconsin Supreme Court races, it seems likely she’s win again.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Justice should file charges against Wisconsin’s fake electors – one of whom, Robert Spindell, is still serving on the state elections commission.

The only way to defeat the sheer chutzpah of the right-wing attack on democracy is by fighting back just as aggressively. Our future depends on it.

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an 922

The House select committee issued a subpoena over the weekend to Wisconsin House speaker Robin Vos seeking his testimony about a July phone call with Donald Trump.

The panel wants Vos to testify Monday, but the Wisconsin Republican is suing to block the subpoena, which he argues is outside the scope of the committee's authority and posed an “undue burden” by requiring his cooperation on such short notice, reported Politico.

“Speaker Vos’ conversations with former President Trump pertained to a recently decided Wisconsin Supreme Court decision about Wisconsin election law and any actions that could be taken in response to this decision moving forward,” the lawsuit states. “These topics do not pertain to the events of January 6th, or even (to construe the authorizing resolution broadly) the events leading up to it or its immediate aftermath.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the select committee chairman, told Vos his interactions with the former president was relevant to the panel's investigation and proposed recommendations, but the lawsuit contends that the subpoena was timed to coincide with the public hearing scheduled for this week.

“The only explanation for such an extreme timeline is the Committee’s desire to conduct the deposition before its next publicly televised hearing on Wednesday, September 28, 2022,” the lawsuit stated.

The subpoena says the committee is seeking testimony about a call between Trump and Vos, who told the former president the state's Constitution would not allow him to change the results of the 2020 election after the Wisconsin Supreme Court prohibited the use of drop-off boxes for absentee ballots outside election offices in future elections.

Trump then attacked Vos on his Truth Social website and endorsed his Republican primary challenger in the August primary.

“This is not a time for him to hide, but a time to act!” Trump posted. “I don’t know his opponent in the upcoming primary, but feel certain he will do well if Speaker Vos doesn’t move with gusto.”

===

JULY 20 2022

An election official in Wisconsin has shed light on the recent phone call he received from former President Donald Trump.

According to Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Trump is still attempting to pressure him into "purportedly rescind the Badger State’s 2020 electoral votes, even though there is no legal way to do so and no ground to even consider such an action," The Independent reports.

However, there is no legal basis for such action to take place. During a recent interview, Vos detailed the phone call he received.

READ MORE: This hypnotherapist and failed politician helped fuel the never-ending hunt for election fraud in Wisconsinhttps://www.alternet.org/2022/05/voter-fraud/ JAY STONE SEE GABLEMAN]

“It’s very consistent — he makes his case ... he would like us to do something different in Wisconsin, I explained that it's not allowed under the Constitution,” said Vos, adding that Trump “has a different opinion."

The call Vos has detailed occurred on Tuesday, July 19, according to the news outlet. The former president is reportedly attempting to try and take advantage of a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that will ultimately prohibit the use of ballot drop boxes for all future elections.

Now, Trump is arguing that President Joe Biden's Wisconsin victory is invalid since the court also ruled that the Wisconsin Election Commission overstepped its authority when it allowed the use of ballot drop boxes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, Trump asked, “So what’s Speaker Robin Vos doing on the Great Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling declaring hundreds of thousands of DropBox votes to be illegal?”

Although Trump is verbalizing his concerns, the news outlet notes that the Wisconsin Supreme Court's latest ruling has nothing to do with the 2020 presidential election.

"In reality, the court ruling did not invalidate a single vote cast by drop box," The Independent reports. "And neither Mr. Vos nor the Wisconsin legislature have the authority to retroactively invalidate votes or rescind electoral votes."

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https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/robin-vos-strips-vocal-denier-2020-election-outcome-staffer/6591998001/

no lnx many ish

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos disciplines GOP lawmaker who is the most vocal denier of 2020 election outcome

Molly Beck

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, listens to testimony.]

MADISON – The Republican leader of the state Assembly on Thursday placed sanctions on one of his members who has for more than a year falsely claimed former President Trump won the 2020 election in Wisconsin and has proposed legislation to pull back Wisconsin's electoral votes, which is impossible.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos stripped Rep. Timothy Ramthun of Campbellsport of his only staffer after Ramthun falsely accused Vos of signing a deal with attorneys for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to authorize ballot drop boxes, according to Vos's office.

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Vos told reporters Thursday that no one agrees with Ramthun’s claim that Wisconsin can revoke the 10 electoral votes it delivered to President Joe Biden more than a year ago. He said an election review he authorized last summer is aimed at changing how future elections are conducted.

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“There are some who believe — there's one who believes — that we somehow have the right (to withdraw electoral votes) even though every lawyer that we have worked with in Wisconsin says we cannot undo the 2020 elections, “ Vos said. “You know, Rep. Ramthun has that belief. That’s his right. But I think that what we're focusing on is not the past. We are looking at the past to learn from it.”

Ramthun did not return a phone call from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

More:A who's who guide to the Republican review of Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election]

Intra-party tension exposed

The move underscores the tension between Vos and members of his caucus who do not believe Vos is doing enough to litigate the outcome of the 2020 election, despite the ongoing taxpayer-funded election review Vos authorized in 2021.

It sparked a backlash from some within a contingent in the Wisconsin Republican base who believe Vos, who is a conservative Republican, is not conservative enough.

More:Wisconsin Republican leader Robin Vos is caught in the middle over the election probe as he faces criticism from the left and right]

Jonathan Wichmman, a political newcomer running for the Republican nomination for governor, called for Vos to resign and called the move to discipline Ramthun "a declaration of war."

"Robin Vos is doing this as a power play to keep every other Assembly rep from going against him," Wichmann said in an interview with Justin Schmidtka, host of the Badger State Resistance Podcast. "We need to clean house."

Jonathan Wichmann, a 2022 candidate for Wisconsin governor

In response, Vos downplayed the number of people who support Wichmann.

“Mr. Wichmann, I think he's probably — what? — at one percent,” Vos told reporters. “He has the right to say whatever he wants, but I will stand with my colleagues. I think I'm in pretty good shape. I think most people appreciate what we're doing and that we need to focus on the future, not on trying to decertify the election and focus on the past.”

Assembly Republican leaders released a statement Thursday backing Vos and denouncing Ramthun's theories as misinformation.

"The word 'misinformation' is too often used in today’s political discourse as a way to completely discount your opponent’s position. However, adhering to the true sense of the word, Rep. Ramthun and his staffer are spreading misinformation," the leaders said.

Ramthun proposed a resolution on Tuesday that would "reclaim" the state's 10 Wisconsin electoral votes, which the Legislature's own attorneys has determined to be impossible. In a taped statement, Ramthun also called on the public to demand lawmakers take action on the resolution.

:{:{}:

Ramthun has released a series of videos taped from his legislative office in the state Capitol detailing theories about the 2020 election and how, in his view, it was incorrectly called for Biden. His staffer Tristan Johannes produced the videos and at times appeared in them.

More: Wisconsin Republican invokes the QAnon theme as he seeks private funding for an Arizona-style election audit]

Ramthun has long called for lawmakers to move to overturn the election results despite there being no mechanism to do so and has largely been ignored by legislative leaders, with Vos once dismissing it as a "talking point of the far left and far right."

On Tuesday, Vos also publicly questioned the authority members of his own caucus who lead the Assembly's elections committee. He told reporters that committee chairwoman Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls did not have power to sign a contract with a lawyer who is helping her fight a lawsuit over the Assembly's partisan review of the 2020 election.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, left, and Rep. Janel Brandtjen, right.]

“He has no contract with the Legislature,” Vos said of the attorney. “The committee can't sign one. … There's no contract.”

Vos last summer hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to review the presidential election at a cost of $676,000 to taxpayers on behalf of Assembly Republicans.

Recounts and court rulings found Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Independent reviews have found no signs of widespread voter fraud.

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Ramthun has criticized the Gableman review and called on Vos and Assembly leadership to do more but has been rebuffed before.

When Ramthun issued a similar proposal in November to pull back electoral votes, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke said Ramthun's proposal was not based in law.

"I’ve always encouraged our members to have a full understanding of the law before putting out bills or resolutions," he said in a statement at the time.

Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.

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omg

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/08/23/conservative-think-tank-end-wisconsin-elections-commission/

looks legit

conservative think tank — run by a former staffer for then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and connected to former Gov. Scott Walker — has called for abolishing the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) and moving the administration of state elections to the elected secretary of state.

The think tank, the Institute for Reforming Government, called for the change to state election law in a news release Monday morning.

“It is time to abolish WEC and implement good government accountability when it comes to Wisconsin’s elections and work to restore confidence among Wisconsin residents,” Chris Reader, executive vice president of IRG, said in a statement. “When unelected bureaucrats oversee Wisconsin’s elections it can lead to the erosion of faith and confidence in our electoral system. Thirty-three other states have elected officials overseeing the election process, providing a good measure of accountability by empowering people across ideological spectrums to provide a check on who manages elections. This is a good government measure that will benefit all Wisconsinites.”

The think tank’s president is CJ Szafir, who previously worked on Fitzgerald’s staff and served as the executive vice president for the right wing legal outfit, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. Walker is named on the think tank’s website as its former national honorary chairman.

According to the think tank’s most recently available tax records, it paid Walker’s consulting firm, the Walker Group, more than $164,000 in 2019.

The call comes as Republicans continue an effort to delegitimize state election administration in the wake of the 2020 presidential election and former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen.

This weekend, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) met with Trumpto discuss an ongoing investigation into the election led by former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. Gableman recently traveled to South Dakota for a conspiracy theory-laden convention, run by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, where lies were spread about the 2020 election.

Gableman was joined by a state lawmaker and Robert Spindell, a member of the Elections Commission who has frequently spread conspiracy theories about last year’s election as well.

The conservative group’s call to disband the Wisconsin Elections Commission — made up of six members, three appointed by Democrats and three by Republicans — comes just six years after Republicans themselves created the commission. Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls), who chairs the Assembly Campaigns and Elections Commission, has continued an effort to hold a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election — similar to the widely derided audit held in Arizona.

Fitzgerald, now a member of Congress, and Walker were behind the creation of the WEC in 2015 after they disbanded the Government Accountability Board (GAB) over some similar complaints to the present complaints about the WEC. The GAB was made up of members appointed by a panel of appellate judges and was responsible for administration of the state’s election, ethics and campaign finance laws.

Republicans disbanded the GAB after it began investigating Walker for violations of campaign finance laws through so-called John Doe investigations.

GOP leaders, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, directly cited those investigations as the reason for the disbanding of the GAB and the creation of two new commissions to take its place — the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

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The legislation that created the WEC was introduced by then-Rep. Dean Knudson (R-Hudson). Knudson is now a member of the WEC and its former chair.

The current Wisconsin secretary of state is Democrat Doug La Follette. The office is largely responsible for maintaining government records, as Republicans took nearly all of the other responsibilities — and most of the staff — away from the office they now want to run elections under Walker, moving La Follette to a storage room in the Capitol basement. In 2015, a different right wing think tank, the MacIver Institute, called for abolishing the position.

The Institute for Reforming Government did not respond to a request for comment.

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