Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has filled a vacancy on the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. Tax attorney Don Millis of Sun Prairie will fill the vacancy caused by last month’s resignation of Republican Commissioner Dean Knudson. Knudson’s abrupt departure delayed a vote on the next WEC chair, who by law must be a Republican commissioner to succeed current chair Anne Jacobs, a Democrat.
There had been speculation that Vos would tap Micheal Gableman, the former state Supreme Court Justice overseeing Vos’ partisan probe into Wisconsin’s 2020 election. While that didn’t happen, Vos’ Wednesday press release included an endorsement from Gableman, who said Mills “ will bring with him both the intellectual firepower and courageous resolve . . . necessary to . . . . help put a stop to the lawless actions of the leftist members of WEC.”
Millis previously served as one of the first members of WEC in 2016, following its’ creation by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature. The commission is scheduled to meet Friday to select a new chair.
Also Wednesday, Dane County judge Frank Remington called on Gableman to testify in public on Friday. Gableman’s office is being sued for handling of open records requests in the ongoing taxpayer funded review of the 2020 election.
BREAKING: Michael Gableman, the attorney leading Wisconsin’s partisan election review, is scheduled to testify in a hearing this Friday, June 10, to address whether his office should be held in contempt for failing to release public records in violation of a court order. https://t.co/HgBfXK64tp
— American Oversight (@weareoversight) June 8, 2022
The group American Oversight contends that emails and other documents from the office of special prosecutor should be public record, since Gableman’s review has cost Wisconsin taxpayers almost $900,000.
Gableman’s attorney argued this week that there’s a staff member who’s job it is to testify in legal challenges, and that Gableman’s testimony is unnecessary. Gableman has so far refused to testify, or to turn over the requested records.
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