Assembly Democrats Blast GOP ‘Corruption’

Wisconsin Assembly Democrats say the agenda being pushed by the Legislature’s Republican majority this year show signs of “corruption.”

At a state Capitol news conference, Rep. Fred Kessler, D-Milwaukee, lit into Republicans, saying they believed they could “accept a level of corruption” and not suffer the consequences.

“When one political party controls the governorship, both houses of the Legislature and a majority on the Supreme Court, it sometimes becomes a bit arrogant,” Kessler said.

Kessler cited GOP-backed bills to end John Doe investigations for public officials and to get rid of the Government Accountability Board. He also referenced a quickly abandoned attempt to get rid of Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau and a failed attempt to gut Wisconsin’s open records laws.

Kessler said Democrats will try to block the John Doe and GAB bills, although with Republicans’ huge majority in the Assembly, that’s unlikely.

The Assembly speaker’s office had no comment.

The proposals were part of a larger package of bills that Democrats said would combat corruption. Others include:

• A resolution that would enshrine Wisconsin’s open records law in the state constitution.
• Legislation to stop people from working for both a political candidate and an advocacy group at the same time.
• A bill that would remove the right of elected officials who are charged with crimes to be tried in their home county rather than where the alleged crime occurs.
• A plan that would require state Supreme Court justices to recuse themselves from cases involving campaign donors.