Senate passes GAB overhaul, campaign finance reform in ‘extraordinary’ session (WI)

Wisconsiin Watchdog ^ | 11-7-15 | M. D. Kittle

[afraidfortherepublic]

Part 280 of 278 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War

MADISON, Wisconsin – After lengthy delays and an extraordinary session that extended into the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill that overhauls the rogue state Government Accountability Board.

But does the final version of the bill, with a controversial amendment, protect and defend the constitution?

At the end of the day, the cold feet coalition prevailed.

The amended bill goes a long way in decentralizing the GAB, the agency that oversees Wisconsin campaign finance, election, ethics and lobbying laws.

But while it divides the political speech regulator into separate elections and ethics commissions, it does not entirely do away with the GAB model of retired judges presiding over the board.

Republican Sens. Luther Olsen, Sheila Harsdorf, Rob Cowles, Jerry Petrowski, and Howard Marklein, insisted on keeping two retired judges on what would be the Ethics Commission. They threatened to vote against the original version of the bill, approved last month in the Assembly, if they didn’t get their way on the judges.

Legislative insiders said the cold feet coalition in recent days struggled to defend the necessity of the judges, but after hours of caucusing this week the lawmakers prevailed.

The bill passed around 2.30 a.m. Saturday on a party-line vote.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, heralded the compromise legislation.

“Today the Wisconsin Senate took another step in ending a dark period in our state’s history,” he said in a statement. “For the past several years, the GAB has been anything but accountable, repeatedly crossing lines and trampling over the constitutional rights of Wisconsin’s citizens in an effort to carry out their own partisan agendas.”

The legislation followed revelations of the “nonpartisan” GAB’s involvement in a politically driven John Doe probe into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker. In July, the state Supreme Court declared the investigation unconstitutional and ordered it stopped. All but liberal Justice Shirley Abrahamson, who was responsible for appointing the first reserve judge who presided over the dragnet, signed on to the court’s decision on the constitutionality of the John Doe. Liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley recused herself because of familial connections to the case.

“Through a legislative audit and a series of court cases and related document releases, the public has learned that the GAB systemically failed to carry out their statutorily required duties while focusing countless agency hours and over $1 million in taxpayer dollars on a partisan investigation which was shut down by the Supreme Court as both ‘unconstitutional,’ and,‘unsupported in either reason or law.’”

Republicans billed the eight year-old Government Accountability Board, created through bipartisan legislation to replace the old state elections and ethics boards, as a “failed experiment.”

The theatrics on the left were, per usual, a comedy-drama.

State Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, issued an obituary following passage (18-14) of the bill.

“The Government Accountability Board (GAB), age 8, died on November 7, 2015, after a long battle with Republican lawmakers and special interest lobbyists. The Government Accountability Board was born February 2, 2007 to a proud group of legislators focused on a fair and ethical elections process. Wisconsinites were deserving of the impartial, nonpartisan oversight of their elections and will mourn the loss of the GAB,” Miller wrote.

Many Wisconsinites will not mourn the loss of an agency that has sliced and diced the constitution in the name of a theory on illegal coordination that has been rejected by multiple courts.

Fitzgerald pointed to emails published in Wisconsin Watchdog’s series, “Wisconsin’s Secret War,” showing GAB staff driving John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz to keep up the investigation despite Schmitz’s deep concerns about the probe’s legal validity.

“The model is broken,” the Senate majority leader said. “You have judges up here that don’t know what’s going on. You have … staff that’s running the show.”

“If you look at what happened with John Doe I and John Doe II and everything that happened during the recall elections everyone here should be scared to death,” Fitzgerald added.

Yet, the Republicans voted to retain two judges on the six-member panel.

While Fitzgerald and others assert the board of six retired judges allowed “staff to go rogue,” conservatives targeted in the John Doe contend the entire agency is rogue, including the judges.

None more so than the GAB’s chairman, Judge Gerald Nichol, according to conservative activist Eric O’Keefe, one of scores of conservatives targeted in the illegal probe. O’Keefe, a director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, Earlier this week sent a memo to lawmakers detailing serious questions regarding Nichol’s conduct.

“Recent statements by Reserve Judge and GAB Chairman Gerald C. Nichol may have constituted judicial misconduct,” O’Keefe writes in the memo. “Wisconsin state legislators should consider the impact such conduct has on public views of the Government Accountability Board.”

Nichol could not be reached for comment about O’Keefe’s memo.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, castigated the GAB overhaul as unnecessary amid this week’s announcements of plant closures and large scale job cuts at prominent Wisconsin manufacturers.

“In a week when thousands of people have lost their jobs in Wisconsin, did Republicans call us in to find creative ways to stop the bleeding of jobs in Wisconsin? Or to provide retraining to those workers? No. The State Senate was called into ‘extraordinary’ session on Friday not to help anyone find a job, but rather help Republicans keep their jobs,” Erpenbach declared in a statement.

Left out of that statement, conservatives charge, is the left’s abject failure to defend and protect the constitution from abusive government agents and laws that deny citizens basic constitutional rights.

O’Keefe thanked Senate Republicans, particularly Fitzgerald and Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, for “addressing vital reforms with urgency.”

“This reform legislation is an essential step in ending the multi-year, multimillion dollar assault on political freedom by (GAB director) Kevin Kennedy and (Milwaukee County District Attorney) John Chisholm. Wisconsin must never again allow the unconstitutional seizure of private emails, secret interrogations by partisan prosecutors, or raids on family homes to be part of our political process,” O’Keefe said in a statement.

The Senate, around midnight, passed a bill reforming Wisconsin’s outdated and unconstitutional campaign finance law.

Democrats decried the Republican-written legislation, arguing it will open up the floodgates of political corruption.

Fitzgerald said the Legislature had to clean up the state’s confusing campaign finance law, portions of which were declared unconstitutional by federal courts.

The bill matches the Assembly version passed last month, keeping a provision that ends the forced disclosure of contributors’ employers.

Assembly Democrats “recused themselves” from a vote on the campaign finance bill.

Senate Democrats tossed amendment after amendment demanding more disclosure, particularly from groups engaged in issue advocacy. Some of the amendments would have conflicted with federal court rulings on political speech in recent years.

The bills now go back to the Assembly, which plans its own extraordinary session on Nov. 16.

State Rep. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, tells Wisconsin Watchdog that it is “overwhelmingly likely that the Assembly will sign off” on the GAB restructuring bill. He is no fan of keeping judges.

“The addition of judges was a step in the wrong direction, but the overall reform is absolutely necessary,” Craig said. “To further delay with additional attempts to negotiate could imperil this important legislation.”

[afraidfortherepublic]

LEADING REFORM: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, led successful passage of bills reforming Wisconsin’s outdated campaign finance laws and overhauling the state’s rogue Government Accountability Board.

RELATED: Memo to Legislature: Take a closer look at GAB judge’s conduct

[afraidfortherepublic]

Overhaul of the GAB finally passes State Senate with judge compnent intact. My question is: Isn’t this something Scott Walker can line item veto?

FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.

[dadfly]

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[Dr. Sivana]

Olsen and company ruined the bill. The Dems now have a permanent majority as the “two retired judges” are all lefties.

Travesty.

It would have been better to vote on the unamended version, and punish those who didn’t vote for justice.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yes, that would’ve been better, but I’ll take this small VICTORY.

Now - let’s haul Nichols, Kennedy, our CROOKED Milwaukee County DA, et al into COURT and sue them to within a dime of their miserable Leftist lives!

P.S. Sen. Jon Erpenbach needs to STFU. Man, I hate that little snot-nosed brat!