Walker weakens successor’s powers
GOP-written law may be challenged by Dem governor
Scott Walker, the outgoing Republican governor of Wisconsin, signs into law measures that diminish the power of his Democratic successor and expand the authority of Republican lawmakers who have moved the state firmly to the right.
FOX CROSSING, Wis. — Scott Walker, the outgoing Republican governor of Wisconsin, on Friday signed into law measures that diminish the power of his Democratic successor and expand the authority of Republican lawmakers who teamed up with him over the last eight years to move the state firmly to the right.
Walker signed the measures over the objections of the incoming governor and despite vehement protest in the state Capitol as Republican lawmakers rushed the bills through in a hastily called session last week. Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat Walker in the November election, has suggested he may file suit over the changes.
Walker’s signing the measures into law was expected to solidify some of the policies that made him a hero to many conservatives nationally and, for a brief time, a presidential candidate. But participating in what many Democrats have called a legally dubious power grab also cemented another widely held view: that Walker is a bruising partisan willing to break precedent and ignore protests for political gain.
The tactic by Walker’s allies was seen as carving a path for other states, like Michigan, where Republicans are similarly contemplating limits on incoming Democrats. But it also risked energizing Democrats before a 2020 presidential election in which both parties will battle for the Midwest, as well as shaping how people remember Walker, 51, who leaves the governor’s job Jan. 7 having spent most of his adult life in elected office.
“What didn’t he do?” said state Sen. Fred Risser, a Democrat who was first elected to the Legislature in 1956. “He reversed the progressive, innovative state we used to be proud of.”
From the moment Walker took office in Wisconsin, he was upending it.
Walker, a former legislator and county executive who then was little known outside of the Milwaukee area, won a crucial advantage when he became governor in 2011: Voters not only flipped the governor’s seat to Republican, but also both chambers of the Legislature.
Results came immediately. Within weeks, Walker announced the plan that would define his tenure and make him a national name. He wanted to shrink collective bargaining rights for most public sector workers in a state with deep roots in the labor movement.
Outside Walker’s Capitol office, protesters marched and drummed and chanted fury at what they saw as an effort to weaken unions and diminish Democrats. But Walker pushed through the measure, survived a recall election and went on to guide Wisconsin on a conservative path, adopting a concealed carry law, expanding private school vouchers, enacting right-to-work legislation, passing voter identification rules and setting work rules for Medicaid recipients.
The final package of legislation that Walker addressed Friday was pushed through by Republican lawmakers last week, after elections that brought defeats for Republicans in Wisconsin, a purple state that was won both by Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Republicans held onto the state Legislature but lost contests for governor and attorney general.
The bills would curb the authority of Evers in the rule-making process and give lawmakers, not the new governor, most appointments on an economic development board until next summer. The measures also would limit early voting, allow legislators to intervene in some lawsuits and limit the power of Josh Kaul, the incoming attorney general.