Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly Republican Robin Vos did something that even I thought he was smart enough not to do. There is an adage in politics that warns: Do not unnecessarily stir a hornet’s nest and never let it be known what buttons to push that will rile you up. Vos’s popularity outside his district is nonexistent. In fact, I’ll be blunt. He’s hated.
Speaker Vos has been in the legislature for a long time. In fact, too long. He is an example of why term limits have made its way onto our Agenda for Wisconsin at Rise Up Wisconsin. That is a list of items that base conservative voters are telling me need to be pursued by the Wisconsin State legislature for action. Vos is unreachable, he doesn’t return phone calls or answer emails from voters and is one of the most arrogant politicians in the Wisconsin assembly. But two things he did recently require a response from the base voter.
The first one was to discourage a particular person from entering the primary race for Governor in the Republican Party. That role is reserved for the voters, not a career establishment politician and voters deserve choices, not having a path cleared for a particular candidate who is not an incumbent. Crony politics leads to corrupt politics and a system where only insiders have access and a voice. It is what spawns career politicians like Robin Vos. In a primary, voters select a candidate to go onto the general election. Vos usurped the right of voters to do that and anointed himself as the king or in the case of Rebecca Kleefisch case, queen maker. Is that because he will control Kleefisch and thus become the de facto Governor of Wisconsin? But that isn’t the worst of his actions.
He recently took away the one staffer that each independently elected state representative is provided to help that representative fulfill the wishes of his or her constituents. All 99 state Representatives and all 33 state Senators are provided at least one paid office staffer and several unpaid interns to carry out their sworn responsibilities.
Representative Timothy Ramthun (R) who represents the 59th Assembly District (Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Calumet and Washington Counties) has been one of the most outspoken advocates calling for a full blown cyber forensic audit of the state’s 2020 election to get to the root of all the irregularities that have been discovered. Ramthun apparently was getting too close to insinuating that Speaker Vos might have had his fingerprints on allowing the Wisconsin Election Commission to authorize ballot drop boxes to be used throughout the state, in violation of state election law. Apparently, that struck a chord in Robin Vos so much so that he was going to prevent Rep Ramthun from being able to carry out his sworn duty in an attempt to weaken Ramthun’s re-election prospects.
That, ladies and gentlemen is the height of an abuse of power. It is untenable in a representative democracy. It is beyond acceptable behavior in politics. Speaker Robin Vos rules with an iron fist. His colleagues in his own Party fear him. Vos has become a tyrant. He has proven to be thin skinned. His Napoleonic complex behavior is in line with his inferiority complex. He needs a wakeup call from voters.
A CALL TO ACTION IS NECESSARY. This is why Rise Up Wisconsin was created. To organize the grass roots to demand elected official accountability.
Call Speaker Robin Vos’s office at (608) 266-9171 and email him at Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov and demand that he return the paid staff position to Rep Ramthun so Ramthun can fulfill his responsibility to his constituents and to stop playing king or queen maker for the Republican primary for Governor. Remind him that role is for voters, not establishment politicians.
All the best!
David A. Clarke Jr
President, Rise Up Wisconsin Inc.
