Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu says Gov. Tony Evers’ “word and promise are on the line” ahead of tomorrow’s deadline to sign or veto his legislative maps.

LeMahieu also insists Republicans have no ulterior motives, including a lawsuit to keep the issue in the courts.

“We have a memo stating it’s the governor’s maps,” LeMahieu told WISN’s “UpFront,” produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “I don’t know what mischievous thing we’re doing here. It’s sort of rich or funny some of the comments made by the Democrats on the floor.”

Republicans passed the maps drawn by Evers last week in an attempt to get ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision after the courts ruled the current maps unconstitutional. LeMahieu said Evers’ maps are the best politically for Republicans between what the court could now decide.

The legislation includes language added by the Legislative Reference Bureau stating the maps take effect in November instead of immediately.

“You know, he might use that (as an excuse to veto), but that’s just standard language,” LeMahieu said, adding the language was not inserted to protect Assembly Speaker Robin Vos from a potential recall challenge. “We just asked, I asked the Reference Bureau, nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, to draft up the governor’s maps as they are. And that’s standard language that has been put in maps in the past by Democrats or Republicans, just standard language the Reference Bureau puts in there.”

LeMahieu also pushed back on assertions by Vos that the Assembly’s medical marijuana bill is dead this session because Senate Republicans wanted “a more liberal version than the one we’re willing to pass.”

“Well, the bill that was introduced by Robin in the Assembly, the Speaker, it created state-run dispensaries and only five in the state of Wisconsin,” LeMahieu said. “You know, a lot of our Republicans in the Senate are free-market. Why would we grow the size of government if it’s a drug that’s being prescribed? Why would we only have five locations and have it be state employees? So that was the big sticking point. So calling it conservative or liberal, I’d rather not add more government employees to the situation.”

Beyond that, LeMahieu said there is likely enough support in his caucus to pass a medical marijuana bill that included the private sector.

“You know, I think we could get there, but not with state-run dispensaries,” LeMahieu said. “We need some tight guardrails around there to make sure that it’s being prescribed for actual medical uses, but then I think we could potentially get 17 votes there.”

LeMahieu also said a bill that would allow election officials to begin processing absentee ballots a day early is likely dead. The Assembly passed it with bipartisan support.

“I’m not sure that we have enough votes to pass that this session,” LeMahieu said.

The bill targets large cities like Milwaukee with larger numbers of people voting absentee, meant to dispel accusations and conspiracy theories of late-night “ballot dumps” after results are processed, sometimes late into the night or early morning.

“Other large cities around the state count their ballots on time,” LeMahieu said. “Dane County does a fantastic, they have all their ballots counted shortly after the polls close. They take their absentee ballots, move them out to the places where the resident was supposed to vote, and count them during the day. Other cities that use central count as Milwaukee does, they hire enough employees to get their ballots counted on time, so you know if this bill doesn’t go through, it’s incumbent on Milwaukee to count ballots faster.”

LeMahieu noted he’s introduced the bill several times before in previous sessions.

“It’s not my job to push or hold back individual bills,” LeMahieu said. “I try to make sure that the bills that get through the committee process, that we have good support and they’re good for the state of Wisconsin.”

Also on the show, Michael Phillips, the son of the late Wisconsin trailblazer Vel R. Phillips, said the state Capitol statue in her honor should be in place by this fall as her family marks what would have been her 100th birthday this past weekend.

“One of the things that we’ve been able to do is gain bipartisan support for the statue of my mother that’s going to go up on the State Capitol grounds,” Phillips said. “It’s odd isn’t it that it would take until 2024 for a Black woman to stand on state Capitol grounds anywhere in the country?”

Phillips said the efforts faced several setbacks including the pandemic and the death of their sculptor seven months ago. Phillips said they’re also still working to raise the final $50,000 needed for the project.

“One of the things we decided to do early on was to not ask the state for any money at all,” Philips said. “We’re funding this thing privately. Part of the reason is, we’ve gotten all kinds of buy-in from across the aisle, but when you start asking for money, tax dollars, it can complicate things.”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told “UpFront” the nearly $1 billion in grants the Biden administration announced for airports nationwide is a worthwhile investment of taxpayer dollars from the infrastructure law.

“We got far more applications than we were able to say yes to, which demonstrates just how much of a need there is for these improvements,” Buttigieg said.

The money includes $5.1 million from Milwaukee’s airport for roof repairs, $3.42 million in Appleton to add new gates and $2.6 million in Madison to resurface pavement and improve bus access.

“In Madison, I know Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway well, and she’s focused on making sure everybody can have access to community resources, whether it’s someone who works at the airport or somebody traveling from there, which is why something that sounds as every day as pavement and bus access really matters,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg also discussed the latest issues surrounding Boeing after a fuselage panel blew off an Alaska Airlines flight after takeoff. A preliminary report found bolts used to secure the door on a Boeing 737 Max were removed at a factory.

“We’re certainly concerned with the safety culture at Boeing, which is why they’re under a microscope right now,” Buttigieg said. “We have boots on the ground, an audit that’s underway, and really everything’s on the table in terms of the future in how quality assurance is managed and overseen at Boeing.”

See more from the show.