GOP blocks Democrats’ bid to prevent investigations like Gableman’s
MADISON – A motion to add more oversight to investigations commissioned by the state Legislature was voted down Thursday after being introduced by Democrats in reaction to Michael Gableman’s fruitless look into purported voter fraud during the 2020 election.
The motion would have required a vote by both the Assembly and Senate to approve the hiring of investigators but was rejected with little discussion by Republicans who hold the majority in the Legislature and on the joint finance committee.
The four Democrats on the committee — Sen. LaTonya Johnson of Milwaukee, Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison, Rep. Evan Goyke of Milwaukee and Rep. Tip McGuire of Kenosha — introduced the motion in hopes that investigations going forward would have more oversight.
“Over the past few years, Republicans have recklessly wasted taxpayer money on unnecessary lawsuits and exorbitant attorney fees for the Gableman sham investigation. Justice Gableman was hired by Speaker Vos to appease President Trump and national Republicans,” the four Democrats said in a joint statement Thursday morning.
“Then, after almost two years of a sham investigation and no evidence of widespread election fraud discovered, Speaker Vos changed his mind and said Gableman was an ‘embarrassment to the state.’”
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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hired Gableman during the summer of 2021 under pressure from former President Donald Trump, who had publicly assailed Vos and other Republican legislative leaders for not taking illegal action to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Vos announced the probe and the hiring of Gableman as Trump ramped up his efforts to trick his supporters into believing massive voter fraud had robbed him of a second term as president, instead of acknowledging that he had not received as many votes during the 2020 presidential election as Joe Biden. Biden defeated Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome verified by recounts, court rulings, an independent audit and an outside review.
The 14-month endeavor turned up no evidence of election corruption, instead promoting baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and creating a steady drumbeat of explosive court hearings and rulings in lawsuits over Gableman’s desire to jail election officials and mayors who refused to be interviewed behind closed doors, and his decision to ignore requests from the public for records related to his probe.
Vos fired Gableman in August 2022, after the former justice campaigned for Vos’ primary opponent. Gableman’s investigation cost the state more than $2 million, instead of the $676,000 originally set by Vos.
Goyke during the hearing questioned the decision made by the Assembly to hire Gableman and said that the money spent on the investigation itself, as well as the legal fees spent on open records requests later, could have been better allocated.
“The Gableman investigation was a waste of money,” he said during an impassioned speech.
“Did you read his report? Was it worth it? Look, this is not the first time that Republicans in the Legislature have not applied accountability to their own actions, but then required it of other state agencies.”
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura.
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