Protesters gather outside of the Federal Building in Milwaukee to denounce the arrest of Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

After the arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan by federal agents Friday morning, the city’s political and activist communities responded forcefully, protesting against the arrest across the city. 

Dugan was charged with obstruction of justice and harboring an individual after a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents showed up outside of her courtroom last week to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a 30-year-old Mexican immigrant accused of misdemeanor battery. 

The criminal complaint against Durgan alleges she broke the law by allowing Flores-Ruiz to use a side door in her courtroom to exit without going past the agents. The agents saw him leave and later apprehended him on foot. 

While a larger protest took place outside of the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee, local resident Jeneca Wolski stood alone outside of the county courthouse where Dugan was arrested.

“[I’m] just a local citizen who is horrified that we are finding ourselves in this position right now,” Wolski told the Wisconsin Examiner. “We’re sliding downhill so fast. I don’t want to be looked back on by history as part of it. We have to do everything we can to kick and fight and scream to save our democracy right now.” 

At a press conference, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley accused the administration of President Donald Trump of acting to intimidate “anyone who opposes these policies.” Crowley added that Dugan was arrested by a “large, performative showing” of federal agents in the county courthouse. 

 “We have an obligation to administer our courts in a safe, efficient manner that delivers due process for anyone,” Crowley said. “The Trump administration’s actions are clearly preventing us from doing so by intimidating judges and eroding public faith in our judicial system.” 

People gathered outside the federal courthouse in Milwaukee Friday afternoon to protest Dugan’s arrest. At the rally, Christine Neumann Ortiz, executive director of immigrant rights group Voces De La Frontera, told the Wisconsin Examiner the Trump administration was trying to undermine efforts to oppose its immigration policies.

“They basically want to be unleashed to do whatever they want to commit these raids in courtrooms across the country,” she said. “They don’t want any resistance from judges or from the community standing up for people’s due process rights or limiting their policies of mass deportation and racism.”

Seven of the city of Milwaukee’s legislative representatives said in a joint statement that Dugan’s arrest and ICE operating inside the courthouse will “lead to a breakdown of civil society.”

“The County Courthouse is a sanctuary for justice and peace where the accused come forward willingly in a fair and unbiased process,” said the lawmakers, Sens. Chris Larson and Tim Carpenter and Reps. Christine Sinicki, Darrin Madison, Supreme Moore Omokunde, Angelito Tenorio and Sequanna Taylor. “Arresting people out of a courtroom will lead to a breakdown of civil society. We do not support the presence of ICE in places where it will lead to intimidation against witnesses and victims of crimes, denying everyone involved the justice they deserve.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned how Dugan’s arrest makes the country safer. 

“The Trump Administration continues to test the limits of our Constitution — this time by arresting a sitting judge for allegedly obstructing an immigration operation at the courthouse,” Durbin said. “When immigration enforcement officials interfere with our criminal justice system, it undermines public safety, prevents victims and witnesses from coming forward, and often prevents those who committed crimes from facing justice in the United States. How does this make America any safer? How does arresting a sitting judge make America any safer? It is imperative that Judge Dugan is afforded due process and the presumption of innocence, as required by our Constitution and her fundamental rights as an American.”

State Senate Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, criticized the arrest in a joint statement. 

“Today’s arrest of a sitting judge, at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, is a frightening escalation of the Trump Administration’s attacks on America’s judicial system,” they said. “This is part of a pattern by this Administration – defying court orders, flouting the democratic system of checks and balances, ignoring the right to due process, and threatening judicial independence – that alarms us as legislators and as residents of this great state and this great country. We will follow this case closely. We will continue to stand up to lawless and unconstitutional actions. And, we will always fight for a bedrock principle of American democracy: equal justice under the law.”

The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, an activist group, was planning protests Friday afternoon outside the federal courthouse and Saturday outside the FBI’s Milwaukee field office. In a statement, the group said the arrest was a “heinous attack.” 

“They are seeking to send a clear message: either you play along with Trump’s agenda, or pay the consequences,” the group said. “During this period of racist and political repression, we must stand together to denounce today’s actions by the FBI. What happened to Dugan is not new. The FBI and other agencies have been emboldened in recent months, snatching people off the streets, separating families, terrorizing communities, breaking doors down of pro-Palestine activists, and contributing to the unjust deportation of immigrants who don’t have criminal records. What is new is that they have gone after a judge.”

The Milwaukee County Courthouse. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan on Friday, accusing her of obstructing an immigration enforcement action last week. 

Dugan was arrested at 8:30 a.m. at the county courthouse, according to the U.S. Marshal’s Service. She was scheduled to make an initial appearance in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Dries at 10:30 on Friday. According to a criminal complaint, she’s been charged with obstructing or impeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.

Online court records show that the government did not request that Dugan be held in detention and that she was released on an O/R bond, meaning she was released from custody without having to post bail and signed an agreement that she’d appear in court when required.

The agency’s director, Kash Patel, wrote on the social media platform X that Dugan had “intentionally misdirected federal agents away” from Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a 30-year-old Mexican immigrant accused of misdemeanor battery. In the now-deleted post, Patel accused Dugan of creating “increased danger to the public.” 

Flores-Ruiz appeared in Dugan’s courtroom on April 18 for a pre-trial conference on charges of misdemeanor domestic battery. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appeared outside Dugan’s courtroom, she led Flores-Ruiz and an attorney out a side door and down a private hallway. 

ICE agents later apprehended Flores-Ruiz on foot. This is the third time since March that immigration agents have appeared at the Milwaukee County courthouse to conduct arrests — a tactic that local officials have said threatens to undermine the work of the local justice system by making immigrants fearful of coming to the courthouse to testify in court.

Dugan-Crim-complaint

In an initial statement, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said he was aware of Dugan’s arrest and that the legal process should be allowed to play out. 

“Like any individual in this country, I believe she is entitled to due process,” Crowley said. “We should let the facts come to light and the legal process play out.”

But later, he accused the FBI of politicizing the arrest to punish perceived enemies.

“It is clear that the FBI is politicizing this situation to make an example of her and others across the country who oppose their attack on the judicial system and our nation’s immigration laws,” he said. “FBI Director Kash Patel issued a public statement on X, which he hurriedly deleted, making unsubstantiated claims about Judge Dugan’s case before charges were officially filed and she could have her moment in court. Director Patel’s statement shows that Trump’s FBI is more concerned about weaponizing federal law enforcement, punishing people without due process, and intimidating anyone who opposes those policies, than they are with seeking justice.”

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said the administration of President Donald Trump is attacking democratic values.

“In the United States, we have a system of checks and balances and separations of power for damn good reasons,” she said. “The President’s administration arresting a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move, and it threatens to breach those very separations of power. Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a Democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by. By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this President is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line. While details of this exact case remain minimal, this action fits into the deeply concerning pattern of this President’s lawless behavior and undermining courts and Congress’s checks on his power.”

Gov. Tony Evers said the arrest was another example of the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary.

“Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump Administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor,” he said. “I have deep respect for the rule of law, our nation’s judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favor, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime. I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.”

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) said the arrest was “shocking.” 

“This Administration’s willingness to weaponize federal law enforcement is shocking and this arrest has all the hallmarks of overreach,” Moore said. “Federal law enforcement coming into a community and arresting a judge is a serious matter and would require a high legal bar. I will be following this case closely and facts will come out, however, I am very alarmed at the increasingly lawless actions of the Trump Administration, and in particular ICE, who have been defying courts and acting with disregard for the Constitution.”

The ACLU of Wisconsin wrote on social media that ICE making arrests at courthouses interferes with the work of local justice officials.

“Judges have a duty to maintain order in their courtrooms and ensure the fair administration of justice, and federal law does not require state judges to act as agents of federal immigration enforcement,” the organization said. “Everyone is due their day in court, and when ICE starts showing up to courts looking to make arrests, it risks interfering with those rights. In recent weeks, the administration has attacked the integrity of our judicial system, refused to comply with a Supreme Court order, and arrested a judge for using her authority to protect the fair administration of justice.”

This is a developing story and will be updated

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and state Sens. Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi) and Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska) listen to community members at an April 24 roundtable in Richland Center. (Hery Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

RICHLAND CENTER — In a 90-minute roundtable meeting at the Richland Center community center Thursday, President Donald Trump’s name was mentioned just twice. But community leaders highlighted how his administration’s policies are already wreaking havoc on the county with the sixth highest poverty rate in the state. 

About 15 area leaders representing small business owners, farmers, schools, hospitals and community advocacy groups met Thursday with state Sens. Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi) and Brad Pfaff (D-Onalaska) and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. Throughout the event, the attendees discussed how the policies and plans of Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress to cut or diminish Medicaid, Social Security and education funding while instituting widespread tariffs on imported goods from countries around the world and making it harder for migrant workers to obtain visas could decimate their region. 

“None of this is right. Where I’m at that age in my life where I don’t get more thoughtful, I get more pissed,” Brett White, executive director of the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program, said. “And because this is all not necessary, this is completely unnecessary, which means that it’s intentional.” 

The group noted repeatedly that a cut to programs in one area had a ripple effect across every other community institution. 

White, and Chris Frakes, the organization’s senior director, said that the cuts to Head Start early childhood education programming that have already come and are set to deepen under Trump are their biggest worry. 

There are currently about 70 kids in Richland County enrolled in Southwest CAP’s Head Start program, according to Frakes. If those programs are lost, poor kids in Richland County will never catch up, she said. 

“Because we know if you enter kindergarten already behind, there’s virtually no chance to catch up by third grade,” Frakes said. “If you’re not on grade level reading in third grade, we know your life prospects go down dramatically, right? So Head Start fills this critical, vital need to get those kiddos onto par with their middle class peers when they hit kindergarten, so that they are ready to learn, and their families have the sort of surrounding supports, whether that’s food, whether that’s access to transportation, for medical care.” 

If Head Start gets cut, the children who are affected will eventually reach Aaron Mithum, the middle and high school principal for the Kickapoo Area School District. Mithum says the district is “waiting for the other shoe to drop” on the future of the approximately $800,000 it gets annually from the federal government as Trump seeks to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. 

If Head Start leaves poor kids behind before they turn five, by the time they reach Mithum at a middle school that’s also struggling financially, there won’t be many options. 

“We’re getting them when they get into pre K or kindergarten, and now we’re trying to go from there, and now, all of a sudden, they don’t have any of that foundational aspect,” Mithum said. “It’s a building block, trickle effect, and not in a positive way. So now it’s that much harder for us to do what [Head Start wasn’t] able to do, and it continues to go up. And it’s just really hard to think about, what does that look like? What does that look like to be a parent with a special ed kid who needs speech services or reading services, or whatever. And the answer is, sorry, not our problem.” 

While the child care and education system of a community that’s already seen the closure of its local University of Wisconsin campus faces the prospect of being unable to keep poor kids from falling behind, the area’s food system is also being hit. 

Retaliatory tariffs on the area’s wheat, corn and soybean farmers are hurting their ability to find international markets for their products while tariffs imposed by Trump have made fertilizer and machinery more expensive, said Sally Leong, Wisconsin Farmers Union member and former professor of plant pathology at UW-Madison. 

Those struggles are continuing to push up the price of food, causing local families to rely on food pantries more than used to, according to Jackie Anderson, executive director of Feeding Wisconsin. 

Under Trump, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) paused funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which Anderson said has amounted to about a 30% cut to what food banks are able to buy. USDA has also ended a program that connected local farms with food pantries to supply fresh produce. 

“Food banks are really looking at the bottom line and saying, like, ‘How are we going to be able to get that amount of food here?’” Anderson said. 

The tariffs are also affecting the companies providing jobs in the area. Marty Richards, the county tourism director, said that Rockwell Automation has delayed and cancelled orders because of Trump’s tariffs. Meanwhile it’s getting harder to find local workers and Trump’s restrictive immigration policies have made it nearly impossible to hire migrant workers. Richards said the company has had a hard time getting workers from its plant in Mexico to come to the U.S. even temporarily for technical training

Teri Richards, board member of the Greater Richland Area Chamber of Commerce, said the county desperately needs more people and she doesn’t know where to find them. 

“We’re obviously not having enough babies. We’re struggling to get that immigrant population and we can’t keep stealing from each other,” she said. “So it’s time to go into Chicago or Milwaukee, to even get a few of those folks moved out here? I don’t know.” 

With fewer people moving in and federal policies discouraging investment from the business community and cutting funds from schools and child care, the community is also facing the management of an aging population. About 30% of the population is older than 60 and 14% is disabled, according to Roxanne Klubertanz, manager of Richland County’s Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC). 

That aging population means the community is only going to become more reliant on federal programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Currently, the ADRC helps people in the community apply for Medicaid to pay for the services that will help them stay in their homes for as long as possible or move to an assisted living facility — currently a cost of about $3,800 per month, she said. 

Republicans in Congress are currently weighing a budget proposal that would slash Medicaid funding. Klubertanz said without the program people won’t be able to access those services and will ultimately get sicker and require a placement in a nursing home — a cost of about $10,000 per month. 

“So if that funding, that Medicaid funding, goes away, what’s going to happen?” she said. “Maybe right away, you’re going to see some decreases, but people are going to get sicker and need more services, and then they have to pay for that nursing home placement, which is almost three times the cost. So if you’re trying to fix something today, you have to think about what it’s gonna be like in five years. You’ve gotta have that long range thinking.” 

Voting booths set up at Madison, Wisconsin's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) deadlocked Thursday on whether to object to a proposed administrative rule that would guide the conduct of election observers at polling places. 

The 5-5 vote moves the rule one step closer to going into effect because if the committee doesn’t take any action, it will be returned to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to be implemented. 

Even though the rule was written by WEC with input from an advisory committee that included members of right-wing election conspiracy groups, election skeptics opposed the rule’s passage at a number of public hearings. 

At a hearing on Monday, 2020 election deniers — including former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen — testified in opposition to the rule because they believed it didn’t do enough to protect the rights of election observers. Lawmakers on the committee, including its co-chair, Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee), complained that the rule was written without enough input from legislators. 

Despite that opposition, Rep. Kevin Petersen (R-Waupaca) joined with the committee’s four Democrats, Sens. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) and Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Reps. Margaret Arney (D-Wauwatosa) and Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) to vote against the motion objecting to the rule’s passage. 

In Monday’s hearing, election commissioner Don Millis said the rule gives the state the best chance to clarify how election observers should conduct themselves while protecting the rights of voters. 

“I don’t agree with everything in the rule, but I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” he said. “Without this rule, municipal clerks have wide ranging authorities to manage polling places as they see fit. There’s no reasonable argument that observers are better off without this rule.”

While Thursday’s vote is a step toward implementation, the rule is still in the committee until May 11, according to the office of the committee’s other co-chair, Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater). The committee could vote on the issue again before then.

Green Bay will host the NFL draft from April 24-26. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Green Bay-area legislators say the city and state are prepared for the “once-in-a-generation” tourism coming to the region when the NFL draft starts in the city Thursday. 

Green Bay is accustomed to hosting at least eight Packers home games each year, but the draft is expected to bring up to four times as many people to the city as a typical game, according to state Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard). Hotels are booked as far south as Milwaukee and as far west as Wausau, he said, and with that comes additional strain on local resources. 

“We heard early on that public safety led by the city of Green Bay had real concerns at the ballooning costs at having this event policed,” state Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay) said. “So they were inviting the county, the state, other officers from outside of the region to come help with the draft, given that we wanted to make sure it was an incredibly safe event in our incredibly safe community. But you know, we want to be aware of things like human trafficking, other challenges, potentially debaucherous behavior, and that footprint between the downtown and Lambeau Field would require more public safety officials, including EMS services, than we even had on hand.”

In the last biennial budget, state lawmakers set aside $2 million to support the draft and in his budget proposal this year, Gov. Tony Evers requested $1 million to assist the city with additional expenses. While the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee rejected Evers’ proposal, Steffen and Rep. Ben Franklin (R-De Pere) have requested $1.25 million in the budget to reimburse public safety departments in Green Bay, Brown County and Ashwaubenon for the added costs incurred in planning for and managing the hundreds of thousands of visitors. 

Steffen told the Wisconsin Examiner his proposal is better because it is specifically carved out for police and fire departments but that the additional $1.25 million — funded out of the state’s nearly $5 billion budget surplus — will help local officials manage the event while still making it a net benefit for the state. He said he anticipates the draft generating $4.5 million in sales tax revenue for the state. 

“So this is still a net financial winner for the state, but having the county, city and village shoulder all those expenses on the property taxpayers for this statewide benefiting event doesn’t seem appropriate,” Steffen said. 

Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City have all hosted the NFL draft in recent years, but despite the event’s success in other midwestern cities, both Rivera-Wagner and Steffen say Green Bay’s status as the smallest city in the country to be the home of a major professional sports team makes the event here unique. 

“I think a lot of people are going to be coming because of the unique nature of Lambeau Field and Green Bay in professional sports,” Steffen said. “There is nothing like it anywhere else in the nation in terms of an experience.”

Last year, business owners in the Milwaukee area were left frustrated after the city hosted the Republican National Convention because of its muted benefit to local businesses. Rivera-Wagner, who worked as chief of staff for Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich prior to his election to the Legislature, said the city met with officials from Detroit and Kansas City to learn how to make sure the draft benefits the city at large and not just the area around Lambeau Field. 

“You have to be purposeful to make these large-scale events impact the larger community, because, in and of themselves, if they’re overly contained, they cannot necessarily have the impact that you might anticipate,” he said. 

The city has set up a series of events in its downtown area, including a kringle making competition, a 5k run and an early opening of the city’s normal downtown farmer’s market before its typical May start. These events, according to Rivera-Wagner, are meant to engage locals and visitors while not causing the event to cast such a large footprint that people trying to avoid the crowds can’t do so. 

“We took those lessons to heart and created this entire downtown experience based on the feedback that we learned from Kansas City and Detroit about celebrating our community, making sure this event isn’t just for outsiders, that is also for the residents of our community and make sure that economic footprint is as big, as broad as possible without interfering with the people who want to opt out,” he said. 

Steffen said that even though people visit Green Bay from elsewhere each home-game Sunday during football season, they often fly in and out quickly. But because the draft is a three-day event — with lots of down time before a fan’s team makes its pick each round — the draft gives Green Bay a better opportunity to show itself off. 

“Because this is a multi-day event where the majority of the activity is in the afternoon and evening, there’s going to be lots of opportunity in the early parts of each day for people to experience the rest of Green Bay,” he said. “And so we have free transportation arranged throughout the city, from the various hotels to the draft experience, as well as to places like our vibrant downtown areas and our state renowned amusement park Bay Beach. So these are things that I think we’ll be taking advantage of at a level that far exceeds a typical Packer game.”

Voting booths set up at Madison, Wisconsin's Hawthorne Library on Election Day 2022. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) deadlocked Thursday on whether to object to a proposed administrative rule that would guide the conduct of election observers at polling places. 

The 5-5 vote moves the rule one step closer to going into effect because if the committee doesn’t take any action, it will be returned to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to be implemented. 

Even though the rule was written by WEC with input from an advisory committee that included members of right-wing election conspiracy groups, election skeptics opposed the rule’s passage at a number of public hearings. 

At a hearing on Monday, 2020 election deniers — including former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen — testified in opposition to the rule because they believed it didn’t do enough to protect the rights of election observers. Lawmakers on the committee, including its co-chair, Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee), complained that the rule was written without enough input from legislators. 

Despite that opposition, Rep. Kevin Petersen (R-Waupaca) joined with the committee’s four Democrats, Sens. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) and Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Reps. Margaret Arney (D-Wauwatosa) and Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) to vote against the motion objecting to the rule’s passage. 

In Monday’s hearing, election commissioner Don Millis said the rule gives the state the best chance to clarify how election observers should conduct themselves while protecting the rights of voters. 

“I don’t agree with everything in the rule, but I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” he said. “Without this rule, municipal clerks have wide ranging authorities to manage polling places as they see fit. There’s no reasonable argument that observers are better off without this rule.”

While Thursday’s vote is a step toward implementation, the rule is still in the committee until May 11, according to the office of the committee’s other co-chair, Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater). The committee could vote on the issue again before then.

Green Bay will host the NFL draft from April 24-26. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Green Bay-area legislators say the city and state are prepared for the “once-in-a-generation” tourism coming to the region when the NFL draft starts in the city Thursday. 

Green Bay is accustomed to hosting at least eight Packers home games each year, but the draft is expected to bring up to four times as many people to the city as a typical game, according to state Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard). Hotels are booked as far south as Milwaukee and as far west as Wausau, he said, and with that comes additional strain on local resources. 

“We heard early on that public safety led by the city of Green Bay had real concerns at the ballooning costs at having this event policed,” state Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay) said. “So they were inviting the county, the state, other officers from outside of the region to come help with the draft, given that we wanted to make sure it was an incredibly safe event in our incredibly safe community. But you know, we want to be aware of things like human trafficking, other challenges, potentially debaucherous behavior, and that footprint between the downtown and Lambeau Field would require more public safety officials, including EMS services, than we even had on hand.”

In the last biennial budget, state lawmakers set aside $2 million to support the draft and in his budget proposal this year, Gov. Tony Evers requested $1 million to assist the city with additional expenses. While the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee rejected Evers’ proposal, Steffen and Rep. Ben Franklin (R-De Pere) have requested $1.25 million in the budget to reimburse public safety departments in Green Bay, Brown County and Ashwaubenon for the added costs incurred in planning for and managing the hundreds of thousands of visitors. 

Steffen told the Wisconsin Examiner his proposal is better because it is specifically carved out for police and fire departments but that the additional $1.25 million — funded out of the state’s nearly $5 billion budget surplus — will help local officials manage the event while still making it a net benefit for the state. He said he anticipates the draft generating $4.5 million in sales tax revenue for the state. 

“So this is still a net financial winner for the state, but having the county, city and village shoulder all those expenses on the property taxpayers for this statewide benefiting event doesn’t seem appropriate,” Steffen said. 

Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City have all hosted the NFL draft in recent years, but despite the event’s success in other midwestern cities, both Rivera-Wagner and Steffen say Green Bay’s status as the smallest city in the country to be the home of a major professional sports team makes the event here unique. 

“I think a lot of people are going to be coming because of the unique nature of Lambeau Field and Green Bay in professional sports,” Steffen said. “There is nothing like it anywhere else in the nation in terms of an experience.”

Last year, business owners in the Milwaukee area were left frustrated after the city hosted the Republican National Convention because of its muted benefit to local businesses. Rivera-Wagner, who worked as chief of staff for Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich prior to his election to the Legislature, said the city met with officials from Detroit and Kansas City to learn how to make sure the draft benefits the city at large and not just the area around Lambeau Field. 

“You have to be purposeful to make these large-scale events impact the larger community, because, in and of themselves, if they’re overly contained, they cannot necessarily have the impact that you might anticipate,” he said. 

The city has set up a series of events in its downtown area, including a kringle making competition, a 5k run and an early opening of the city’s normal downtown farmer’s market before its typical May start. These events, according to Rivera-Wagner, are meant to engage locals and visitors while not causing the event to cast such a large footprint that people trying to avoid the crowds can’t do so. 

“We took those lessons to heart and created this entire downtown experience based on the feedback that we learned from Kansas City and Detroit about celebrating our community, making sure this event isn’t just for outsiders, that is also for the residents of our community and make sure that economic footprint is as big, as broad as possible without interfering with the people who want to opt out,” he said. 

Steffen said that even though people visit Green Bay from elsewhere each home-game Sunday during football season, they often fly in and out quickly. But because the draft is a three-day event — with lots of down time before a fan’s team makes its pick each round — the draft gives Green Bay a better opportunity to show itself off. 

“Because this is a multi-day event where the majority of the activity is in the afternoon and evening, there’s going to be lots of opportunity in the early parts of each day for people to experience the rest of Green Bay,” he said. “And so we have free transportation arranged throughout the city, from the various hotels to the draft experience, as well as to places like our vibrant downtown areas and our state renowned amusement park Bay Beach. So these are things that I think we’ll be taking advantage of at a level that far exceeds a typical Packer game.”

Voters cast their ballot in a polling place just blocks from the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. | Photo by Henry Redman

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) heard testimony Monday on a proposed set of rules to guide the conduct of election observers. 

Over the last few elections, the observation process of elections has become more popular — and more polarizing — as Republicans have grown increasingly skeptical of the election process since President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential contest. 

The rule, proposed by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), provides more detail for what observers are allowed to do and where they are allowed to position themselves at polling places, and lays out the process for how an unruly observer can be removed. The rule’s final text was created with input from an advisory committee consisting of representatives of major and minor political parties, election clerks, disability rights groups and right-wing election conspiracy groups. 

The two most recent WEC chairs, Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, and Don Millis, a Republican, opened the testimony with each saying they have individual quibbles about the rule but the final text is the result of two years of consensus building and that legislators shouldn’t reject the rule because it isn’t perfect.

Millis said that the current statute guiding election observers is vague and this rule is the best chance of clarifying regulations to protect the rights of voters and observers because passing new legislation into law is challenging under the state’s divided government, with Republicans in control of the Legislature and a Democratic governor. 

“In the end, we can debate about whether the rule provides enough latitude or protection for observers, I agree,” Millis said. “I don’t agree with everything in the rule, but I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Without this rule, municipal clerks have wide ranging authorities to manage polling places as they see fit. There’s no reasonable argument that observers are better off without this rule. Now certainly the Legislature could come up with an improved observer statute through legislation, but of course, that has to be signed into law. And there’s the rub.” 

Earlier this year, Republicans in the Assembly voted against an emergency rule that was broadly identical to the permanent rule being considered on Monday. In the hearing, Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) complained that legislators were not involved earlier in the rulemaking process. 

“I feel a little bit like you didn’t even try here,” Neylon said. “You didn’t even try to do legislation. You’re choosing a rule and then telling us, ‘We can’t even work with you guys. This is what we got to do.’ And I find that a little bit insulting.” 

Despite the inclusion of election skeptics on the advisory committee process, much of the testimony in the more than three-hour hearing came from election conspiracy theorists who oppose the rule’s adoption. One opponent of the bill said there needed to be observers at Wisconsin’s central count location for tabulating election results because the internet routers that transmit the results are manufactured by the “Chinese Communist party.” 

Wisconsin’s election results are tabulated at the local and county levels, not by the state, and while unofficial results get sent over the internet, official results are determined using the physical tapes obtained from the voting machines. 

Former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who was one of the Legislature’s most prominent election deniers, complained that when she has tried to observe voting in the past, she’s been denied access because limited seats are taken up by people “playing Candy Crush all day.” 

Brandtjen also talked about Janet Angus, a Green Bay woman who was charged with disorderly conduct after berating a woman who was attempting to return her husband’s absentee ballot during the April 2022 election. Angus, the Wisconsin Examiner reported, was involved in a Republican effort to influence the Green Bay mayoral election through a lawsuit against the city’s use of audio recording equipment in its security system. 

Brandtjen also objected to the rule’s provisions that treat members of the news media differently than observers — mostly by allowing them to take videos and photos inside polling places. Brandtjen said she found that “distasteful.” Jacobs explained that allowing the public to learn about the voting process through the media is important and allowing reporters to do their jobs is necessary. 

“We balanced the First Amendment right of the press with the limitations we’re putting on observers, and we felt that was a reasonable accommodation,” Jacobs said. 

Elections commissioner Robert Spindell, a Republican, voted against the rule’s passage when the commission considered it and testified against its passage on Monday. Spindell said he was against the rule because it doesn’t allow observers to record video or audio at polling places, which he said would allow clerks to remove observers from polling sites without the observers being able to protect themselves. 

Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) said that as members of the committee were talking about large portions of the public being skeptical of election results, it was “beyond the pale” that Spindell would be testifying to the committee because of his involvement in the fake electors scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

“Honestly, when members of this committee are talking about people still being concerned about election integrity, and we have somebody testifying who was a part of trying to overturn the 2020, election, I mean, if ever there was an unreliable witness on anything, I feel that that person is sitting in front of us today in this committee,” Snodgrass said.

Blind figure of Justice holding scales | Getty Images Creative

U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson announced Friday that they’d renewed their agreement establishing the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission to provide recommendations for Congress on nominations for U.S. attorneys and federal judgeships. 

There are currently vacancies for U.S. attorneys in both the eastern and western districts of the state and U.S. Circuit Court Judge Diane Sykes announced she will take senior status, a form of semi-retirement, on Oct. 1, which will require the senators to offer potential nominees for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The commitment to the nominating commission comes as President Donald Trump and Republicans attack the federal judiciary over decisions by judges across the country to limit the president’s authority. 

Both senators said they were confident the commission will find people who can work impartially. 

“I am proud to work with Senator Johnson this Congress to select qualified, impartial candidates to serve our state and faithfully apply the law,” Baldwin said in a statement. “I have full confidence our bipartisan nominating commission will do its job well of rigorously vetting and selecting candidates with the character, expertise, and experience required to fairly deliver justice for our constituents.” 

In his statement, Johnson said the nominating commission must concentrate “on finding individuals who will apply the law and not alter it to fit their ideological or policy preferences.” 

But late last month, Johnson said he supported an effort from U.S. House Republicans, supported by Wisconsin’s GOP representatives, that would limit the ability of federal district judges to impose nationwide injunctions on executive actions. Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the judiciary was “overstepping its constitutional bounds” by declaring Trump’s actions unconstitutional. 

“They’ve got to discipline, they’ve got to put some guardrails around this,” Johnson said. “This is getting completely out of control.”

Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell arrives at Milwaukee Central Count with Sen. Ron Johnson (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) Chair Ann Jacobs said at a meeting Thursday that the body is still investigating how the City of Madison lost nearly 200 ballots during the 2024 presidential election. 

The city of Madison announced in late December that 193 unprocessed absentee ballots had been found in the weeks following the election. The discovered ballots weren’t enough to sway the results of any contests, but WEC began an investigation into the error to determine what caused it and how similar mistakes can be prevented in future elections. 

On Thursday, Jacobs said that she and Republican commissioner Don Millis had already taken depositions of former Madison city clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl and members of her staff but that there was more work to be done and depositions to conduct with employees of Madison and Dane County. She added that those other interviews were delayed until after the April 1 election. 

Witzel-Behl, who had already been on administrative leave during the spring elections, resigned from her position as Madison city clerk earlier this week after nearly two decades in the role during which time she oversaw more than 60 elections. 

Jacobs said the investigation has already highlighted ways the state can improve its absentee ballot processes. 

“On a positive note, I do think the information we’re learning from the work we’ve done so far will help inform some best practices for tracking absentee ballots, making sure all absentee ballots are counted timely, and as we move to amend our manuals and update them … I really do think that what we’ve learned is going to help us do a better job there on some of that absentee ballot processing,” she said. 

After the update on the investigation, Republican commissioner Robert Spindell began remarks that devolved into a shouting match with Jacobs. 

Spindell began by noting how long Witzel-Behl had been the Madison clerk. 

“I think it’s fine that we’re doing this investigation of the city of Madison, or the misplacement of some [193] ballots and then not properly following through when they were found,” he said. “But I do want to commend the Madison clerk for her 20-plus years service.” 

Spindell then transitioned into what he said he believes is a “more serious problem” — some Milwaukee polling places running out of ballots during the April 1 election. On Election Day earlier this month, seven polling sites ran out of ballots, causing city officials to scramble to replenish supplies. The delay caused long lines to form at some polls. 

City election officials said they generally determine how many ballots to print and distribute to poll locations by assessing voter turnout in previous similar elections. But this year Wisconsin and Milwaukee broke turnout records for a spring election. 

A former member of the Milwaukee Elections Commission who previously sparked controversy when he celebrated and took credit for the low turnout among Black voters in the 2022 midterm elections, Spindell has often been extremely critical of the administration of Milwaukee’s elections. 

Republicans have often attacked Milwaukee’s election administration, resulting in frequent, baseless accusations that the city’s election results are fraudulent. 

Before Spindell could finish his statement, Jacobs banged her gavel, saying she was ruling his comment out of order, but Spindell just got louder and continued. 

Wisconsin open meetings law requires that if a government body such as the elections commission is going to discuss an issue at a meeting, it must have been properly listed on the meeting’s announced agenda. 

“I am not going to let you keep going,” Jacobs said. “I’m going to talk over you until you stop. You must stop. You are out of order, and I will eject you from this meeting. Do you understand the words I am saying? They are simple. You are out of order. The City of Milwaukee is not on this agenda. You do not get to hijack the agenda. You are not the chair. When you are chair you get to put things on the agenda, it’s not on the agenda.” 

Even though most of what he said was inaudible, Spindell ended by saying “I’ve said what I needed to say.” 

During the meeting, the commission also approved the design for a mailer that will be sent to voters who haven’t voted in four years to ask if they still live at the addresses listed in their voter registrations and informing them they risk having their registrations deactivated. The commissioners also  received an update on an audit to determine if any people currently serving felony sentences voted in recent elections and moved forward an administrative rule that would keep the home addresses of judicial candidates off public elections paperwork.

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) speaks about how advocates can convince Republicans to fund the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program at the Great Lakes Audubon Society's 2025 advocacy day. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) said Wednesday the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program is “on life support,” adding that some of his Republican colleagues give it a 20% chance of being extended in this year’s budget debate before its expiration next year. 

Kurtz, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay) and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Karen Hyun spoke Wednesday to a gathering of members of local Audubon Society chapters and staff of Audubon Great Lakes ahead of the organization’s advocacy day to lobby legislators to support conservation funding. 

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program was established in 1989 to help preserve local natural environments. Throughout its history, the program has enjoyed mostly bipartisan support as it has provided grants through the DNR to help local governments and nonprofits fund the acquisition, restoration and maintenance of public land, parks and wildlife habitats. 

In recent years, the program has become a flashpoint in the fight over the boundary between the executive and legislative branches of state government. Until a decision by the state Supreme Court last year, any member of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Committee on Finance had the authority to hold up a project funded through the stewardship program by placing an anonymous hold on that spending. 

The Court’s decision entirely removed the Legislature’s oversight of the program, a change that further turned Republicans against its continued existence. 

“We could make that process better, where it was not just one individual not liking something and being able to kill a project. I agree with that,” Kurtz said. “When the court case came in and basically took that entire process away, that was not good either, because there was no oversight. And I understand some of you believe whatever the DNR does is fine. That’s great. Some of my colleagues don’t believe that.”

Especially in the northern part of the state, Republicans have objected to stewardship funds being used to conserve land that then gets taken off of local property tax rolls — taking money away from already struggling small local governments. In other cases, Republicans have complained that proposals for projects under the grants rely too heavily on the state funds without the local governments providing enough of their own money. 

In his proposed 2025-26 budget, Gov. Tony Evers has requested the stewardship program be increased from its current funding of $33 million per year to $100 million per year for 10 years. 

Kurtz said he’s working on a bill that would return some oversight authority over the program to the Legislature without the anonymous objection provision. He added, though,  that if the Audubon members went to Republicans Wednesday saying, “‘It’s the governor’s budget or nothing,’ you already lost.” 

“I don’t need you to do that, because, I’m being very sincere, I’m trying to keep this alive, and if you go over there [saying that], there’s a good chance it’ll die,” he said. “So don’t do that. Let them, especially when you’re meeting with my colleagues, ask them what [their] concerns are. ‘Why don’t you like this? What is it about the program that we can do better so we can have another day to make sure we protect all our wonderful birds and animals.’”

Habush Sinykin noted that 93% of Wisconsinites support the program and said that in her purple district covering Milwaukee’s northwest suburbs, the stewardship program is hugely popular. She said the anonymous hold of a project in the district drew the ire of community members of both parties. 

“There’s a lot of understanding at the legislative level that in these uncertain times, with these newer maps, that our state representatives and senators, including those on the Joint Finance Committee, have to be wary and strategic about issues like this that are bipartisan,” she said. “They’re actually non-partisan. They are successful community building issues. So I think that’s a little bit where your leverage is to lean in hard. How popular these are.”

Aside from the stewardship program, the society members lobbying in the Capitol Wednesday were pushing for the state to increase protections for wetlands and grasslands, advance sustainable practices in the state’s agriculture and forestry industries and grow renewable energy production. 

On Wednesday morning, the administration of President Donald Trump announced a proposed rule that would rescind habitat protections for endangered species across the country. 

Marnie Urso, Audubon Great Lakes’ senior director of policy, said that with the federal government retreating from conservation efforts, state level efforts have become more important. 

“With that uncertainty, this kind of work is even more important, for state lawmakers to be on the path to conserving our natural resources,” Urso said. “The Knowles Nelson project program is bipartisan. It always has been a permanent foundation. So we know it has wide, widespread bipartisan support.”

Urso said leaning into that popularity could help advance the group’s priorities. 

“Even Trump voters like the Knowles Nelson Conservation Fund,” she said. “So we’re confident that by coming and talking, telling our story and getting to understand what’s important to our lawmakers, we can inform those decisions. And now it’s more important than ever to have state conservation programs continue.”

Voters cast their ballot in a polling place just blocks from the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. | Photo by Henry Redman

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) heard testimony Monday on a proposed set of rules to guide the conduct of election observers. 

Over the last few elections, the observation process of elections has become more popular — and more polarizing — as Republicans have grown increasingly skeptical of the election process since President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential contest. 

The rule, proposed by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), provides more detail for what observers are allowed to do and where they are allowed to position themselves at polling places, and lays out the process for how an unruly observer can be removed. The rule’s final text was created with input from an advisory committee consisting of representatives of major and minor political parties, election clerks, disability rights groups and right-wing election conspiracy groups. 

The two most recent WEC chairs, Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, and Don Millis, a Republican, opened the testimony with each saying they have individual quibbles about the rule but the final text is the result of two years of consensus building and that legislators shouldn’t reject the rule because it isn’t perfect.

Millis said that the current statute guiding election observers is vague and this rule is the best chance of clarifying regulations to protect the rights of voters and observers because passing new legislation into law is challenging under the state’s divided government, with Republicans in control of the Legislature and a Democratic governor. 

“In the end, we can debate about whether the rule provides enough latitude or protection for observers, I agree,” Millis said. “I don’t agree with everything in the rule, but I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Without this rule, municipal clerks have wide ranging authorities to manage polling places as they see fit. There’s no reasonable argument that observers are better off without this rule. Now certainly the Legislature could come up with an improved observer statute through legislation, but of course, that has to be signed into law. And there’s the rub.” 

Earlier this year, Republicans in the Assembly voted against an emergency rule that was broadly identical to the permanent rule being considered on Monday. In the hearing, Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) complained that legislators were not involved earlier in the rulemaking process. 

“I feel a little bit like you didn’t even try here,” Neylon said. “You didn’t even try to do legislation. You’re choosing a rule and then telling us, ‘We can’t even work with you guys. This is what we got to do.’ And I find that a little bit insulting.” 

Despite the inclusion of election skeptics on the advisory committee process, much of the testimony in the more than three-hour hearing came from election conspiracy theorists who oppose the rule’s adoption. One opponent of the bill said there needed to be observers at Wisconsin’s central count location for tabulating election results because the internet routers that transmit the results are manufactured by the “Chinese Communist party.” 

Wisconsin’s election results are tabulated at the local and county levels, not by the state, and while unofficial results get sent over the internet, official results are determined using the physical tapes obtained from the voting machines. 

Former state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who was one of the Legislature’s most prominent election deniers, complained that when she has tried to observe voting in the past, she’s been denied access because limited seats are taken up by people “playing Candy Crush all day.” 

Brandtjen also talked about Janet Angus, a Green Bay woman who was charged with disorderly conduct after berating a woman who was attempting to return her husband’s absentee ballot during the April 2022 election. Angus, the Wisconsin Examiner reported, was involved in a Republican effort to influence the Green Bay mayoral election through a lawsuit against the city’s use of audio recording equipment in its security system. 

Brandtjen also objected to the rule’s provisions that treat members of the news media differently than observers — mostly by allowing them to take videos and photos inside polling places. Brandtjen said she found that “distasteful.” Jacobs explained that allowing the public to learn about the voting process through the media is important and allowing reporters to do their jobs is necessary. 

“We balanced the First Amendment right of the press with the limitations we’re putting on observers, and we felt that was a reasonable accommodation,” Jacobs said. 

Elections commissioner Robert Spindell, a Republican, voted against the rule’s passage when the commission considered it and testified against its passage on Monday. Spindell said he was against the rule because it doesn’t allow observers to record video or audio at polling places, which he said would allow clerks to remove observers from polling sites without the observers being able to protect themselves. 

Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) said that as members of the committee were talking about large portions of the public being skeptical of election results, it was “beyond the pale” that Spindell would be testifying to the committee because of his involvement in the fake electors scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

“Honestly, when members of this committee are talking about people still being concerned about election integrity, and we have somebody testifying who was a part of trying to overturn the 2020, election, I mean, if ever there was an unreliable witness on anything, I feel that that person is sitting in front of us today in this committee,” Snodgrass said.

Blind figure of Justice holding scales | Getty Images Creative

U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson announced Friday that they’d renewed their agreement establishing the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission to provide recommendations for Congress on nominations for U.S. attorneys and federal judgeships. 

There are currently vacancies for U.S. attorneys in both the eastern and western districts of the state and U.S. Circuit Court Judge Diane Sykes announced she will take senior status, a form of semi-retirement, on Oct. 1, which will require the senators to offer potential nominees for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The commitment to the nominating commission comes as President Donald Trump and Republicans attack the federal judiciary over decisions by judges across the country to limit the president’s authority. 

Both senators said they were confident the commission will find people who can work impartially. 

“I am proud to work with Senator Johnson this Congress to select qualified, impartial candidates to serve our state and faithfully apply the law,” Baldwin said in a statement. “I have full confidence our bipartisan nominating commission will do its job well of rigorously vetting and selecting candidates with the character, expertise, and experience required to fairly deliver justice for our constituents.” 

In his statement, Johnson said the nominating commission must concentrate “on finding individuals who will apply the law and not alter it to fit their ideological or policy preferences.” 

But late last month, Johnson said he supported an effort from U.S. House Republicans, supported by Wisconsin’s GOP representatives, that would limit the ability of federal district judges to impose nationwide injunctions on executive actions. Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the judiciary was “overstepping its constitutional bounds” by declaring Trump’s actions unconstitutional. 

“They’ve got to discipline, they’ve got to put some guardrails around this,” Johnson said. “This is getting completely out of control.”

Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell arrives at Milwaukee Central Count with Sen. Ron Johnson (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) Chair Ann Jacobs said at a meeting Thursday that the body is still investigating how the City of Madison lost nearly 200 ballots during the 2024 presidential election. 

The city of Madison announced in late December that 193 unprocessed absentee ballots had been found in the weeks following the election. The discovered ballots weren’t enough to sway the results of any contests, but WEC began an investigation into the error to determine what caused it and how similar mistakes can be prevented in future elections. 

On Thursday, Jacobs said that she and Republican commissioner Don Millis had already taken depositions of former Madison city clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl and members of her staff but that there was more work to be done and depositions to conduct with employees of Madison and Dane County. She added that those other interviews were delayed until after the April 1 election. 

Witzel-Behl, who had already been on administrative leave during the spring elections, resigned from her position as Madison city clerk earlier this week after nearly two decades in the role during which time she oversaw more than 60 elections. 

Jacobs said the investigation has already highlighted ways the state can improve its absentee ballot processes. 

“On a positive note, I do think the information we’re learning from the work we’ve done so far will help inform some best practices for tracking absentee ballots, making sure all absentee ballots are counted timely, and as we move to amend our manuals and update them … I really do think that what we’ve learned is going to help us do a better job there on some of that absentee ballot processing,” she said. 

After the update on the investigation, Republican commissioner Robert Spindell began remarks that devolved into a shouting match with Jacobs. 

Spindell began by noting how long Witzel-Behl had been the Madison clerk. 

“I think it’s fine that we’re doing this investigation of the city of Madison, or the misplacement of some [193] ballots and then not properly following through when they were found,” he said. “But I do want to commend the Madison clerk for her 20-plus years service.” 

Spindell then transitioned into what he said he believes is a “more serious problem” — some Milwaukee polling places running out of ballots during the April 1 election. On Election Day earlier this month, seven polling sites ran out of ballots, causing city officials to scramble to replenish supplies. The delay caused long lines to form at some polls. 

City election officials said they generally determine how many ballots to print and distribute to poll locations by assessing voter turnout in previous similar elections. But this year Wisconsin and Milwaukee broke turnout records for a spring election. 

A former member of the Milwaukee Elections Commission who previously sparked controversy when he celebrated and took credit for the low turnout among Black voters in the 2022 midterm elections, Spindell has often been extremely critical of the administration of Milwaukee’s elections. 

Republicans have often attacked Milwaukee’s election administration, resulting in frequent, baseless accusations that the city’s election results are fraudulent. 

Before Spindell could finish his statement, Jacobs banged her gavel, saying she was ruling his comment out of order, but Spindell just got louder and continued. 

Wisconsin open meetings law requires that if a government body such as the elections commission is going to discuss an issue at a meeting, it must have been properly listed on the meeting’s announced agenda. 

“I am not going to let you keep going,” Jacobs said. “I’m going to talk over you until you stop. You must stop. You are out of order, and I will eject you from this meeting. Do you understand the words I am saying? They are simple. You are out of order. The City of Milwaukee is not on this agenda. You do not get to hijack the agenda. You are not the chair. When you are chair you get to put things on the agenda, it’s not on the agenda.” 

Even though most of what he said was inaudible, Spindell ended by saying “I’ve said what I needed to say.” 

During the meeting, the commission also approved the design for a mailer that will be sent to voters who haven’t voted in four years to ask if they still live at the addresses listed in their voter registrations and informing them they risk having their registrations deactivated. The commissioners also  received an update on an audit to determine if any people currently serving felony sentences voted in recent elections and moved forward an administrative rule that would keep the home addresses of judicial candidates off public elections paperwork.

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) speaks about how advocates can convince Republicans to fund the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program at the Great Lakes Audubon Society's 2025 advocacy day. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) said Wednesday the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program is “on life support,” adding that some of his Republican colleagues give it a 20% chance of being extended in this year’s budget debate before its expiration next year. 

Kurtz, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay) and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Karen Hyun spoke Wednesday to a gathering of members of local Audubon Society chapters and staff of Audubon Great Lakes ahead of the organization’s advocacy day to lobby legislators to support conservation funding. 

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program was established in 1989 to help preserve local natural environments. Throughout its history, the program has enjoyed mostly bipartisan support as it has provided grants through the DNR to help local governments and nonprofits fund the acquisition, restoration and maintenance of public land, parks and wildlife habitats. 

In recent years, the program has become a flashpoint in the fight over the boundary between the executive and legislative branches of state government. Until a decision by the state Supreme Court last year, any member of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Committee on Finance had the authority to hold up a project funded through the stewardship program by placing an anonymous hold on that spending. 

The Court’s decision entirely removed the Legislature’s oversight of the program, a change that further turned Republicans against its continued existence. 

“We could make that process better, where it was not just one individual not liking something and being able to kill a project. I agree with that,” Kurtz said. “When the court case came in and basically took that entire process away, that was not good either, because there was no oversight. And I understand some of you believe whatever the DNR does is fine. That’s great. Some of my colleagues don’t believe that.”

Especially in the northern part of the state, Republicans have objected to stewardship funds being used to conserve land that then gets taken off of local property tax rolls — taking money away from already struggling small local governments. In other cases, Republicans have complained that proposals for projects under the grants rely too heavily on the state funds without the local governments providing enough of their own money. 

In his proposed 2025-26 budget, Gov. Tony Evers has requested the stewardship program be increased from its current funding of $33 million per year to $100 million per year for 10 years. 

Kurtz said he’s working on a bill that would return some oversight authority over the program to the Legislature without the anonymous objection provision. He added, though,  that if the Audubon members went to Republicans Wednesday saying, “‘It’s the governor’s budget or nothing,’ you already lost.” 

“I don’t need you to do that, because, I’m being very sincere, I’m trying to keep this alive, and if you go over there [saying that], there’s a good chance it’ll die,” he said. “So don’t do that. Let them, especially when you’re meeting with my colleagues, ask them what [their] concerns are. ‘Why don’t you like this? What is it about the program that we can do better so we can have another day to make sure we protect all our wonderful birds and animals.’”

Habush Sinykin noted that 93% of Wisconsinites support the program and said that in her purple district covering Milwaukee’s northwest suburbs, the stewardship program is hugely popular. She said the anonymous hold of a project in the district drew the ire of community members of both parties. 

“There’s a lot of understanding at the legislative level that in these uncertain times, with these newer maps, that our state representatives and senators, including those on the Joint Finance Committee, have to be wary and strategic about issues like this that are bipartisan,” she said. “They’re actually non-partisan. They are successful community building issues. So I think that’s a little bit where your leverage is to lean in hard. How popular these are.”

Aside from the stewardship program, the society members lobbying in the Capitol Wednesday were pushing for the state to increase protections for wetlands and grasslands, advance sustainable practices in the state’s agriculture and forestry industries and grow renewable energy production. 

On Wednesday morning, the administration of President Donald Trump announced a proposed rule that would rescind habitat protections for endangered species across the country. 

Marnie Urso, Audubon Great Lakes’ senior director of policy, said that with the federal government retreating from conservation efforts, state level efforts have become more important. 

“With that uncertainty, this kind of work is even more important, for state lawmakers to be on the path to conserving our natural resources,” Urso said. “The Knowles Nelson project program is bipartisan. It always has been a permanent foundation. So we know it has wide, widespread bipartisan support.”

Urso said leaning into that popularity could help advance the group’s priorities. 

“Even Trump voters like the Knowles Nelson Conservation Fund,” she said. “So we’re confident that by coming and talking, telling our story and getting to understand what’s important to our lawmakers, we can inform those decisions. And now it’s more important than ever to have state conservation programs continue.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives remarks at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on Aug. 23, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

The Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections held a public hearing Tuesday morning for Republican-authored bills introduced in response to third-party candidates in last year’s election — one who faced challenges getting on the presidential ballot and the other who wasn’t allowed to get off. 

The first bill, authored by Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) and Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken), would allow third-party presidential candidates to gain access to Wisconsin’s presidential ballot without their party having any members holding elected office in the state. 

Last year, the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint arguing the Green Party was not eligible to be on the presidential ballot because state law requires presidential electors nominated in October to be chosen by state officers and legislative candidates. 

The statute states that presidential electors must be nominated by each political party’s state officers, holdover state senators and candidates for the state Senate and Assembly. The Democrats argued the Green Party doesn’t have anyone who qualifies, so it couldn’t be on the ballot.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed the DNC’s lawsuit against the Green Party. Jill Stein, the party’s nominee for president, received 12,275 votes, about 0.4% of the statewide total. 

In his remarks introducing the bill, Sortwell said the effort to exclude the Green Party from the ballot was “an attack upon democracy.” 

“No political candidate should be restricted ballot access and discouraged to run because their respective party has not yet won a political office,” Sortwell said. “It’s rather ludicrous on its face, if you consider that a party is not entitled to a monopoly for ballot access and to certain votes. To make the law clear, this legislation protects political third parties from frivolous lawsuits by allowing the chairperson of the party’s state committee to nominate their presidential electors.”

The other bill heard by the committee Tuesday addresses Robert F. Kennedy’s failed effort to get his name off Wisconsin’s presidential ballot after he had dropped out of the race and endorsed President Donald Trump. 

Kennedy had filed nomination papers with the Wisconsin Elections Commission that included the signatures of enough voters for him to qualify and be placed on the ballot. Before the Wisconsin Elections Commission met on Aug. 27 to make its final certification of candidates, Kennedy dropped out of the race and wrote a letter to the commission asking to take his name off the ballot. 

Under state law, however, candidates who file nomination papers and qualify to run cannot withdraw and must remain on the ballot, unless they die. Kennedy unsuccessfully sued to have his name removed, taking the case all the way from Dane County circuit court to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Once the candidates are certified, county clerks begin printing and mailing absentee ballots, making it much harder to change who is on the ballot. 

Under the bill, authored by Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard), qualified independent candidates for president and vice president, and all qualified candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the state Senate and Assembly, governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state and state treasurer could remove  their name from the ballot if they file a sworn statement withdrawing their candidacy before the WEC deadline for certifying candidates. 

The bill would also make it a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a $25,000 fine to file a false statement withdrawing someone’s candidacy for office. 

In his testimony, Steffen said California is the only other state that doesn’t allow candidates off the ballot unless they die and that the policy is “unrealistic and somewhat embarrassing.” 

“So having such a law probably made sense in the 1800s when death was more of a reality, a regular occurrence, but in current times, it seems appropriate that we develop a mechanism, like all the other states, to allow individuals who, if between the time that they submit their paperwork and the election, that they have some sort of opportunity on their own to pull themselves off the ballot,” he said. 

The bill would not apply to candidates for local office. In this year’s spring election, a candidate for Madison Common Council won by a slim margin after dropping out of the race and endorsing her opponent. 

Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson testified that her only concern is that Steffen’s proposal could limit clerks’ ability to get ballots out on time. She noted that clerks begin designing, preparing and testing their ballots long before the elections commission certifies the candidates. 

For the clerks, she said, the WEC certification is the go-ahead that ballots can be printed and mailed. She said their work will be slowed down if they need to wait until the last possible moment to begin that preparation work, because a candidate might drop out.

“Those are really tight time frames, and as absentee ballots keep growing in popularity, we have to print more ballots, and printing ballots takes more time, so if we need that extra time, please don’t take any time away from us,” Tollefson said.

Former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a video promoting the partisan review of the 2020 election. (YouTube | Office of the Special Counsel)

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who led a widely derided review of the 2020 presidential election,  searching for evidence for baseless accusations of fraud, will have his law license suspended for three years, according to a stipulated agreement between him and the state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR). 

Law Forward, the progressive voting rights focused firm, filed a grievance against Gableman with the OLR in 2023. The OLR filed a complaint against Gableman in November that alleged, among other counts, that he had failed to “provide competent representation” and to “abstain from all offensive personality” and of violating attorney-client privilege.

The allegations against Gableman stemmed from his treatment of the mayors of Green Bay and Madison, whom he threatened with jail time during his review, false statements he made during testimony to legislative committees, violating the state’s open records laws, breaching his contract with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and, when OLR began investigating him, “making false statements” to the investigators in an affidavit. 

As part of the stipulated agreement, Gableman admitted that “he cannot successfully defend against the allegations of misconduct … and agrees that the allegations of the complaint provide an adequate factual basis in the record.” 

In a statement, Law Forward’s general counsel Jeff Mandel said that Gableman’s actions “were and continue to be a threat to our democracy and the rule of law.” 

“Our justice system can work only if everyone plays by the rules,” Mandell said. “Two years and one month after Law Forward first filed a grievance with the Office of Lawyer Regulation explaining how Gableman’s unethical behavior did lasting damage to the public’s faith in elections, we are glad to see consequences for those who plan and promote overturning the will of the people.”

“Gableman violated his sworn duty to uphold both the U.S. and the Wisconsin constitutions and his obligations as an attorney,” Mandell continued. “He broke more rules than he followed, acting with complete indifference to election law, procedural norms, and the ethical obligations that bind attorneys. With this deal, Gableman stipulates that he misled courts, lied in public meetings, and violated government transparency laws.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley said this week she’ll seek another 10-year term on the Court next year. 

Bradley’s announcement came just days after Dane County Judge Susan Crawford defeated Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel by 10 points in the most expensive judicial campaign in U.S. history. Crawford’s victory gave the Court’s liberals control of the majority until at least 2028. Bradley told WisPolitics that she will run again to “ensure that there is a voice for the constitution and for the rule of law to preserve that in the state of Wisconsin.”

“I’m concerned for what an extremely radical court is going to do over the next three years, and I will be spending the next several weeks assessing what happened on Tuesday and figuring out a path to achieving a court that is not led by and dominated by the radical left, that gets back to deciding cases under the law and respecting the constitution,” Bradley said. 

Liberals have now won four of the last five state Supreme Court elections, all by double digits. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that appeals court judge and former Democratic lawmaker Chris Taylor is considering challenging Bradley in next year’s race. 

Schimel and former Justice Dan Kelly have lost the last three Supreme Court elections after arguing that their liberal opponents are partisan ideologues seeking to legislate from the bench.

Bradley was first appointed to the Court by Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 and elected to a full term in 2016. In recent years she’s been one of the Court’s most right-wing justices. 

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she compared restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the disease to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and she sided with President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful effort to have the Court throw out the results of the 2020 election. 

She has often written in her dissents against Court decisions about her belief that the liberal majority is acting politically and said the Court’s liberals are “pursuing a political agenda.”

(Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Four county sheriffs in Wisconsin have signed agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months stating they’ll cooperate with the federal agency on immigration enforcement actions. 

Since March, Washington, Waupaca, Winnebago and Wood counties have signed onto ICE’s Warrant Service Officer program, which authorizes sheriff’s deputies to serve immigration warrants against undocumented immigrants in the county jail, according to an updated ICE list of participating agencies across the country. 

These four counties have joined eight others that already had existing agreements with the agency prior to the inauguration of President Donald Trump. 

In January, Tim Muth, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Wisconsin, told the Wisconsin Examiner these agreements were a method the Trump administration would use to find allies in its effort to deport millions of undocumented people. 

“What they do indicate is which are the counties who have already raised their hands and said, ‘we are happy to assist with deporting people from the state,’ and I anticipate that the Trump administration is going to start with that list and say ‘we know who our allies are in this in the state of Wisconsin,’” Muth said. “Let’s see if one: We can get more allies signing these agreements, and, two: For the ones who already have, let’s see what we can do to get them more active in this area.”

Immigrant rights advocates say the pre-existing agreements with ICE were hardly used under President Joe Biden, but under Trump they can be used to deport any undocumented person in the jail, even if they’re there for a low-level offense or before they can defend themselves in court against the charges they’re accused of. 

Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature have been pushing for more county sheriffs to participate in these types of programs, authoring a bill that would require counties to verify the citizenship status of people in custody for a felony offense and notify ICE if citizenship cannot be verified. It would also require sheriffs to comply with detainers and administrative warrants received from the federal Department of Homeland Security for people held in the county jail for a criminal offense.

Under the proposed legislation, counties that don’t comply would lose 15% of their shared revenue payments from the state in the next year. 

(Photo by Drew Angerer | Getty Images)

Wisconsin voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment to enshrine the state’s already existing voter ID law into the state Constitution. 

The amendment was approved by 25 points. The Associated Press called the election less than 40 minutes after the polls closed. 

The Republican-authored referendum does not change the law that was already on the books in the state which requires that voters show an approved ID to register to vote and receive a ballot. Republican legislators said the amendment was necessary to protect the statute from being overturned by the state Supreme Court. In recent years, Republicans in the Legislature have increasingly turned to the constitutional amendment process to shape state law without needing the signature of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. 

Democrats had accused Republicans of including the referendum on the ballot in this election as an effort to boost conservative turnout in the state Supreme Court election. 

Wisconsin’s voter ID law has been on the books for more than a decade. During debate over the law, Republican lawmakers discussed its potential to help the party win elections by suppressing the vote of minority and college-aged people who tend to vote for Democrats. 

Democrats and voting rights groups said the law amounted to a “poll tax.” A 2017 study found that the law kept 17,000 people from the polls in the 2016 election. 

Since its passage, a number of court decisions have adjusted the law, leading the state to ease restrictions and costs for obtaining a photo ID — particularly for people who can’t afford a high cost or don’t have proper documents such as a birth certificate. 

Republicans in Wisconsin and across the country have increasingly focused on photo ID requirements for voting since conspiracy theories about election administration emerged following President Donald Trump’s false claims that he was robbed of victory because of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential campaign.

While the law doesn’t change, the approved language of the amendment gives the Legislature the authority to determine what types of ID qualify as valid for voting purposes. Currently, approved IDs include Wisconsin driver’s licenses and state IDs, U.S. passports, military IDs and certain student IDs.