Senator Tom Tiffany receives endorsement from Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner

WAOW.com ^ | Jan. 19, 2020 | Ben Zitouni

[T Ruth]

WESTON, Wis. (WAOW) -- Senator Tom Tiffany received an endorsement from Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner to fill the 7th Congressional District seat.

Sensenbrenner is currently the Representative for the state's 5th Congressional District and is also the Dean of the Wisconsin Congressional Delegation.

The endorsement comes a month shy of the special primary election.

***

[T Ruth]

The primary election will be held February 18, 2020. The general election will take place on May 12, 2020.

[mosesdapoet]

He’s not in my district but may be in this one. Here is what’s going on there; Which has been posted on the state page.
Just been told Dodge county Beaver Dam WDOT offices opened with long lines of suspected illegals on Sat 1/18/20 before MLK Monday holiday and are handing out free Wisconsin Voter ID’s . Place loaded with signs reading no birth certificates required.

[Tucker39]

What is Sensenbrenner’s record? Was he in trouble 20 years or so ago, and almost got his butt kicked out of congress...but he begged off and groveled and was given a pass? It may not have been him; but it was someone there in the upper midwest.

[mosesdapoet]

It’s not Sensenbrenner , it’s my former 3rd district congressman which has been remapped and given to Kind because of the vote given to a WI Supreme Court Justice during Governor Doyle term. Which brings this up;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3811072/posts#7

[Impy]

Tiffany won the primary, and a good thing because his opponent was Bloomberg-backed RINO who donated to the rats in 2018!!!!

[mosesdapoet]

Re my post 4; I’m not in Sensenbrenners congressional district. Adams county which is where I’m at is in Tiffany’s state senatorial district and Kind’s congressional. When Tiffany takes Duffy’s seat Governor Evers will be appointing his successor.

[T Ruth]

Thanks for the heads-up.

[T Ruth]

Good news!

[AuH2ORepublican]

“When Tiffany takes Duffy’s seat Governor Evers will be appointing his successor.”
_________________________

Huh? That’s not how state-senate vacancies are filled in Wisconsin. Check this out, from the “How vacancies are filled in state legislatures” page on Ballotpedia:

Wisconsin

If there is a vacancy in the Wisconsin State Legislature, a special election must be held to fill the vacant seat.[96] The governor can call for an election when allowed by law. The election cannot be held after February 1 before a spring general election, unless it is held on the same day of the election, which is the first Tuesday in April. The same requirement applies to any election preceding the fall general election (after September 1), with the exception of elections held on the first Tuesday in November.[97] Also, all vacancies must be filled quickly as long the vacancy happened before the second Tuesday in May during an election year.[98]

See sources: Wisconsin Cons. Art. IV, § 14

https://ballotpedia.org/How_vacancies_are_filled_in_state_legislatures

[Impy]

I don’t think any state has a Governor fill vacant state leg seats by appointment, unless maybe it’s appointment by a list selected by the outgoing members party, like Wyoming does for US Senate vacancies.

In Illinois party bosses get to make the appointment.

Most states just have special elections.

[mosesdapoet]

This is complicated by the election dates and the date the final winner of the 7th Congressional Dist WI seat is sworn into office which is January 2021.

[AuH2ORepublican]

“This is complicated by the election dates and the date the final winner of the 7th Congressional Dist WI seat is sworn into office which is January 2021.”
______________________

Sorry, that is not correct, either.

First of all, the special election for WI-07 will be held on May 12, and Tiffany will be seated by the House within a coulle of days of his certification as the winner.

Second, when Tiffany resigns from the state senate upon his certification as winner of the special election (around mid-May), Gov. Evers may set a date for a special election for the rest of the legislative term.

Could Evers run out the clock and not call a special election, this leaving the seat empty until January 2021 (the start of the next regular term for such seat)? Maybe; I really don’t know whether Wisconsin courts can force Evers to do his job, much less whether they would be willing to do so in the short time frame between thectime they receive a GOP lawsuit and the end of the legislative term. But what I do know is that Evers can’t appoint anyone to serve in the state senate upon Tiffany’s resignation.

[AuH2ORepublican]

OK, I decided to dig a little deeper abd answer my own question about whether Evers could run out the clock and leave the state senate seat vacant. Ballotpedia’s explanation of the rules for filling vacancies in the WI state legislature provided the following “Also, all vacancies must be filled quickly as long the vacancy happened before the second Tuesday in May during an election year.” So I looked up Wisconsin Statute 8.50(4)-(d), and it reads as follows:

“(d) Any vacancy in the office of state senator or representative to the assembly occurring before the 2nd Tuesday in May in the year in which a regular election is held to fill that seat shall be filled as promptly as possible by special election. However, any vacancy in the office of state senator or representative to the assembly occurring after the close of the last regular floorperiod of the legislature held during his or her term shall be filled only if a special session or extraordinary floorperiod of the legislature is called or a veto review period is scheduled during the remainder of the term. The special election to fill the vacancy shall be ordered, if possible, so the new member may participate in the spe- cial session or floorperiod.”

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/Stat0008.pdf

Evers set the WI-07 for May 12, which is, you guessed it, is the second Tuesday in May. That way, Tiffany’s state senate seat will remain vacant after Tiffany leaves for Congress unless (i) Tiffany resigns before he even had won the congressional special election or (ii) a special session is called in which the winner of a special state legislative election could participate.

Given that Tiffany holds a safely Republican state senate district, I hope that he resigns a few days before May 12 (assuming that it’s clear from polling that he’s got the WI-07 election in the bag, which I assume will be the case) and forces Evers to call a special election for the state senate seat.