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Senator Baldwin calls for end to attacks on elections, pushes for new voting rights bill

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Senator Tammy Baldwin says enough is enough, and that attacks on elections by Republicans need to stop.

She says that an audit from Wisconsin Republicans is just part of a nationwide effort to make it harder to vote in America. “Gableman’s audit, which was is being paid for by the taxpayers of Wisconsin is nothing more than an effort to draw into question the election, to perpetuate Trump’s big lie, and to harass and intimidate our state election officials.”

Baldwin says that in Wisconsin, the presidential election has already survived recounts and audits. 

“Every stage of this was with high transparency and accountability and all reiterated that Biden had one in Wisconsin by a little over 20,000 votes.”

Baldwin and her Democrat colleagues are hoping to pass voting rights and election protection bills, but those efforts are being blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

Racine Democrat Greta Neubauer elected new Assembly Minority Leader

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State Assembly Democrats have picked a new leader. Racine Representative Greta Neubauer will now lead the caucus.

Neubauer says Democrats will need to continue to hold to their ideals heading into the next elections.

“We are here because we believe the government should grow with the people, that our democracy should fight for all of us who live here. We believe that Wisconsin should be a state where everyone can thrive.”

“In the face of Republican efforts to divide and conquer, the next year will be critical to building a stronger more Equitable Wisconsin.”

Neubauer will replace outgoing Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, who’s stepping down at the start of next year. 

Evers, Vos spar over last minute map submission to State Supreme Court

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Governor Tony Evers and Legislative Republicans are sparring over a new set of redistricting maps.

After the State Supreme Court ruled that they want to see maps with the ‘least amount of change’ in the upcoming fight over redistricting, Governor Tony Evers office released a new set of maps that would still reduce Republican control over the legislature while conforming to the request from the Supreme Court.

Evers says that it’s a compromise and that he’s still in favor of his older maps that wildly deviated from Republican plans.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos chided the Governor for drawing up maps in secret, something that Democrats have campaigned against Republicans.

Evers calls on lawmakers to urge COVID-19 vaccinations

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Amid the latest surge in new cases and hospitalizations, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers wants state lawmakers to urge their constituents to get vaccinated against COVDID-19. Some have done so, others have not.

“They should be encouraging local people to get vaccinated. They are leaders, people do listen to them, whether Republicans or Democrats,” the governor said this week during a briefing with public health officials on the status of the pandemic in the state.

“Get on the media, talk about the importance of vaccines” the governor said. “We just can’t let our hospitals go into crisis mode here folks. And we need everybody to do that encouraging.”

WRN reached out to leaders in the legislature, and heard back from Oshkosh Democrat, Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz.

“It’s just more important than ever to be vigilant and encourage people to get vaccinated, explain why it makes a difference, not just to their own health but to everyone else,” Hintz said.

Republican Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke of Kaukauna wrote a September newspaper editorial, in which he said getting vaccinated is a personal choice, but he strongly urges people to do it.

Republican Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke wrote a September newspaper editorial in which he said getting vaccinated is a personal choice, but he strongly urges people to do it.

“When given the opportunity to roll up my sleeve and get my COVID-19 vaccine, I jumped at the chance,” Steinke wrote. “It was quick, it was painless, it was easy, and above all else: It was one big step towards helping to restore normalcy in the lives of those I love.”

The office of Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley provided links to social media posts where the Ashland Democrat urged people to get vaccinated.

“I agree with the governor, because the best way to get this over with and contained is to vaccinate as many people as possible,” Hintz said.

Politicians of both parties, including former governors Scott Walker and Jim Doyle, have urged Wisconsinites to get vaccinated. Others have remained silent. The offices of Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not respond to emails seeking comment on Evers’ request.

Dems introduce climate change bills

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Democrats in the Wisconsin Legislature are introducing a set of bills to deal with climate change in Wisconsin. Representative Greta Neubauer says the package of 22 bills will form a framework to build on to protect Wisconsin from future climate disasters.

“This package of bills includes everything from resources for farmers to sequester carbon in the ground to programs for Union to train the next generation of renewable energy workers.”

Neubauer says the bills are needed to protect Wisconsin and its residents from the future hazards of climate change.

“With additional money for the state’s successful Focus On Energy program we can support low-income homeowners to weatherize their homes and we can build larger clean-energy projects with resources for school districts, businesses, and municipalities.”

Neubauer attempted to get these bills through the Legislature in 2019 as well. They are unlikely to make it to the floor of the Assembly.

DNR holds public hearing on new PFAS regulations

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The Department of Natural Resources is now taking public comment on a proposed rule to regulate PFAS and other forever chemicals.

That includes what has to be done to dispose of the chemicals, and how people who use fire-fighting foam have to respond to spills. At a public hearing on Thursday, Erik Cantor from Clean Wisconsin says the new rules don’t go far enough. 

“Clean Wisconsin remains extremely disappointed the legislature, that originally directed the department to develop containment disposal measures, intervened to water down the measures and benchmarks proposed by DNR in the emergency rule, which were also left out of this rule.”

Peter Burress with Wisconsin Conservation Voters asked for the D-N-R and the Natural Resources Board to pass the rules. 

“Wisconsin Department of Health Services has advised that exposure to certain PFAS may contribute to a number of negative effects including increased cholesterol levels, increase risk of thyroid disease, high blood pressure in women, lower infant birth weights, and decreased fertility in women.”

The rule is open for public comment for another week before heading to the Natural Resources Board for a vote. 

State Senate will vote Monday on redistricting bills

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New legislative and congressional district maps are ready for a vote in the full state Senate next week. Senator Kelda Roys (D-Madison) was a “no” in Thursday’s committee vote

“The maps before us are based upon the worst gerrymander in the nation, by many accounts,” Roys said.

Rots noted that more than a hundred people testified against the Republican drawn legislative and congressional district maps last week.

“I’ve been in this building long enough to know that when you have a public hearing and you have a whole lot of people show up, that is not necessarily indicative of the sentiments of all residents of the state of Wisconsin,” said Senator Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville).

The maps as drawn would solidify Republican majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation. Governor Tony Evers has already pledged to veto the Republican drawn maps, which will send a final redistricting decision to either a federal court, or the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said the redistricting votes will take place on Monday.

State Sen. Bernier says she’s not convinced of legal charges in Racine nursing home voting case

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The head of the State Senate elections committee says she doesn’t agree with a claim that the Wisconsin elections commission committed a crime in Racine County.

State Senator Kathleen Bernier tells Capital City Sunday that she does think the elections commission dropped the ball on serving elderly people in nursing homes. 

“They needed to make sure the people who are assisting them, they knew exactly who they are, they had to be trained, they had to take an oath of office and there should have been some protections.”

Bernier says that really doesn’t matter, though. 

“That’s not for me to say. As I keep explaining to everyone there’s the separation of powers and the legislature creates that the law or the policy, the executive branch carries it out, and the judicial branch enforces it.”

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling says the Commission itself should face charges for keeping special voting deputies out of nursing homes in 2020. He claims that allowed nursing home staffers to cast false ballots in the name of patients. No charges have been filed by the DA’s office.

State Senate Republicans pass package of anti-abortion bills

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Republicans in the State Senate have passed a package of abortion restrictions on party-line votes.

Among those bills are requirements for doctors to offer so-called abortion reversal treatments, a measure to prevent abortion based on a fetus’s race, gender or genetic abnormality, and a bill that would cut off clinics that provide abortions from the Medical Assistance program.

Democrat Kelda Roys says it’s a cynical ploy to rile up the Republican base. 

“This bill and a few others on the calendar, Mr. President, insert political judgment for the most personal intimate choices in people’s lives.”

Democrat Senator Chris Larson called the bills just another method of removing healthcare from women and said you don’t get these sorts of measures when it comes to male vasectomies. 

“The state does not require that that man to be patted on the head and say, ‘you go home and you think about this for 24 hours. This is a really big decision fella.'”

The only Republican to comment on the bills was Senator Chris Kapenga, who defended the bill on abortion reversal, saying it was there to provide choices for women. 

“It’s more information so that she can make a better-informed decision and she knows that she can continue the pregnancy she may continue the pregnancy if she chooses.”

All four bills will likely be vetoed by Governor Evers. 

 

Dane County judge orders Speaker Vos to turn over records from elections investigation

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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will have to turn over documents related to his investigation of the 2020 presidential election.

That’s after an open records request from Washington DC-based watchdog group American Oversight. Spokesperson Melanie Sloan says they’re looking for documents connected with Vos’ decision to hire former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman and others.

“We’ve been requesting documents for many months. We have numerous requests outstanding and basically, they’ve been refusing to provide those, and so we were left with no option but to go to court to enforce our records request. Neither Speaker Vos nor the Assembly has provided any documents related to the hiring or work product of the contractors they hired to do this audit, including any records of former Justice Gableman.”

The judge’s order said Vos has “unjustifiably withheld and refused to release the contractor records to which Petitioner is entitled.” Vos called the lawsuit frivolous.