Senator Fitzgerald
The Wisconsin state Senate will be back in extraordinary session, to change state law governing special elections. The bill would explicitly get around Dane County Judge Josann Reynolds’ ruling last week, ordering Governor Scott Walker to call special elections in the 42nd state Assembly and 1st State Senate districts.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald reacted to the ruling on Friday. “The logistics of this is very messy. I don’t think Judge Reynolds considered that at all, how this would actually transpire in the real world.”
The bill released Monday would give a governor plenty of discretion over when, or whether, to call special elections. It eliminates the requirement that he do so promptly, and would prohibit special elections after the spring election in the year the legislative seat would ordinarily be filled.
The bill is being “fast tracked,” with a committee set to consider it as early as next week. But there would be no committee vote or public hearing — instead, the new proposal would be amended to an election-related bill that has already received a public hearing and committee vote, but did not pass the full Senate.