Suppressingthe Vote Before an Election
Allmembers of the Assembly and half of the state Senate members face the votersthis fall, when Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his likely Democraticopponent, businesswoman Mary Burke, will be in a heated race for governor. Soit isn’t surprising that Republican legislators are fast-tracking bills thatwould suppress voting and grant perks to special interests. Republican-pushedproposals would limit in-person absentee voting to weekdays and eliminatevoting on Saturdays and Sundays and limit in-person absentee voting to 45 hoursper week. The bills would discourage irregular voters and those who work duringthe business day from casting a ballot and prohibit the city of Milwaukee fromexpanding its in-person absentee voting hours, as it has in the past.
Tocounter the Republican attacks on voting rights, state Sen. Jennifer Shilling(D-La Crosse) is introducing a Right to Vote constitutional amendment thatwould protect the voting rights of “every qualified elector of the state.” Theproposal would need to be passed by two consecutive legislative sessions and ina statewide referendum for it to be added to the state constitution.
Republicansare also pushing bills to expand the time in which a lobbyist can donate to alegislator, which would allow lobbyists to make campaign contributions whilethe Legislature is in session. Another fast-tracked bill would reaffirm specialinterest groups’ disclosure exemptions when airing phony “issue ads” before anelection.
Despitethe Republicans’ attention to these anti-democratic measures, their fate in thefull Senate isn’t clear. One legislative aide told the Shepherd that they were being pushed by state Sen. Glenn Grothman(R-West Bend) despite more moderate Republicans’ opposition, and giving theGrothman bills a public hearing was a way to appease him.
TheSenate hasn’t voted on these bills as the Shepherdgoes to press.
ALEC’sVukmir Introduces Divisive Bill
Republicansalso spent precious time last week debating a bill that would weaken andpotentially eliminate the Common Core, educational standards that were enactedin Wisconsin in 2010 and adopted by 44 other states and the District of Columbia.Its implementation received $12 million in the latest Republican-written statebudget passed last summer.
Despitea 10-hour hearing, the Common Core bill appears to be dead. Senate EducationCommittee Chair Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) and Senate Majority Leader ScottFitzgerald (R-Juneau) don’t support it and say that there are not enough votesto pass it.
Thatfracture in the GOP mirrors the anti-Common Core movement around the country.Some of its critics on the left decry it as being too corporate-friendly. TheCommon Core is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the WisconsinManufacturers and Commerce (WMC), for example, and has support among moremainstream Republicans, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Butthe main criticism is coming from tea party Republicans, who are not upsetabout the Common Core’s corporate sympathies but, rather, that it erodes statecontrol over educational standards.
LastApril, the Republican National Committee, chaired by Wisconsin Gov. ScottWalker ally Reince Priebus, passed an anti-Common Core resolution. And thecorporate bill-mill American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) debated an anti-CommonCore resolution last year, developed by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute.That institute is a member of ALEC and the State Policy Network, the ALEC- andKoch brothers-connected web of conservative and libertarian “think tanks” thatgenerate studies that push the right-wing agenda of ALEC. Ultimately, ALECvoted against the resolution, although it had previously voted to adopt aresolution opposing federal overreach in educational matters.
Wisconsin’sversion of the anti-Common Core bill was advanced by state Sen. Leah Vukmir(R-Wauwatosa), ALEC’s national treasurer, and state Sen. Paul Farrow(R-Pewaukee), also an ALEC member. The bill would allow a 15-member,politically appointed Model Academic Standards Board and the Legislature torevamp educational standards, undercutting the power of the statesuperintendent, a constitutional officer, and ignoring years of work on thecurrent standards and exams.
Duringtestimony last week, Deputy State Superintendent Mike Thompson and AssistantState Superintendent Sheila Briggs explained the damage that Vukmir andFarrow’s bill would do. Not only did Republicans provide $12 million toimplement the Common Core, but in 2011 the Legislature and Walker explicitlyrequired the Department of Public Instruction to develop exams aligned toCommon Core standards. The bill would also jeopardize federal Title 1 funding,which would have an enormous impact on Milwaukee Public Schools. In addition,if the state repealed the Common Core, the exams based on it would need to bescrapped immediately.
Sincethe bill does not build in the necessary time to procure, develop and pilot anew assessment, the bill would result in no state test for years, Thompson andBriggs testified.
Thecommittee didn’t vote on the bill last week, and given Olsen and Fitzgerald’sopposition, it appears to be dead.
CannabisOil Bill in Limbo
Alsoin limbo is a bill that would legalize cannabidiol oil for seizures, whichpassed 7-1 in the Assembly Committee on Children and Families. The bill hasstrong bipartisan support in the Legislature, but will likely be blocked bySen. Vukmir, a nurse, in the state Senate. Supporters will find out this weekif Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) will send the bill to the Assemblyfloor. Vos is the state representative of Sally Schaeffer, the mother of Lydia,a six-year-old who is battling seizure disorders that could be helped bycannabidiol oil. (Sally and Lydia’s story was featured on the Feb. 6 cover ofthe Shepherd.) Schaeffer is urgingsupporters to contact their state legislator to schedule a vote on this bill.
