Dylan Brogan
Jeanette Marquess is “sick of this shit.” Yet, she braved the cold outside the Capitol, once again, clutching a protest sign with a mittened-hand. Marquess — like hundreds of others — spent hours at the Capitol on Monday protesting a slew of GOP bills introduced in a lame duck session of the state Legislature.
“I’m exhausted. My feet are wrecked. I’m almost 60 years old. I’ve been protesting since Vietnam!” Marquess said. “I keep coming out for my grandkids — for all children. So their world isn’t doomed. But these pissants just won't quit.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) announced late last week they were convening an extraordinary session to take up bills that Democrats say are a last-minute power grab before Gov.-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul are sworn into office in January.
Democrats swept every statewide office in Nov. 6 election but Wisconsin will have divided government for at least the next two years. Democrats won a majority of the total votes for Assembly during the midterm. Even so, they return to the Capitol in 2019 as the minority party in both the Assembly and Senate.
But before divided government takes hold, GOP lawmakers would like to: Move the 2020 presidential primary from April to March, which would put the election for a Supreme Court seat in a lower-turnout election; limit early voting to two weeks; allow the Legislature to hire private attorneys to continue lawsuits brought by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel; limit Evers’ control over the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation; lower the state income tax by $60 million to offset new online sales tax revenue; shift control of how court settlements are spent from the Attorney General to the Legislature; bar judges from deferring to state agencies interpretation of state laws; and require Evers to get permission from the Legislature if he wants to ban guns at the Capitol.
Assembly minority leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) tells Isthmus that lame duck sessions typically happen when people are celebrating holidays and aren’t paying as much attention to politics.
“This is the ultimate in trying to dupe the public and undermining power for the future governor. These guys don’t care. They are going to do what they want to do for them. It has nothing to do with anything that benefits the public,” Hintz said. “You know why people are so frustrated and protesting? Because of power-hungry, egomaniacs like Robin Vos and his ilk, that continue to run roughshod over the public interest at any expense.”
FItzgerald told reporters on Monday that he’s not sure what all the fuss is about.
“I’m a little surprised by the reaction. Specifically from Gov.-elect Evers. On one hand he says he wants to work with the Republican majorities. Yet, he’s kind of been over-the-top in saying that he thinks this is outrageous,’’ Fitzgerald said. “I don’t think it’s outrageous at all…. There are some loose ends that you could characterize as the final piece of significant public policy decisions that have been made.”
Vos said that he expected to take up similar bills even if Walker was reelected.
“I actually sat down with Gov. Walker and Sen. Fitzgerald this spring to talk about some of these proposals — not all, I have to be honest — but some of these proposals,” Vos said at the press conference. “I had intended to do it in January because, of course, Gov. Walker in my mind [would have] hopefully won re-election. But the fact that he did not, we have to do it now. To make sure we don’t get into this partisan rancor — which is what’s happening — where just because a Republican offers it, every Democrat says it’s a bad idea.”
Hundreds of people protested throughout Monday as legislators heard testimony about the proposals before the Joint Finance Committee. Then at 5:30 p.m., hundreds of protesters rallied on the Capitol steps at State Street, while the hearing continued inside.
State Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) told demonstrators that the state has already endured an “onslaught” of Republican legislation intended to undermine the influence of Democratic voters under Walker.
“Whether we are talking about voter ID, whether we are talking about rigged [district] maps, whether we are talking about rolling back early voting hours — Republicans have tried again and again to rig the game in their favor,” Subeck told the crowd. “Now, Republicans are again trying to change the rules in a desperate attempt to cling to their own power. Despite the will of the people…. You all voted for change and that’s what you deserve.”
Beth Fettig brought her two young daughters to the rally. “We are teaching the girls about democracy. It’s important that they know that everyone’s voice should be heard,” Fettig said. “We did our part by electing new leaders. And now Republicans are trying to limit the power that we voted in. It’s frustrating. I was hoping for even more people to show up but this is pretty good.”
Matt Cousins, a member of Socialist Alternative, was there to hand out literature. He’s still sour on Democrats for not taking advantage of the massive street protests at the Capitol in 2011 over Walker’s anti-union reforms.
“The Democrats took all that energy and wasted it. We want to bring back that energy and go on the offensive, go further than the Democrats have been willing to. We need to get back all the ground that was lost under Walker,” Cousins said. “Why is Evers even considering appointing a Republican [to his cabinet]? It’s a joke. We don’t need more Republicans in office. We just had an election that got rid a lot of them.”
Secretary of State Doug La Follette hopes that protests over the GOP’s lame duck session rival those in 2011. La Follette — who was first elected to the post in 1975 — was the only Democrat elected to a statewide office during the Walker years.
“The past eight years has been very lonely here as the only Democrat. But you changed that. You told them that we’ve had enough of the crap that they’ve been serving to us for the past eight years,” La Follette told people at the rally.
“There are hundreds here tonight… but on [Tuesday] I want to see thousands. We did it for Act 10,” La Follette boomed. “We need 5,000, 6,000 here to take our Capitol back and tell them to stop this crap.”
La Follette can expect to see Marquess there.
“Vos was not elected to be governor but he’s trying to tinker with the governorship. Like it’s any of his business,” Marquess said. ‘This is a Machiavellian-scheme. [Vos] needs to sit the fuck down and get over his big head.”
