Photo Credit: Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (Flickr CC)
Why is Governor Tony Evers’ budget getting so much push back from the state legislature? He defeated an incumbent by proposing a new direction for the state, including proposals the voters definitely embraced.
Despite his victory over Scott Walker, the GOP Speaker of the Assembly Robin Vos, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Finance Chair State Senator Alberta Darling are proposing to literally ignore Evers’ budget that includes all the items that the people voted for and use Walker’s last budget (whose agenda the voters rejected in November 2018) to build the 2019-2021 budget. This arrogance is in the wake of Wisconsin’s rejection not only of Walker, but also Republican legislators on a whole, who only won 44% of the votes cast last November compared to the Democratic legislative candidates who received 54% of the total votes cast.
Beating an incumbent governor as Evers did in November is a lot more difficult than winning an open seat, which is certainly difficult enough. When a challenger beats an incumbent governor the public knows well, it is a clear rejection of his policies and a desire on the part of voters for a new direction and some serious change. This was made quite clear by the polls that came out after the election, showing that Wisconsin voters support Evers’ agenda on education, Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform and election reform by more than 60% in most cases. The poll also shows voters supporting legalized medical marijuana by almost 80%. Last November, the voters backed both Evers the person and his policies.
The Voters Made it Clear: They Want Change
As a result of this desire for change, elections that remove an incumbent executive almost always carry over a lot of votes into state legislative races, and the new governor’s party’s invariably gets significant legislative victories. This usually leads to the new governor’s party gaining control of at least one of the legislative chambers and often both. That control in one or both chambers helps the new governor enact many of the policy changes the voters wanted.
In November 2018, Wisconsin voters rejected Walker and his tired policies, and Democratic candidates for legislative seats got more than 200,000 votes in all of the legislative races combined than their Republican opponents, but the Democrats did not gain control of even one chamber in the state legislature. Despite this outsized victory, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats in the legislature barely budged. Why?
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The answer is clear to anyone watching the news over the past year. Wisconsin is currently being governed by an “unconstitutional legislature,” according to a three-judge federal panel—two of whom were appointed by Republican presidents. We have been living under an illegitimate legislature and under legislators that should not be leading the state.
Essentially, Vos, Fitzgerald and Darling are working hard to thwart the will of the voters in the last election running an illegitimate government. Tell me, how is this any different from how the governments of Turkey, Egypt or the Congo function, which we strongly condemn as totally corrupt?
Why is it Unconstitutional?
It is unconstitutional because Vos and Fitzgerald hired extreme rightwing lawyers to redraw the legislative boundaries in 2012 in such a way that in a majority of legislative seats, any Republican, qualified or totally unqualified, couldn’t lose even when the total vote count is heavily Democratic. It is totally undemocratic and according to the federal judges an “unconstitutional legislature.” On top of creating these unconstitutional districts, Wisconsin Republicans, over the past several years, have passed some of the most restrictive voter suppression laws in the country, rivaling the most rightwing states of the deep South.
So, unfortunately, much of the major legislation that has been put forth and passed over the past six years by our “unconstitutional legislature” has been designed by the special interest groups to benefit a small group of wealthy contributors. Over the past several years, it has come down to passing laws for the Republican special interest groups who then, just coincidentally, write large campaign checks. When you have an illegitimate legislature that only gets about 44% of the vote in the last election, the only way you can stay in power is by raising a lot of special interest money and corrupting the election laws with policies like extreme gerrymandering.
Unfortunately for Vos, Fitzgerald and Darling, it’s all about doing whatever is necessary to stay in power. It’s definitely not the Wisconsin of the Tommy Thompson or Tony Earl eras. Understanding all of this, it is amazing to hear Fitzgerald saying that it wasn’t only Evers who won, but it was he and his Republican legislators who also won in November. Does he really think the voters are stupid? Does he have no sense of shame? He and his colleagues created unconstitutional districts and then won in what can be accurately be called a rigged election.
Don’t They Understand What Democracy Means?
If you are holding power due to a rigged election, you would think that the winners of that election would have the sophistication to try to work with the other party and show some give and take and not push an extreme agenda, knowing full well that they don’t have majority support. In Wisconsin, that is not the case.
As Gov. Evers tries to implement the agenda that the voters supported in November 2018— and the voters currently support by more than 60% in recent polls—Republican legislative leaders like Darling, Vos and Fitzgerald are still trying to hold on to Walker’s failed policies. These three individuals cling to power from the results of an election in legislative boundaries that are unconstitutional. If there were honest lines—and with the fact that the Republican legislative candidates got significantly fewer votes than their Democratic opponents—they would not be in power, and Wisconsin voters could see the policies they voted for become law.
Louis Fortis served three terms as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
