Baldwin, Klobuchar see signs Manchin could agree to filibuster changes
MADISON - Democratic U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Amy Klobuchar said Wednesday they were optimistic they could get Republicans to support voting rights legislation or persuade their Democratic colleagues to pass a measure strictly on party lines.
Senate Republicans have signaled strong opposition to the legislation, suggesting it will be nearly impossible for Democrats to overcome a filibuster. To pass voting measures on purely partisan lines, they would need to get Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to agree to change Senate rules — a notion they have resisted.
Baldwin and Klobuchar, speaking at an event at the headquarters of the Urban
League of Greater Madison, said they believed Manchin could be persuaded on changing the rules because he has seen how much Republicans are fighting bills to expand early voting and require more campaign finance disclosure.
“He speaks about it, if you listen to him, about wanting a process that moves us toward bipartisan cooperation. But now he has seen with his own eyes a vote in June where there was no bipartisan cooperation on this issue,” Baldwin said.
“He's now seen a second endeavor to move on this bill with no Republican cooperation. And so at some point, just listening to his words, ... he doesn't want to mess with the current rules of the Senate, he wants to encourage bipartisanship — we all do — but I think we're steadily moving in the direction of (change).”
Klobuchar echoed that sentiment, noting Manchin has backed the idea of requiring senators to speak and hold the floor to conduct filibusters, rather than simply filing their opposition to legislation.
Baldwin, of Wisconsin, and Klobuchar, of Minnesota, held their event a day after the U.S. House on party lines approved a bill to require states to get federal approval before making changes to certain voting regulations. They championed that bill along with a separate measure that would expand early voting, limit removing people from the voter rolls and ban partisan gerrymandering.
“I'm feeling good about the direction we're headed right now,” said Klobuchar, the chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee and a top negotiator on the voting legislation.
The push for the legislation comes as
Republicans in Wisconsin and other states seek to overhaul their own election laws. Such measures have been approved in Iowa, Georgia and other states, but have been blocked in Wisconsin by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Wisconsin Republicans this week ramped up an effort to review the 2020 election, saying they were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the effort and hiring unnamed contractors to assist them. The review, which is being overseen by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, is one of four ongoing examinations of Wisconsin's election.
Baldwin called Gableman's review partisan and unfair.
“Voting rights are under attack across the country, including right here in the state of Wisconsin,” she said.