State Senate President Chris Kapenga says there aren’t enough votes in the Senate to pass legislation that would draw new legislative maps ahead of the 2024 election, a move deployed by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in an attempt to bypass the state Supreme Court’s new liberal majority.
“We’re looking at that right now,” Kapenga said on WISN’s ‘UpFront,’ which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.
“We’re having those discussions internally to determine is this direction the direction we want to go? There are two sides to it, on this is an action we could take and it could possibly make the process better,” he added. “The other side of that discussion is we have passed maps. The Supreme Court of the United States has said they followed the procedure, so that’s the debate going on right now. We just have to figure out the best course of action. There are not the votes in the Senate right now to pass that legislation.”
Kapenga’s interview was taped hours before new liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz issued her order Friday evening declining to recuse herself from cases involving the state’s legislative maps.
Kapenga is also pushing Vos to begin impeachment proceedings against Meagan Wolfe, the Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator, after Senate Republicans voted to fire her. That is now being challenged in court.
Vos told WKOW last week he will wait until the lawsuit plays out before taking any steps.
“So I just put this in front of him, so I think it’s very wise of him to step back and not knee-jerk react,” Kapenga said in response to Vos’ comments. “He needs to look at what I laid out and decide if this rises to the cause of misconduct.”
Kapenga wouldn’t say how he would respond if a judge ruled the Senate acted illegally.
“I’m not going to comment on that because I’m actually part of that lawsuit,” he said. “But my point is we have to take action.”
Kapenga said he is also actively looking at increased security in the state Senate, after a man was arrested last week open-carrying a handgun, demanding to see Gov. Tony Evers and returned hours later with an assault rifle after posting bail.
“It’s a very credible threat,” Kapenga said. “One of the officers said it’s probably one of the most concerning things that he’s seen, so we defiantly are looking at options at how do we make sure the building is safe, but also the members in the Senate are safe and obviously the Assembly.”
Legislative leaders can set security rules for each of their respective chambers; the governor and Department of Administration are responsible for entrances to the State Capitol.
Kapenga said he’s not looking to change the Capitol’s concealed carry policy, which currently allows concealed carry for permit holders inside the building, but not inside the Senate gallery.
“There’s not discussion around are we going to adjust concealed carry,” he said. “There’s discussion around in today’s society as things continue to get crazier, how are we going to make sure we’re protecting the members of the Legislature.”
Kapenga said that could include new technology that is used within the University of Wisconsin System that can detect weapons.
“So, there’s algorithms that will recognize weapons and alert someone that, hey, there may be a possible weapon in here or something like that,” Kapenga said. “So those are all the things we’re looking at.”
On the Brewers funding bill, which received hours of public comment during a hearing at State Fair Park this past week, Kapenga said Senate Republicans are concerned with the high price tag for taxpayers and will push for a ticket tax as part of the final agreement.
Rep. Rob Brooks, R-Saukville and the bill’s author, said an amendment would likely include a tax on non-game events at American Family Field.
“My personal preference, this is not the position of the caucus, is that I think every ticket because I think anybody walking in there is using the facility,” Kapenga said. “I’d like to see a ticket tax. It could be a very small one, but as you look at 28,000 people every game that are rolling through there, that little bit can help make up the difference between where we’re at now and where I think we need to be.”
GOP U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is backing U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan to be the next House speaker as House Republicans return to Washington this week.
Jordan and Rep. Steve Scalise are running to replace U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy after the California Republican was ousted last week.
“I think we will coalesce because I think, as a conference, we understand it was not a good look last week,” the Minocqua Republican said on the show. “We have to show that we can work for the American people.”
Tiffany said he opposes efforts to expel U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz from the House Republican conference after Gaetz led the effort to oust McCarthy.
“I go back to President Lincoln after the Civil War he said with malice toward none. We need everyone that is a Republican pulling together here. I think we need to move forward, not look back,” Tiffany said.
Tiffany also dismissed calls by some Republicans for Donald Trump to be named the next speaker. The U.S. Constitution does not require the speaker to be a member of the House.
“We have members in our house that are very capable, whether it’s Scalise, Kevin Hern from Oklahoma or Jim Jordan, who chairs the committee I’m on, the Judiciary Committee,” Tiffany said. “They are all very capable. We have people in the House who can do this job.”
— Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan on the program said Dems quickly united in their decision to not help McCarthy maintain the speakership.
“He was completely untrustworthy,” Pocan said. “At the end of the day, I was shocked to see the diverse parts of our caucus all saying the same thing, that they just didn’t trust Kevin McCarthy.”
Pocan said it’s unlikely any Democrats will back any speaker Republicans put up for a floor vote as soon as Wednesday.
“I think if the moderates got together and reached out, which they’re not going to do because they’ve had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to do that, you could see something different happen,” Pocan said. “But it’s Donald Trump and the extremists that run that caucus.”
Also on the show, Milwaukee Bucks owners Jamie Dinan and Wes Edens said public financing was critical in building Fiserv Forum and keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee.
They called it a “classic successful public-private partnership” as negotiations surrounding the Brewers funding bill intensities in Madison.
“It was either build a new arena, or the NBA was going to make us move the team,” Dinan said. “And none of us wanted to move the team. The economics of a small-market team made building an arena on your own particularly challenging, which is why we went to the state and the county, and I know that’s controversial, but the reality is Milwaukee was never going to get another NBA franchise if they lost this one, and I think people recognized that.”
The arena opened in 2018 and included $250 million in public financing.
“If you could go back 10 years ago when we showed up here, this is all basically vacant land and kind of a forgotten part of Milwaukee,” Edens said. “And what’s happened then in terms of the team is great, but it’s equally as big of an impact off the court.”
See more from the show:
https://www.wisn.com/upfront
