U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil isn’t revealing yet who he’ll back for speaker as House Republicans convene tonight for another candidate forum amid “a lot of frustration.”
“This is going to be a long slog over the course of the weekend,” Steil said yesterday on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “The key is we find that individual that can unify the conference.”
Steil, who said he has no interest in running for speaker, said he believes “the man or woman exists inside our caucus” who can get 217 votes.
“This isn’t easy, but sometimes democracy is messy and this just shows that fact,” the Janesville Republican said. “I do believe there is and are individuals that can come forward that would really be able to garner the support of the full conference. We’ll see who puts forward their names.”
Steil, who is chair of the House Administration Committee which oversees U.S. Capitol Police, said he is monitoring the threats some lawmakers and their families received in recent days targeting those who opposed and voted against Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
“There is absolutely no place in our democratic system for political violence or threats of violence,” he said. “I’m in constant communication with Capitol security, Capitol police and others to make sure we’re providing everyone the resources they need to be able to stay safe.”
U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, the former state Senate majority leader and strong ally of Jim Jordan, told “UpFront” the current division among House Republicans is intensifying publicly.
“I’ve dealt with some caucuses that were 17-16 for a period of time,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s never easy to kind of maneuver when you’ve got such a tight margin. In this conference, because of the diversity of people that have been elected, it’s caused some small fractures that have gotten worse in the last couple of weeks because there’s so much pressure on this conference to actually elect a speaker.”
Fitzgerald, too, insisted there is a Republican who will eventually be able to get the 217 votes needed while acknowledging it could be another long week ahead.
“I think there is,” he said. “It’s going to take some concessions from some of the smaller groups that have emerged and go back to doing our work, which I thought we were very much on track with.”
Also on the show, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore says Dems have no regrets for not helping Kevin McCarthy remain speaker and scoffed at the idea any Dem would vote for a Republican to help end the stalemate.
“Why are you asking me that?” Moore said. “I’m going to vote, you know you heard it here first folks, I’m voting for Hakeem Jeffries for speaker. They are in the majority.”
Moore called last week’s events “a stunning moment in history” that Republicans were unable to elect a speaker.
“House Democrats are ready to come to the table to fund the government, we’re ready to come to the table to look at all kinds of aid and assistance we need to give to the Middle East crisis, including humanitarian assistance,” Moore said. “I hope they spend the weekend coming up with a consensus candidate. It seems to be that Jim Jordan is not the best and brightest in their caucus.”
Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe calls last week’s court filings “a really big deal” after attorneys representing GOP legislative leaders acknowledged the Senate vote to fire her was “symbolic.”
The filing also argued the GOP-controlled Joint Committee on Legislative Organization has no current authority to replace her, and Wolfe told “UpFront” the vote to fire her was a “stunt.”
“I’m very glad to hear the legislative leadership agrees with what our state Department of Justice has been saying all along — that I am lawfully in my true position — but it’s really unfortunate we had to sue to get these public admissions of what we knew to be true,” Wolfe said. “It’s unfair to me and it’s unfair to the people of our state that the Senate tried to remove me while at the same time seeming to know full well that what they were doing was not lawful. So I’m just looking forward to getting back to the very important work that the commission has ahead of us, and I’m hopeful that we will have fewer distractions or stunts like these as we move forward.”
GOP leaders are still asking a judge to force commissioners to appoint an administrator and move beyond Wolfe’s status as a hold-over. Wolfe said that court action will ultimately provide “clarity.”
Wolfe said resigning would not solve the problem or help restore trust in Wisconsin’s elections.
“I think that would set a really dangerous precedent,” she said. “If I were to say if you bully or harass me enough, if you push enough that I will just step aside and allow partisan influences to be part of elections administration, I think that would be setting a really, really dangerous precedent.”
Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley is pushing the state Senate to add language to the Brewers ballpark maintenance funding deal that would ensure the county and city have appointees to the newly created stadium district board.
A public hearing in the Senate is scheduled Wednesday. The legislation provides $411 million from the state and $135 million from Milwaukee city and county combined to keep the team in the city through 2050.
“There have been many conversations around this,” Crowley said. “There may be some changes there. We heard about the ticket surcharge. We’ve also talked about representation for the city and Milwaukee County, so I know that I’m looking forward to any changes and conversations we need to have in the Senate to make sure that we again have representation and we continue to protect our taxpayers.”
Crowley said he backs the current deal and added if he were still in the Assembly he would have voted for it.
“When it came down to negotiating the Brewers deal, we wanted to make sure that we not only protected Milwaukee County taxpayers, that we protected Wisconsin taxpayers and found a way to keep the Brewers here,” he said. “So when I think about this current deal that we have on the table, this is something that is going to be beneficial for Milwaukee County.”
Crowley announced his reelection bid last week. The general election is in April, the same day as Wisconsin’s presidential primary and election for Milwaukee mayor.
“I will be serving my entire term,” Crowley said. “I know there are a lot of people in office who have different levels of ambition, but I do plan on running my full term.”
See more from the show:
https://www.wisn.com/upfront
