GAB Director Kennedy Announces Retirement

Wisconsin’s longtime elections chief says he will retire on June 29, the day before his nonpartisan agency will be disbanded in favor of commissions run by partisan appointees.

Kevin Kennedy became the director of Wisconsin’s old Elections Board in 1982 and then the director of the Government Accountability Board in 2006. He said the biggest change during those 34 years has been the integration of technology into the election process and the disclosure of campaign finance information to the public over the Internet.

Kennedy said he’s also proud there were no “significant election malfunctions” under his watch, especially during the tumultuous recall elections of 2011 and 2012.

“I think the feedback I kept getting was ‘You emanated a sense of calmness when everything else around you was chaos,’” Kennedy said. “And that, to me, was one of the best compliments I think I ever got.”

Kennedy is the only executive director the GAB ever had, a position that gave him the chance to oversee both its creation and its dismantling. The new ethics and elections commissions that will replace the GAB are similar to Wisconsin’s old Ethics Board and Elections Board in that the voting members will be appointed by governors and legislative leaders.

The GAB came under fire from GOP lawmakers when it got involved with an investigation known as John Doe 2, involving Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative groups. John Doe 2 was looking into whether Walker’s campaign illegally coordinated with those groups, which can accept unlimited donations and keep their donors secret. Republicans called the probe an overreach and the state Supreme Court ultimately shut it down.

While the investigation may have led to the end of the GAB, Kennedy said he has no regrets.

“I think the regret would have been had we looked at that evidence and said, ‘It’s too political, it’s too hot to handle,’” Kennedy said. “Instead the board said, ‘We have no choice. This is our job. We need to investigate to see if there’s been a violation of the law. This is credible evidence. We have to pursue it.’”

Kennedy said he expects to stay involved in election-related issues during retirement, including observing elections in other countries.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story featuring Associated Press content has been updated with original reporting.