Outgoing AG Brad Schimel Talks Election Loss, Lame-Duck Bills

Ousted Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel says in his first post-election interview that his defeat to Democrat Josh Kaul was “kind of a death by a thousand cuts.”

The interview with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee on Wednesday was also his first since the Republican-controlled Legislature passed bills earlier this month in a lame-duck session taking powers away from the attorney general’s office before Kaul takes over.

Schimel said he thinks the changes “might make a few things a little slower.”

Schimel said factors in his defeat included voter opinions on health care and protecting insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, legalizing marijuana referendums around the state that boosted Democratic turnout and opposition to Gov. Scott Walker.

Schimel also said, “we did lose votes I think because people are not happy with some of President Trump’s language that he uses in his communications.”