#josh kaul

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Musk buys votes in Wisconsin—and pushes wacky conspiracy

Elon Musk traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday and handed out checks to Wisconsin voters in an attempt to sway the upcoming election

Oliver Willis at Daily Kos:

Elon Musk traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday and handed out checks to Wisconsin voters in an attempt to sway the upcoming election in favor of conservative state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel. Musk gave out two $1 million checks to voters during a town hall and said the outcome of the upcoming race would be “important for the future of civilization.” Musk claimed the voters were spokespeople for his political group, an attempt to work around Wisconsin laws against vote-buying. Referencing a possible case before the court that could lead to redistricting of congressional seats, Musk openly worried that a liberal majority on the court could lead to Democrats being elected who oppose his ongoing efforts to attack the federal government through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. That’s because the state is still recovering from a vicious Republican gerrymander, and electing Schimel could jeopardize that recovery. Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate in the race, has called Musk’s efforts to buy the result of the race “immoral.” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, accused Musk of breaking anti-bribery state law and filed suit against Musk’s America PAC. The state Supreme Court declined to hear the case after it was also rejected by a county judge and the state appeals court.

[...] Musk’s brazen attempts to use his enormous fortune—he is the wealthiest person on the planet—to pervert the American electoral system has come under intense criticism. Writing about the Musk gambit in a guest column for Daily Kos, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler asked, “Are we feudal serfs of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk? Or are we free?” At the presidential level, Musk’s payoffs in service of Trump have led to the billionaire wielding enormous influence on American life, even though nobody voted him into office. DOGE has infiltrated multiple government agencies, purged thousands of employees, and has been repeatedly ruled against in court for violating laws. Despite his actions, Musk bristled at criticism, showcasing once again that the billionaire has extremely thin skin. 

Elon Musk’s attempts to bribe voters ought to backfire at the polls in Wisconsin.

See Also:

AP, via HuffPost: Elon Musk Hands Out $1 Million Payments After Wisconsin Supreme Court Declines Request To Stop Him

[saywhat-politics]

Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down GOP law weakening attorney general's power

A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court has sided with the Democratic state attorney general in a long-running battle over a law passed by Repub

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with the Democratic state attorney general Tuesday in a long-running battle over a law passed by Republicans who wanted to weaken the office in a lame duck legislative session more than six years ago.

The court ruled 7-0 that requiring the attorney general to get permission from a Republican-controlled legislative committee to settle certain lawsuits was unconstitutional. The law is a separation of powers violation, the court said.

The Republican-controlled Legislature convened a session in December 2018 after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul defeated Republican incumbents. The laws signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker on his way out the door weakened powers of both offices.

At issue in the case decided Tuesday was the attorney general’s power to settle lawsuits involving environmental and consumer protection cases as well as cases involving the governor’s office and executive branch. The new law required the Legislature’s budget committee, which is controlled by Republicans, to sign off on those settlements.

[tomorrowusa]

Wisconsin Supreme Court throws out 1849 abortion ban

Writing for the majority in a 4-3 ruling, liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet found changes the state has made to abortion laws over the past 50

The Wisconsin Supreme Court tossed out a 176-year old law banning all abortions. After the GOP US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 the 1849 zombie Wisconsin law was enforced again.

A split state Supreme Court today invalidated an 1849 law that had been interpreted as banning all abortions. Writing for the majority in a 4-3 ruling, liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet found changes the state has made to abortion laws over the past 50 years implicitly repealed the 1849 statute. Dallet added the changes touched “virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions.” She was joined by fellow liberals Ann Walsh Bradley, Jill Karofsky and Janet Protasiewicz. “That comprehensive legislation so thoroughly covers the entire subject of abortion that it was clearly meant as a substitute for the 19th century near-total ban on abortion,” Dallet wrote.

Justice Bradley is retiring at the end of July. You may recall the Wisconsin Supreme Court election to replace her in April where broligarch Elon Musk spent tens of millions of dollars in a failed attempt to elect a MAGA candidate. But pro-choice Susan Crawford defeated Apartheid Elon's candidate by 10 points; that victory means that today's ruling won't be overturned anytime soon.

Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority strikes down 176-year-old abortion ban

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority struck down the state’s 176-year-old abortion ban on Wednesday, ruling 4-3 that it was supers

This is another reminder why we need to devote far more attention to state government than we have in the past. A good first step is to look up who represents you in your own state legislature.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

[sarcasticcynic]

Republicans in an about-face on governor's powers

The November 2018 election means there will be a partisan changing of the guard in the Wisconsin governor’s office -- Republican Scott Walker out, Democrat Tony Evers in. The election results led to a changing of the minds among GOP leaders in the Legislature, where Republicans will continue to hold power in the new term. Republican leaders are moving quickly to undo some of the powers they granted the governor after the 2010 election, when Walker won and the GOP gained full control of the Legislature.

In November of 2010, Wisconsin elected Republican Scott Walker as Governor. (Walker’s predecessor, a Democrat, did not run for reelection.) In the same election, Republicans won control of both houses of the Wisconsin legislature. After taking office in 2011, the Republican-controlled legislature passed laws substantially increasing the Republican governor’s power.

In November of 2018, Walker lost his bid for reelection to the Democratic challenger, Tony Evers, and Democrat Josh Kaul also defeated Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel. Republicans, however, retained control over both houses of the state legislature. Following in North Carolina’s footsteps, the “lame duck” Republican legislature immediately (as in “Less than 24 hours after Tony Evers was elected governor,” and weeks before Evers was to take office) met in special session to pass a package of laws severely restricting the power of the incoming governor and attorney general--including reversing the very same laws it had passed eight years earlier.

Some of the changes affecting the Governor:

Taking away the governor’s new power to approve or prevent the adoption of administrative rules

Providing more legislative authority over state agencies

Restricting the governor’s power over rules used to implement state laws

Limiting the governor’s flexibility in how he runs many public benefits programs, such as his power over state work requirements for benefits like Medicaid and food stamps

Allowing Republican lawmakers to prevent Wisconsin from withdrawing from a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act

Requiring the governor to get permission from lawmakers to make changes to security provisions in the state Capitol, including banning guns or increasing the number of patrol officers

Requiring the administration to track and report if the governor pardons anyone or his aides release anyone from prison early

Some changes for the Attorney General:

Allowing lawmakers to replace the attorney general with private attorneys of their choosing for key cases

Requiring lawmakers to sign off on court settlements

Giving lawmakers instead of the attorney general control of how to spend court settlements

Eliminating the solicitor general’s office that oversees high-profile litigation

And as long as Republican legislators were pushing through laws while they still had a Republican governor to sign them, they also took the opportunity to make it even harder to vote, including:

Limiting early voting to roughly two weeks before an election

Requiring a two-year expiration date on student IDs used for identification at the polls

Limiting the use of receipts as valid voter identification for individuals trying to get a valid ID without a birth certificate

Moving the 2020 presidential primary election to March in order to benefit a conservative Supreme Court justice’s election bid

PolitiFact’s Flip-O-Meter rated the GOP’s maneuverings a Full Flop, representing “A complete change in position”:

“In 2011, the Legislature moved to give the governor more authority. In 2018, they are doing the reverse. That’s a Full Flop.”

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos tried to excuse the GOP flip thus:

“If there are areas where we could look and say, ‘Geez — have we made mistakes where we granted too much power to the executive,’ I’d be open to taking a look to say what can we do to change that to try to re-balance it. Maybe we made some mistakes giving too much power to Gov. [Scott] Walker and I’d be open to looking at that to see if there are areas we should change that.”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald made his party’s hyperpartisanship far clearer:

“The manufactured outrage by the Democrats right now is hilarious. I mean, most of these items are things [that] we never really had to kind of address because guess what — we trusted Scott Walker and the administration to be able to manage the back and forth with the Legislature. We don’t trust Tony Evers right now in a lot of these areas.”

Walker, of course, cheerfully signed everything to hamstring his Democratic successors, and to restrict the voting rights of the Wisconsin citizens who refused to reelect him.

[hookhausen]

WISCONSINITES WE KICKED WALKER OUT. WE FUCKING DID IT YALL.

WE GOT TAMMY, JOSH AND TONY. TONIGHT WE EAT CHEESE AND DRINK BEER. THIS IS THE MOOD FOR REST OF YEAR BITCHES.

[boasamishipper]

Wisconsin just elected a Democrat for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, US Senator, Attorney General, and State Treasurer, all of which are currently controlled by Republicans!

[tomorrowusa]

A reminder that there's an election for Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. In person early voting continues through Sunday. You can also vote on Tuesday at your regular Election Day polling place.

There will be no party labels on the ballot, but Susan Crawford is backed by Democrats while Brad Schimel is being bankrolled by Elon Musk.

Apartheid Elon is trying to bribe Wisconsin voters by giving away millions of dollars. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has filed suit to stop him.

Kaul sues to stop Musk, America PAC from giving $1M payments to voters

If you are outside Wisconsin, contact friends there to remind them to vote. They won't get money by voting for Susan Crawford but they will get abortion rights and ungerrymandered maps. A vote for Crawford is also a way to show disapproval for MAGA-DOGE attempts to abolish Social Security and wreck the public health system in the US.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Felony Charges Filed Against Attorneys, Aide Who Worked For Trump During 2020 Campaign In Wisconsin

Trump lost Wisconsin to Biden, a Democrat, by fewer than 21,000 votes. Trump carried Wisconsin by a similar margin in 2016.

Scott Bauer at AP, via HuffPost:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Felony forgery charges were filed in Wisconsin on Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020. The state charges are the first to come in Wisconsin and follow separate charges brought in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia related to the fake electors scheme. The Wisconsin charges were brought against Trump’s attorney in the state, Jim Troupis, 62, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, 62, who was advising the campaign and Mike Roman, 51, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations. Roman allegedly delivered Wisconsin’s fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021. All three are due in Dane County Circuit Court on Sept. 19, according to court records. They each face one felony count punishable by up to six years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Troupis and Chesebro did not return voicemail messages left Tuesday. Roman’s attorney, Kurt Altman, said he just learned of the charges Tuesday morning and was in the process of reviewing them. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, didn’t rule out filing more charges, including against the 10 fake electors, saying that the investigation is ongoing.

[...] The fake elector efforts are central to an August federal indictment filed against Trump alleging he tried to overturn results of the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors, investigating his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, have also said the scheme originated in Wisconsin. Trump also faces charges in Georgia and has denied wrongdoing. Chesebro and Roman were among the 18 people indicted along with Trump in August in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Georgia. They’re accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the 2020 election in that state.

Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul (D) filed felony forgery charges against three people who helped submit fake electors paperwork in the 2020 elections: Mike Roman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jim Troupis.

Kaul hasn't ruled out filing charges against the 10 fake electors.