Governor Scott Walker will not appeal to the state Supreme Court, on an appeals court’s denial of his request for 8 more days to call special elections in two vacant legislative seats.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Second District Appellate Court Judge Paul Reilly on Wednesday dismissed Walker’s argument that the court should allow time for the Legislature to rewrite state law. That legislation — the subject of a committee hearing on Wednesday — would effectively block the special elections in the 1st Senate and 42nd Assembly Districts.
In his one-page ruling. Reilly wrote “Representative government and the election of our representatives are never ‘unnecessary,’ never a ‘waste of taxpayer resources,’ and the calling of the special elections are as the Governor acknowledges his ‘obligation’ to follow.”
Reilly issued his ruling hours after the Department of Justice appealed two Dane County judges’ decisions on the case. The original ruling would require Walker to set the schedule for the special elections by noon Thursday.