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Gronik steps out of governor’s race

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One of Wisconsin’s ten Democrat candidates for governor is dropping out of the race.

In a statement posted to his website, Andy Gronik says he’s stepping aside to make the large field a little less crowded.

“This journey has been the greatest of my life,” Gronik said.

The Marquette Law School poll released on Wednesday showed Gronik in the middle of the pack of the Democrats, far behind Tony Evers. “It’s time for me to step down and give someone a legitimate chance to win in November,” Gronik said. “There are lots of people sitting on the bench, confused by the large field of candidates and waiting to see what happens in the primary. I don’t think that’s a winning strategy.”

He’s calling on his supporters to root for other Democrats in order to help defeat Governor Scott Walker in November.

US Supreme Court sends redistricting case back to lower courts

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The US Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to Wisconsin’s elections map, but not for good. 

In a 7 – 2 decision, the US Supreme Court has sent the case back to the federal district courts.

Writing for the Majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said this was not a ruling on the merits of the case.

Instead, he says that Wisconsin Democrats lacked standing to bring a lawsuit when it came to the entire state’s voters as a whole, and that they needed to prove that individual voters in a district were harmed by having their votes cast in uneven districts.

John Marshall Law School professor Steven Schwinn says the Justices decided that the case couldn’t rule on Wisconsin’s entire voting map at once. “They said, look this has been our prior practice. We’ve allowed these kinds of challenges on a district by district basis, when a voter can show harm as a voter in their district.”

UW Law School professor Robert Yablon says we’re likely to see a refining of the plaintiff’s case when it comes back to the federal court level. “You now are likely to have a situation in which the case goes back to the trial court and more individual plaintiffs who live in districts across the state are added as plaintiffs, and maybe the Democratic Party itself becomes a plaintiff.”

Democrat Party of Wisconsin Chair Martha Laning responded today, saying that her party won’t be giving up that easily. “Regardless of today’s ruling, Democrats in Wisconsin will continue to compete everywhere possible in 2018. We will continue to mobilize, and we will continue to build the infrastructure necessary for more victories for the people of Wisconsin.”

Attorney General Brad Schimel issued the following statement in response. “I am pleased that the highest court in the land has unanimously reversed the trial court’s erroneous decision invalidating Wisconsin’s Assembly map. Today is win for the rule of law in Wisconsin, and a testament to the talented attorneys at the Wisconsin Department of Justice.”

We will continue to update this story throughout the day.

Schimel announces more school safety grants

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Attorney General Brad Schimel has announced more school safety grants. In the Dells Wednesday for the announcement, Schimel said the grant submissions from 20 districts and private schools had several things in common. “We got the grants from these districts in very quickly, we were able to start processing them even before the closing of the deadline,” he said. “Their applications were put together in a way that we were able to move very quickly.”

More than $1.3 million will be distributed to this latest round of recipients, and another round may be announced.

  • Barneveld School District, $38,949
    Benton School District, $57,975
    Big Foot Unified High School District, $13,975
    Bristol #1 School District, $22,925
    Crivitz School District, $20,000
    Kettle Moraine School District, $190,395
    Kewaskum School District, $106,347
    La Farge School District, $53,352
    Luck School District, $39,516
    Mauston School District, $188,275
    Prentice School District, $81,272
    Randall J1 School District, $21,935
    River Ridge School District, $55,000
    Rock County Christian School, $39,951
    St. Joseph School; $20,750
    Stevens Point Area Public School District, $279,827
    Trinity Evangelical Lutheran School, $18,334
    Union Grove J1 School District, $19,872
    Wautoma Area School District, $84,435
    Williams Bay School District, $28,960

The Kenosha Unified School District was the first to receive a School Safety Grant, in the program put into place after the shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Dems, GOP split special elections wins

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Voters have decided a pair of closely watched special elections for the Wisconsin legislature. Assembly Republicans fended off – for now – concerns of a “blue wave,” as Town of Lodi Supervisor Jon Plumer defeated Lodi Common Council member Ann Groves Lloyd, with 53 percent of the vote in the 42nd District.

But in the 1st state Senate District, Democrat Caleb Frostman, who heads the Door County Economic Corporation, defeated state Representative Andre Jacque of DePere, by about 800 votes. Frostman’s win narrows the GOP Senate majority to just three seats.

Happ considering Supreme Court run

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There another potential state supreme court candidate. Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ, an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general in 2014, is reportedly considering a run for the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

Happ would become the third potential candidate in the election next April. Appeals Court Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer and Second District Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn are also considering a run.

 

 

Elections Commission removes Daniels from ballot

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The campaign of a Democrat running for state Assembly is officially over. The bipartisan, six member Wisconsin Elections Commission voted unanimously Monday to toss Charisse Daniels from the fall ballot.

The panel concluded that Daniels had 27 fraudulent signatures and three duplicate signatures on her nomination papers, leaving her seven valid signatures shy of the 200 she needed to get on the November ballot.

In addition, Watertown Police are investigating potential election fraud by Daniels, who had hoped to challenge GOP state Representative John Jagler.

Special elections in 1st Senate and 42nd Assembly Districts

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Voters head to the polls on Tuesday, in two Wisconsin legislative districts. Special elections in state Senate District 1 in northeast Wisconsin and Assembly District 42 in south central Wisconsin will fill the seats vacated by Senator Frank Lasee and Representative Keith Ripp, both of whom resigned to take jobs with the Walker administration.

In the 1st, Republican state Representative Andre Jacque of DePere faces Democrat, Door County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Caleb Frostman of Sturgeon Bay. In the 42nd, Lodi Common Council member Ann Groves Lloyd, a Democrat, faces Republican Town of Lodi Supervisor Jon Plumer.

You can find out if you live in a district with a special election at the MyVote Wisconsin website and see what’s on your ballot.

President Trump to visit Wisconsin

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President Donald Trump will be back in Wisconsin this month. Stormy Daniels is in the state this weekend. The president, last here a year ago in Waukesha, reportedly plans to attend the June 29th Foxconn groundbreaking ceremony later this month, and a luncheon fundraiser. The cost to attend that fundraiser starts at $2700 per couple and goes up to $100,000 to host and get a photo with the president.

Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, will perform two shows at Silk Exotic’s Madison location on Friday and at the Milwaukee location on Saturday as part a national tour. Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, was paid six figures to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with President Trump.

Weston still tight-lipped on administrator suspension

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Residents in the Village of Weston are no closer to discovering what triggered a 30 working-day suspension for Administrator Daniel Guild after another closed-door meeting on Thursday.

According to the posted agenda, the meeting centered around “discussion of performance evaluation of Village Administrator and establishing performance goals for Village Administrator.”

Guild was not present for Thursday’s meeting.

Trustees also brought in outside legal counsel on the matter in the form of Wausau-based Attorney Dean Deitrich. Board President Barb Ermeling said that was due to a potential conflict of interest because the current Village Attorney is friends with Guild. “Being he is friends with Daniel, [he] did not want to represent.”

After the meeting Deitrich approached reporters and emphasized that the board would not speak about what was discussed in closed session, adding that the next step is to discuss the meeting with Guild.

The reason behind the suspension remains unclear since the May 24th meeting called for by Trustees Wally Sparks and Mark Maloney, which Guild did attend. Following that meeting, Sparks’ only comment was that he “hasn’t met the terms of his employment. You can file an open records request to get that information and understand what the terms of his employment are. But we are not going to spell out specifically what they were.”

Several Wausau media outlets, including WSAU, have requested a copy of the employment agreement. However, those requests remain unfulfilled two weeks later. When asked why those requests remain in limbo, Ermeling said “the attorney, as far as I know, is working on it. Mr. Dietrich is the one you would have to talk to.”

WSAU

Senator Johnson seeks Congressional oversight for tariffs

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Senator Ron Johnson is joining a bipartisan effort to try and return control of trade tariffs to Congress.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and would allow Congress to review all tariff agreements made over the past two years.

“For too long Congress has ceded important policymaking authority to the executive branch on a wide range of issues,” Sen. Johnson said. “It’s time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional authorities on tariffs to ensure we don’t undermine the significant economic progress we have made over the last 18 months.”

The move comes days after President Trump called for blanket tariffs against Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Johnson says these tariffs can push up the overall price of raw materials for American manufacturers. “That makes us less competitive in global markets and that exacerbates the trade deficit, if that’s the metric that President Trump is trying to address.”

“The opening salvos have been fired in what could be a more damaging trade war,” said Johnson. “I’ve said repeatedly, I don’t think anyone wins a trade war. We may lose less than other nations because we do have the world’s largest trade deficit.”

That review process would take 60 days, and would include a debate and a vote on the floors of Congress.