ENDING GAB: On Wednesday, Gov. Scott Walker signed the Government Accountability Board reform bill that one Republican lawmaker said ends an "eight-year failed experiment."
Posted on 12/16/2015 3:09:03 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Part 305 of 305 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War
MADISON, Wis. - Ding dong, the witch-hunter is dead.
More than a month after the Republican-led Legislature passed a bill dismantling the state Government Accountability Board, Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday finally signed the bill into law - with a partial veto.
The bill's supporters, including conservatives targeted by the GAB and Milwaukee County prosecutors in the unconstitutional and politically driven John Doe probe, rejoiced while the left prophesied biblical-proportion campaign finance and election law disasters.
"Reform to this broken agency was long overdue and I'm proud of today's accomplishment," said Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, co-author of the bill with state Rep. Dean Knudson, R-Hudson. "That said, our work is not complete and I certainly intend on paying close attention during the transition process, ensuring the new agency is implemented as intended."
The bill was among 10 pieces of legislation Walker, without ceremony, signed into law Wednesday.
The governor also signed a bill repealing and recreating Chapter 11 of Wisconsin's campaign finance statutes. Democrats decried that measure, too, declaring the measure that brings the state's badly outdated campaign finance laws up to date will be an opening for massive political corruption.
Assembly Bill 388 eliminates the GAB, Wisconsin's "nonpartisan" political speech cop, and creates two new commissions - an elections regulator and an ethics commission that will administer and supervise ethics, campaign finance and lobbying regulations. The changes are set to go into effect by June 30.
"We are professionals who care deeply about serving voters, local election officials, candidates and officeholders, and the lobbying community," said GAB director and general counsel Kevin Kennedy in a statement. "Our commitment is to ensure continuity of service during the transition."
Walker partially vetoed the bill "to ensure that the Governor's office receives an adequate number of nominations for the commission appointments of county or municipal clerks and former judges."
Walker's signature sets up the end of a government agency created in 2007 through bipartisan legislation. Opponents of the law say it will bring Wisconsin back to the days of the old ethics and elections boards, frequently accused of gridlock and incompetence.
Under the changes, members of the commissions will be equally appointed by both parties and will serve five-year terms.
"The integrity of the election process will be protected by the proper checks and balances to the oversight of these new commissions," a press release from the governor's office states.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, who did not have his home raided by armed law enforcement in an unconstitutional campaign finance investigation, said the governor and legislative Republicans "could not be trusted to do the right thing" for the state.
"Under Republican rule, Wisconsin is open for corruption and our era of clean, open and transparent government is over," Barca said in a statement, again pushing an oft-repeated Democrat catch phrase.
Supporters of the bill, however, say Wisconsin's "era of clean, open and transparent government ended" when the GAB and their prosecutor partners led predawn, paramilitary-style raids on the homes and offices of conservative targets on what amounted to allegations of paper crimes. The long investigation was based on a widely rejected theory that 29 conservative groups illegally coordinated with the Republican governor's campaign during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections.
Even after the presiding John Doe judge quashed subpoenas in the secret John Doe probe, the Democrat-led Milwaukee County District Attorney's office, the GAB and its hand-picked special prosecutor continued to push the investigation.
Documents filed in a lawsuit against the GAB have exposed the partisan motives of the agency's staff members. And even after reforms to the state's controversial John Doe law, the GAB has refused to turn over information on the cost of the investigation.
But the GAB's troubles go beyond its involvement in the political Doe. The agency has struggled to perform some of its core duties, although its defenders say the regulator has performed admirably amid an unprecedented spate of recall elections and increasing demands.
Knudson has said appointing partisan members of the new commissions will end the pretense of the GAB's claims of a "nonpartisan" regulator and bring real accountability to elections and ethics oversight.
The lawmaker's office said Knudson would not have comment Wednesday on the GAB reform law.
With change will come lost jobs - principally that of long-time GAB director Kennedy. Kennedy, GAB board members and the agency's supporters are worried the new commissions will not be ready in time to handle the demands of the 2016 presidential elections.
"There are still many questions about how the transition will happen, which we hope to answer in coming weeks," Kennedy said. "2016 is a busy Presidential election year, but we will do everything we can to ensure a smooth transition and ensure the new commissions get up to speed."
Walker and Republican leadership assert there will be plenty of time to get the GAB's replacement up and running without complicating the democratic process.
Pushing back on the left's "open for corruption" slogan, Eric O'Keefe said Wisconsin is "now open for political speech."
"Republicans in the Legislature acted decisively to protect citizens from ambiguous legislation and abusive regulators," said O'Keefe, the long-time conservative activist whose Wisconsin Club for Growth was targeted in the John Doe. O'Keefe and the Club sued the GAB on charges of conducting an illegal investigation at taxpayer expense.
Walker signed the reform measure two weeks after the state Supreme Court reaffirmed that the John Doe probe was unconstitutional and that the special prosecutor - who also served as a GAB contracted special investigator - did not hold a legally valid position.
The campaign finance reform law comes years after multiple court rulings rendered large swaths of Chapter 11 unconstitutional. Assembly Bill 387, authored by the Legislature's top Republican leaders, increases campaign contribution limits and ends the requirement that individual donors must identify their employer. That change was among the more controversial provisions, with Democrats insisting removing the disclosure requirement will pollute the political process.
Citizens and nonprofit issue advocacy organizations also will be able to more closely work with campaigns under the campaign finance reforms.
One of the criticisms of the political John Doe is that it cut off First Amendment rights of association, ultimately chilling political speech. The state Supreme Court’s conservative majority, in a 4-1 ruling, declared there is nothing illegal about like-minded individuals and groups sharing ideas with campaigns.
"Today's signing by the Governor makes it official: We can once again engage in communicating about politics without fear of government raiding homes, seizing emails and silencing targets," O'Keefe said.
ENDING GAB: On Wednesday, Gov. Scott Walker signed the Government Accountability Board reform bill that one Republican lawmaker said ends an "eight-year failed experiment."
Let me explain to Kevin Kennedy how the transition will work. First he packs his personal belongings and vacates his office forthwith. Then the Legislature fixes the mess he made. In the meantime, he should hire his own attorney to keep his sorry tuchus out of jail.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Barca can go pound salt. He is a pitiful excuse for a lawmaker.
What about John Chisolm? His butt should also be jailed.
This reads like, 'The Onion,' LOL! Barca is such a POS! Here he is, leading the charge to trash our State Capitol after Governor Walker enacted Act 10.
Chisolm is not part of this Bill. His comeuppance will come later. He’s the subject of a petition to the Governor by a bunch of minorities to be removed from office for other infractions.
I love the part about this being NONPARTISAN, makes my BS flag go up.
Does Walker have power to remove him or does he have to be recalled?
Non-partisan really means bi-partisan. There will be an equal number of Dems and Republicans appointed.
The people petitioning claim that Walker has the power to remove him.
And he has a wife! Yeesh!
The Government Accountability Board, the illegal Stalin-state move to conduct John Doe prosecutions of political enemies, another liberal legacy.
This is great news. Chisholm and his other buddies have until Friday to file an appeal (using taxpayer dollars) with the US Supreme Court over the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling which shut down John Doe II. I’ll bet he does, but don’t think the Supremes will ‘grant cert’ unless they want to shut this sort of crap down to make a point. Chisholm is a real vindictive guy. It’ll be nice to see him lose one more time.
Give thanks to O’Keefe and others. They stood very tall and paid a big price to combat this terrorism.
Thank God they exposed the corruption.
Too bad that democrat leaders have no morals.
I was referring to the current GAB being nonpartisan.
What a load of crap.
Barca can go home and cry to his husband
Indeed! Kevin and his good friend Lois Lerner should order up matching jailhouse suits.
Minority Leader Barca is very disappointed. He loved the organized criminal activity that was aimed at evil Republicans. I'm sure that he believes that the reason they have grabbed political power through corruption and voter fraud is to ensure that the flow of money continues to pass through the pockets of the right politicians and union leaders. This turn of events is a very disturbing outcome.
This law was so scary, you did not feel like you were in America. Its educational to see that government can take away the rights of anybody so easily. All that freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom from unwarranted search can just dissolve when faced with a committee run by Elsworth Toughy.
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