The GOP State Legislature put two constitutional amendments on the ballot on August 13, and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin Administrative Committee, our party’s highest governing body, voted unanimously to endorse a NO vote on those amendments.
These amendments are a power grab, pure and simple.
They would undermine checks and balances by ripping powers away from the governor and handing them to the legislature. Specifically, they’d give the legislature “sole power” over federal funds that come into the state.
Meaning, for example, that in the case of a major emergency—a natural disaster, a pandemic—the legislature could block the governor’s power to quickly allocate federal funds.
There’s a history here. Republican legislators in Wisconsin have been laser-focused, going back to 2011, on undermining democracy and cementing their own power, at the expense of voters.
For generations, the Republican strategy has been to say the government is broken… and then attempt to prove it, by breaking the government. But Joe Biden, Tammy Baldwin, and Governor Evers did an end run around their obstruction, and it worked.
This was an affront that Republicans could not abide.
They were bent on revenge. But they were running out of ways to short-circuit democracy. Despite their attempt to re-gerrymander the state, they didn’t get the dual-chamber supermajorities they’d need to override the veto.
After years of turning to their far-right Justices, they had lost the state Supreme Court majority.
They realized, they had one tool left: Constitutional amendments.
In Wisconsin, the public isn’t allowed to put a measure on the ballot, as in other states. The only way to bring a topic up for the full public to vote is via an amendment to our constitution. To do this, both chambers of the State Legislature have to pass the amendment in back-to-back legislative sessions. The amendment is not subject to the governor’s veto. And then it goes on the ballot, at the time of the legislature’s choosing.
In some other states, there’s a legal review process to (ideally) ensure that the language of constitutional amendments and ballot initiatives is clear to voters. Not in Wisconsin. The legislature chooses the language. As a result, most constitutional amendments pass—11 of the last 12, in fact.
So, now, the GOP wants to amend the constitution again—to prevent future governors from responding to emergencies with the speed and success that Governor Evers just demonstrated.
If the GOP’s amendments pass, they will have real-world consequences. They could jeopardize public health by potentially delaying critical funds for BadgerCare, restrict and delay emergency support for first responders and critical payments for families in criticism, and threaten federal food assistance programs that kids and their parents rely on.
They’re trying to break our government. Again. And we won’t let them.
The NO endorsement by the WisDems Administrative Committee means we can start organizing against these amendments immediately. We’ll print literature, put information about the Constitutional Amendments in our canvassing scripts, and call out the GOP power grab in the press. We’ll encourage friends and allies to speak up in every way they can. We want voters on August 13 to know exactly what’s at stake—and why Republicans are trying to do it.
[edited by Allin Walker]
