Republican leaders in the state contemplate the idea of introducing a bill to make it harder to recall public officials.
Six GOP senators face recalls because they voted in favor of the so-called collective bargaining bill. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) says now that those senators, and three Democrats, are in “full campaign mode,” the legislative process isn’t getting their full attention. Republican Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) agrees. “It certainly is true that the six senators who voted for this budget have no business being recalled.”
Grothman says they did the job they were elected to do and, other than for extreme circumstances, there’s no need to be recalling lawmakers willy nilly. “It’d be quite a mess if it became routine to recall people every time they voted on something people don’t like.”
Grothman says a single vote isn’t good reason to recall any lawmaker — Republican or Democrat. He says recalls are associated with some sort of malfeasance, not simply as a result of taking a vote that might not please everyone. “Why do you think we have elections in November?”
Three Democrats also face recalls for fleeing the state for three weeks in order to avoid voting on the governor’s bill.