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Evers and Vos at odds over WEDC bill (AUDIO)

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One of the “lame duck” bills passed by the Wisconsin legislature this week deals with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Governor-elect Tony Evers said during his campaign that he’ll seek to abolish WEDC, and return jobs creation to the old Commerce Department.

Speaker Robin Vos said on Wednesday morning that Republicans had to act, because Evers wasn’t talking to them. “It was a lot through the media. I never got a call. We never talked about it. It was an awful lot of negotiation through the Journal Sentinel, kind of the arm of the Democratic Party,” Vos said. “We really couldn’t get a fair hearing, that’s the problem.”

“I’m not sure what in the world that means,” Evers said later that day, when asked about Vos’ comment that he was negotiating through the media. “He never asked . . . to talk to me a about this legislation to begin with. It would have been great to find out exactly what his plans were to begin with.”

Vos and Evers :35

The bill allows WEDC rather than the governor, to appoint the agency’s CEO until next September. The Legislature would also get more say over the agency’s enterprise zone program that hands out tax breaks to businesses.

Governor Scott Walker is expected to sign the entire package of legislation passed by the extraordinary session of the Republican controlled legislature.

Evers asks Walker for ‘lame duck’ vetoes

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Tony Evers is asking Scott Walker to veto the “lame duck” legislation. The governor-elect is requesting that Governor Walker veto measures that will restrict some of the authority of Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul. “My belief is that the people of Wisconsin have spoken, and that . . . the three bills that have passed are a repudiation of that,” Evers said Wednesday in Madison.

GOP leaders say they acted in extraordinary session this week in order to restore the “balance of power” between the legislative and executive branches.

Kaul doesn’t buy it. “They are focused on their own power, and taking it away not just from executive branch officers, but from the people of Wisconsin who went out and voted in record numbers.”

Democrats are not alone in asking Walker to consider the veto — Governor Walker is being sharply criticized by a long-time supporter. The Journal Sentinel reported this week that influential Republican businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Lubar of Milwaukee sent Walker an email on Tuesday. In it, he asked Walker to consider what the governor’s recently deceased father and Jesus Christ would say about legislative efforts to limit the powers of Governor-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul. Lubar pleaded with Walker not to destroy his reputation by siding with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Walker has ten days to make a decision. All indications are he’ll sign the bills. “Our efforts now is making sure the people of Wisconsin communicate directly to the governor, and communicate to him and his staff in a way that would convince him that he needs to change his thinking,” Evers said.

No deal to save jobs at Neenah Kimberly Clark plant

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A deal to save jobs at Kimberly Clark’s Neenah Cold Spring plant did not get done in the “lame duck” legislative session. It’s a big disappointment to the bill’s author, Representative Jim Steinke. “I’m afraid politics played a role. I was hoping once we got past the politics of the election, there would be more support for it. Obviously, we couldn’t garner any support from the Democrats,” the Kaukauna Republican said.

The $70 million tax incentives package passed the Assembly last spring — but there was no vote in the Senate. “I was really disappointed that Governor-elect Evers didn’t step forward, and at least give his opinion one way or the other, as to whether he thought it was a good idea.”

Ironically, Senate passage of the deal was Governor Scott Walker’s only stated reason for an extraordinary session. Walker said without it, the nearly 400 jobs at the plant will be gone by year’s end

‘Lame duck’ laws likely to be litigated

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Speaker Robin Vos (WRN file photo)

There could be legal challenges, to portions of the Republican “lame duck” legislative agenda. “Everything’s on the table to stop this pernicious attack on our democracy, said state Representative Chris Taylor, a Madison Democrat. “I think absolutely there are probably going to be some legal challenges.”

Under provisions of Republican legislation passed by the extraordinary session, lawmakers will have the ability to hire their own attorneys to file litigation for the state, a role previously taken by the attorney general.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he’s not worried. “I believe, and the advice that I have been given is, everything that we have done has been within the bounds of the constitution, and I think it will be found that way. But of course they have the right, that’s our process.”

Incoming attorney general Josh Kaul predicts Republican efforts to restrict the power of the AG’s office will end up in court. “Probably there will be multiple litigations that result from this, maybe in multiple courts,” he said. “And one of the impacts of this is that the state is going to be mired in litigation in 2019.”

In additions to the changes to the attorney general’s role, Republican lawmakers would gain full control of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and the Legislature could block the new governor’s ability to write new regulations.

Evers on CNN: GOP lame duck agenda ‘a hot mess’

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With Republican efforts to rein in his incoming administration now a national story, Governr-elect Tony Evers went on CNN Tuesday night. “We won, we won fair and square. We won on the issues. We won fully knowing what I’m about and what Scott Walker’s about,” Evers told the cable network’s Don Lemon. “I see this as an effort trying repudiate, trying to turn back the clock.”

Evers’ appearance came as the Republican controlled legislature debated measures to limit the scope of authority for the offices of governor and attorney general, before Evers and incoming AG Josh Kaul take office next month. The Assembly completed work on the legislation early Wednesday morning. Evers issued a statement following the final vote.

“Wisconsin has never seen anything like this. Power-hungry politicians rushed through sweeping changes to our laws to expand their own power and override the will of the people of Wisconsin who asked for change on November 6th.”

Evers told Lemon that while he was elected to work with Republicans in the legislature, the Republican actions will make that much more difficult. “The entire thing is frankly a hot mess,” he said. “There’s 141 pages of bad stuff in there.”

GOP bills restricting Evers and Kaul to be voted on

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Legislation that would curtail the powers of the offices of governor and attorney general in Wisconsin are up for Senate and Assembly votes in a lame duck extraordinary session today, after an hours long and often raucous public hearing at the Capitol.

As Republicans move to push through a sweeping set of restrictions on the administration of incoming Governor Tony Evers, and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul, Democrats like Representative Chris Taylor of Madison are calling out what they see as hypocrisy.

“We would not be here if Scott Walker was reelected. We would not be here if Brad Schimel was reelected. This is about not just consolidating power for the Republicans, they want to expand their power, even when they lose elections,” Taylor said.

Governor Scott Walker insists changes to the attorney general’s duties, which would allow the legislature to hire outside attorneys to represent the state in lawsuits, are not out of line. “There are many other states that have a whole variety of things where the legislature either has to approve or disapprove lawsuits,” Walker said. “Some states don’t even have elected attorney generals.”

Governor Scott Walker insists legislation dealing with the office of governor is does not taking power away from incoming Democrat Tony Evers. “There was some discussion early on about things related to vetoes or even vetoes to the administrative process, and I said I would never sign that,” Walker said. “To me, that would be taking powers away.”

A bill that would move the date of the state’s 2020 presidential primary did not pass out of the Joint Finance Committee following Monday’s hearing. County and municipal clerks had condemned the proposal to create a March primary, which would result statewide elections in February, March and April.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 6-0 on Monday for a motion telling the Legislature that the proposed election law changes would be “extraordinarily difficult to accomplish.” It also said that “mandatory election tasks may not be feasible,” if the primary were moved.

Evers calls GOP lame duck agenda ’embarrassing’ for Wisconsin

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Tony Evers (WRN photo)

Governor-elect Tony Evers is encouraging Wisconsin voters to speak up, as Republicans in the legislature prepare to strip Evers and incoming attorney general Josh Kaul of power before they can take office in January.

“I’m encoraging them to connect with their legislators,” Evers said in Milwaukee Sunday. “I’m speaking for them, but they need to speak to their own elected officials to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Republicans are rushing a sweeping package of bills through a “lame duck” extraordinary legislative session, with a public hearing in the Joint Finance Committee Monday, and floor votes in the Senate and Assembly on Tuesday.

Evers said the GOP agenda was an embarrassing look for the state. “I’m not sure what they’re afraid of,” Evers said. “They clearly have a majority in the legislature.”

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald told conservative talk radio station WISN’s “Jay Weber Show” on Monday that the agenda for the lame duck session is designed to corral Evers before he takes office. And he suggested that GOP legislative leaders “don’t trust” the Governor-elect.

“We are going to address these now, to make sure that a lot of the policy decisions that we made as a legislature and were signed into law by the governor, continue to be the way that we feel comfortable with,” Fitzgerald said.

Governor Scott Walker, who would have to sign the lame duck measures into law, and has yet to publicly comment on where he stands. “I hope he thinks about how he could govern under those circumstances, and how this will impact his legacy,” Evers said.

GOP bills restrict powers of governor and attorney general

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Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Legislature on Friday released a package of wide-ranging bill drafts that they plan to vote on in an extraordinary session next week.

That lame duck session is intended to put the measures in place before Democratic governor-elect Tony Evers and Democratic attorney general-elect Josh Kaul assume office, in order to restrict the powers of those offices.

The bills include legislation to move the date of the state’s 2020 presidential primary from April to March, and decrease the time in which local municipalities can allow early voting.

Primary & early voting bill (PDF)

County and municipal clerks who oversee elections in Wisconsin have come out in opposition to moving the date of the presidential primary.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and  state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald released a joint statement, said “The Legislature is the most representative branch in government and we will not stop being a strong voice for our constituents,” it read.

Another bill deals with the state Department of Justice.  It eliminates the power of the attorney general to appoint a solicitor general and up to three deputy solicitors general, each of whom must be licensed to practice law in this state. The effect of the bill is to eliminate the Office of the Solicitor
General in the Department of Justice, which represents the state in certain cases on appeal in state and federal courts.

DOJ Solicitors General bill (PDF)

Other bills deal with federal funding for Department of Transportation projects, legislative oversight, and administrative rule making authority.

DOT projects bill (PDF) Legislative oversight bill (PDF) Rule making bill (PDF)

In a statement, state Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling called the sweeping proposed changes a Republican “temper tantrum.”

“Rather than protecting jobs, strengthening schools, and fixing our roads, Republicans want to undermine Governor-elect Evers before he takes the oath of office,” she said.

Public hearings on the bills could be held as soon as Monday, with the legislature voting on them on Tuesday.

 

 

Kind opposes Pelosi as House Speaker

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Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind is a no on Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker. Pelosi got the support of 203 members in Wednesday’s nomination vote — the La Crosse Democrat said Thursday that his was not one of those. “I’m afraid that if we just go back to the same leadership all the, nothing’s going to change,” Kind told WRDN.

Kind said he wants a speaker who will return the House to “regular order,” and empower committees to work in a bipartisan fashion. “There’s a lot of talent in the Democratic Party that I feel could step and be a very good speaker,” Kind said. “But more of a caretaker speaker, rather than an autocrat trying to run every single issue coming out of the House of Representatives.”

Pelosi needs 218 votes when the new Congress elects a Speaker in January. Kind said it need to be made clear to Pelosi and her supporters that “she’s going to pull up short of 218.”

Ryan voices regrets on debt and immigration

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Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan is winding down his career as a congressman and House Speaker. He spoke on the House floor for the final time on Wednesday and said he was “immensely grateful to the people of southern Wisconsin.” The Janesville Republican was first elected to represent the 1st Congressional District in 1998, and was reelected until announcing earlier this year that he would not run again.

“I’ve always had this thing about calling the people I represent my not my constituents but my employers. It’s the way I’ve always thought of this,” Ryan said. “I think it’s important that we as members understand that we work for the people and not the other way around.”

Ryan also gave an interview to the Washington Post, in which he said his two biggest regrets as he prepares to leave office are not successfully dealing with immigration and the national debt.