Today in Wisconsin authoritarianism
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Partisan gerrymandering just leads to escalating authorianism, an ongoing story:
Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Thursday to fire the swing state’s top elections official, who argued lawmakers didn’t have the power to oust her and said she would stay in office. About an hour after the vote, she sued GOP lawmakers, seeking validation from the courts that she can keep her job.
The vote ignited a dispute over who is in charge of overseeing elections in a state that is expected to play a critical role in next year’s presidential contest and that may have to redraw its legislative districts within months.
The Republicans’ own lawyers, as well as the state’s Democratic attorney general, told the senators before the vote that they didn’t have the authority to remove Meagan Wolfe, the director of the state’s bipartisan elections commission. Wolfe, whose position is nonpartisan, has won praise from voting administrators across the country as well as local officials in Wisconsin.
And the reason that they don’t have the authority to remove Wolfe is a decision they got from the state Supreme Court when Republicans controlled it to try to restrict the power of the actually democratically accountable governor:
Republican lawmakers found they had few options for getting rid of Wolfe — ironically because of a lawsuit they won last year that says state officials often can remain in their positions until the state Senate confirms a replacement.
Paging Frank Wilhoit!