Judge orders Gov. Scott Walker to hold special elections for open legislative seats in E.Holder Suit
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON - Dealing a setback to Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans, a judge ruled Thursday the governor must call special elections to fill two vacant seats in the Legislature.
Walker declined to call those elections after two GOP lawmakers stepped down to join his administration in December. His plan would have left the seats vacant for more than a year.
Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds ruled Walker had a duty under state law to hold special elections so voters could have representation. She said failing to hold special elections infringed on the voting rights of people who lived in the two districts.
"To state the obvious, if the plaintiffs have a right to vote for their representatives, they must have an election to do so," said Reynolds, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 by Walker.
Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/22/eric-holder-lawsuit-against-gov-scott-walker-over-wisconsin-special-elections-hits-snag/448743002/
Blue Owl
(49,739 posts)n/t
Jim__
(14,035 posts)riversedge
(69,538 posts)hearing for the SC nominee.
Raster
(20,996 posts)Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)By the time any actual election is held, we will be so close to November that it will be of little/no consequence. Still, this is good because it slaps Walker, who is used to getting whatever he wants with zero resistance. This also calls attention to the fact that the Republicans are running scared, even in deep red states like Wisconsin.
Ellipsis
(9,112 posts)riversedge
(69,538 posts)Jessie Opoien
?Verified account @jessieopie
Jessie Opoien Retweeted Patrick Marley
.@SpeakerVos says people sometimes get appointments wrong, calls Reynolds an activist judge (re: special elections decision). "Something about the water in Dane County makes people feel they are smarter than the rest of the state. They certainly are not."
Link to tweet
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)even people I personally appointed. Deep State!!!
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)What a pinhead- literally and figuratively.
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)May we one day rid ourselves of this one-party rule that we've endured since 2010. I believe the next statewide election will go one of two ways: either Walker will be swept out of office in an anti-Trump blue wave, taking some/many state Senators and Representatives with him, or we will lose Tammy Baldwin as the Repub base acts to save their golden boy, Scott K. Walker, in the process leading to better than expected results in other races. Up until the last special elections in AL and PA I would have said that predicting a Walker loss was a fool's bet, given the almost comical ineptitude of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, but now I'm wondering if the blue wave will be too strong for even them to screw up.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)walker is screwed, gop is screwed in wisconsin.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)The ruling is just, follows the state constitution and is just plan the right thing to do.
It gets so tiring fighting evil.
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)authorized, would be too late to allow the seating of the winner before the next election in November.
riversedge
(69,538 posts)................Walker aides contended Walker didn't need to hold special elections because the vacancies occurred not in 2018 the election year but in 2017.
But the judge called that interpretation absurd because a seat that becomes vacant in 2017 remains empty longer than one that begins in 2018.
The judge took a shot at Walker for contending he didn't have to hold the election when the statutes are clear and he so often talks about the need for judges and others to follow the plain meaning of laws.
"The two views are inconsistent, incompatible and irreconcilable," she said of Walker's reading of the law on special elections and his support for strictly reading laws.
Link to tweet
C Moon
(12,182 posts)Miigwech
(3,741 posts)Walker is so over. Old fish eyes.
strangedaysindeed
(226 posts)a lot of the people in Dane County moved there to get away from the intellectually challenged areas like Racine Co.
I have lived in both, so I know first hand.
(that includes Wauwatosa too.)
riversedge
(69,538 posts)Had to move to care for my mom or I would still be there.
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)Left for work... now I'm in the economically depressed Western Hinterlands trying to convince people that Trump is NOT their boy.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)So, yeah, let's have that wave.