GOP still seeks to oust WEC leader Wolfe
Republicans to appeal ruling based on their fight for DNR chairman
MADISON – Republican legislative leaders have indicated they plan to appeal a January ruling allowing the state’s top election official to stay in her job beyond the expiration of her term as supporters of Donald Trump push to oust her over the outcome of the 2020 election.
The GOP lawmakers, among other issues raised, plan to ask the court whether state law creates a “duty” for the Wisconsin Elections Commission to appoint a new administrator regardless of whether a vacancy exists, according to the court filing.
In January, Dane County Circuit Judge Ann Peacock said Senate Republicans do not have the authority to remove or replace Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe. Peacock ruled Wolfe is legally staying in her position beyond an expired term because of a previous ruling in a case involving a Republican chairman of the Natural Resources Board, which the same GOP lawmakers supported at the time.
Wolfe oversees a commission that has been under fire for three years because of false claims put forward by Trump to convince supporters he actually won an election that he lost and because of policies commissioners approved during the 2020 presidential election to navigate hurdles presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin — a result that has been confirmed by two recounts paid by Trump, state audits, a partisan review, a conservative study and multiple lawsuits.
In September, the state Senate in a party-line vote rejected the appointment of Wolfe. Minutes after the vote, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit asking a judge to block Republican legislative leaders from appointing a new administrator and to declare Wolfe administrator, arguing the Senate did not have the power to oust her. Meanwhile, Wolfe said she would not leave her job until a court told her to do so.
Even though lawmakers voted Wolfe out, she stayed in her job because the vote to fire her wasn’t recognized by Wolfe or Democrats as legitimate. That’s because the Republicancontrolled state Senate forced a vote on Wolfe’s future even though the bipartisan elections commission charged with hiring her did not put
forward a nomination of Wolfe to consider.
When Wolfe’s term expired in June, the six members of the commission agreed Wolfe should stay in her job but failed to find consensus on how to respond to an effort by Senate Republicans to oust her.
Ultimately, the commission did not put forward the four votes required by law to reappoint Wolfe, with Democratic commissioners arguing the recent state Supreme Court ruling allowing such officials to stay beyond the expiration of their terms protects Wolfe’s job.
Senate Republicans decided to move forward anyway. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, contended the 3-0 commission vote that resulted in a failed motion to reappoint Wolfe was actually enough votes to reappoint Wolfe, even though state law says such votes require a majority of commissioners, or four votes.
But in an Oct. 16 filing, LeMahieu’s attorneys claimed the opposite — admitting the commission’s 3-0 vote on Wolfe “did not effectuate an appointment,” that Wolfe is lawfully in her current position as a holdover, and that “the Senate has no power to act on an appointment where there is no pending appointment.”
GOP lawmakers filed the notice of appeal on Monday.