Latest news with #Sortwell
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican riot bill could have chilling effect, advocates warn
Protesters gather in Kenosha the second night of protests on August 24th, 2020. This was before the clashes with police later that night. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner) Imagine you hear about a protest in your community and, curious, you join your neighbors who are marching in the street. Although the protest is loud and slows down traffic, it appears peaceful and non-violent. Then suddenly, someone throws a rock or spray-paints a building, and now you find yourself among those apprehended for felony rioting, regardless of whether you committed an act of vandalism or know who did. Civil rights advocates fear such a scenario if under a Republican bill that defines a riot as a public disturbance, an act of violence or a 'clear and present danger' of property destruction or personal injury involving at least three people. A similar bill was introduced in 2017 by Rep. John Spiros (R-Marshfield). A new version is (AB-88), authored by Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) and Sen. Dan Feyen (R- Fond du Lac). People who say their property was damaged or vandalized during what the bill defines as a 'riot' would also be able to seek civil damages from people or organizations that 'provided material support or resources with the intent that such support or resources would be used to perpetrate the offense,' under the bill. It also prohibits government officials with direct authority over law enforcement agencies from limiting or restricting those agencies' ability to quell vandalism or rioting, as defined by the bill. Jon McCray Jones, a policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin is concerned that the bill's definition of a 'riot' is too vague. 'Using that definition, a riot could be three teenagers driving around in a car knocking off mail boxes,' McCray Jones told Wisconsin Examiner. 'Technically, with this definition, a riot could be a food fight.' The bill's language concerning people who 'urge, promote, organize, encourage, or instigate others to commit a riot' is also vague according to McCray Jones, who says this aspect of the bill would open protest leaders and organizers up to criminal and civil liability, regardless of their involvement in rioting. Sortwell and Feyen did not respond to requests for comment for this story. In written testimony before the Assembly Committee on Judiciary on May 7, both lawmakers said that riots have become more common in recent years. 'We saw the destructive riots a few years ago in several metropolitan areas, including right here in Madison and Kenosha,' said Sortwell, referring to George Floyd-inspired protests and unrest in 2020. 'Taking a walk down State Street, one would see busted doors and windows of businesses, products stolen, and a smashed statue of a Civil War hero. Several business owners, employees, and citizens had their lives upended.' Feyen said that 'peaceful protests are a cornerstone of our public discourse and will always be protected under the First Amendment, but a line needs to be drawn when those protests go from being peaceful to being destructive and violent.' Although the bill does not mention specific protests, Feyen wrote, 'stricter penalties are needed to deter protesters from crossing that line from protest to property destruction, vandalism, arson, and physical violence.' Although scenes of burning buildings and looted stores received a lot of news coverage in 2020, studies suggest that at least 96% of Black Lives Matter protests during the movement's peak in May and June of 2020 were peaceful. Reports by TMJ4 found that 74.3% of the nearly 200 people who'd been placed on an intelligence list by police in Milwaukee county that year had never been charged with a misdemeanor or felony. Some reports, however, using data derived from insurance claims, estimate that as much as $2 billion in damage nationally occurred due to protests in 2020. Some residents of Kenosha – a city referenced by the bill's authors – recall how months of non-violent protest in Kenosha after Floyd's death were overshadowed by the unrest that occurred in August 2020. The shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey, which paralyzed Blake, led to days of protest and unrest, millions of dollars worth of property destruction, and ended when then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and wounded another, in what a jury later ruled was an act of self-defense. During committee hearings on May 7, Sortwell said that the bill seeks to punish not only people who commit vandalism but also 'those people who put together the riot.' Several groups have either lobbied or spoken out against the bill. The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council submitted written testimony opposing the bill on the behalf of '16 business associations working together on civil liability matters.' The council said that the bill would allow for civil compensation for emotional distress stemming from property destruction, noting that emotional damages are generally limited. AB-88 would also allow for any civil compensation to include attorneys' fees, which would be another departure from current law, the council wrote. Others spoke against the bill in person on May 7, pointing to the bill's broad language and the chilling effect it could have on political movements. 'This bill is just a blatant attempt to stop people from protesting,' said McCray Jones. 'This is a way to silence organizers from fighting for political change and threatening the status quo in power.' Organizers could potentially be sued for anything that happens at a protest, or even just for transporting someone to a protest that later turns into a riot, as defined under the bill. What counts as urging or promoting a riot is broad enough to include common protest chants, like 'no justice, no peace,' McCray Jones said. 'And if you have ambitious or politically motivated district attorneys…politically motivated prosecutors, the vagueness of this bill could be weaponized … free speech now gets criminally turned into inciting a riot.' McCray Jones added that he wonders what a police figure like former Milwaukee PD Chief Harold Breier — notorious for targeting and surveilling Black, brown and LGBTQ communities — would have been able to accomplish had such a law been at his disposal. As police departments develop their social media surveillance capabilities, it's possible under the bill that making posts encouraging people to attend a protest could be seen as an attempt to 'urge, promote, organize, encourage, or instigate' a riot under the bill. After the protests of 2020, some agencies that monitored protesters enacted new intelligence-gathering policies to help prevent broad, ideology-based surveillance. 'I think that right now this moment gives us a very opportune chance to highlight the importance of protecting the privacy of protesters here in Wisconsin,' McCray Jones told Wisconsin Examiner. McCray Jones said he hopes debate about the bill will become 'a jumping off point to talk about not just data privacy for protesters, not just privacy from law enforcement for marginalized communities, but what does it look like to re-think our position on surveillance in the midst of this regime in D.C. that is blatantly ignoring due process, the rule of law, and civil rights.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Assembly committee holds hearing on presidential ballot access bills
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives remarks at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on Aug. 23, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by) 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 was unable to get 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. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Associated Press
11-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Wisconsin's DOGE-inspired effort gets off to more collegial start
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin's version of the Elon Musk-led effort charged with making government run more efficiently struck a more collegial, bipartisan tone in its first meeting Tuesday, taking input from Democrats and hearing testimony from a broad array of government leaders. Wisconsin is one of several states that have sought to mimic the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, run by billionaire Musk at the federal level. Others that have created similar groups include Florida, Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana and New Hampshire. The Wisconsin Assembly's GOAT committee, which stands for Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency, is much more constrained in its mandate and powers than DOGE, which has broad authority given to it by President Donald Trump. The Wisconsin committee was created by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, but three of its nine members are Democrats. There is no counterpart in the state Senate, which means any of its recommendations may face difficulty clearing both houses of the Legislature. And the committee can't unilaterally fire state workers or slash government spending. Broad actions like that require action by the full Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, in addition to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Evers has broken records for vetoing Republican-sponsored bills, making it highly unlikely he would go along with anything significant the GOAT committee may recommend. Still, as a committee of the Legislature, it was able to solicit testimony Tuesday from numerous agency heads in Evers' administration at its first meeting Tuesday. University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and Bob Atwell, the founder of Nicolet National Bank, also testified. Republican Rep. Amanda Nedweski, chair of the committee, said the goal was to address 'strong demand from the public' about what is happening with telework, state office use, whether public workers are being held accountable, what cybersecurity is in place and whether there is a cost savings. Nedweski even cut off fellow Republican and committee vice chair Rep. Shae Sortwell when he began asking questions of a state education department official about spending related to DEI. 'We're going to stay on topic today,' Nedweski said. Sortwell sent numerous requests seeking information to the state's largest cities and all 72 counties related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in local governments across the state before the committee met, drawing criticism from Democratic members of the committee. Wisconsin Watch was the first to report on Sortwell's efforts. Vos, the Assembly speaker who created the GOAT committee, has said that its goal was to root out waste, fraud and abuse in state government. He attributed Sortwell's inquiries to information gathering related to that goal. DOGE claims credit for saving more than $100 billion at the federal level through mass firings, cancellations of contracts and grants, office closures and other cuts that have paralyzed entire agencies. Many of those claimed savings have turned out to be overstated or unproven.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wisconsin GOAT committee; Republican investigating DEI program funding
The Brief A new Wisconsin committee, Governmental, Oversight, Accountability and Transparency Committee (GOAT), is modeled after the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Its first focus is on municipalities and counties spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion. The move has gotten some feedback. MILWAUKEE - A new Wisconsin state assembly committee is looking to eliminate wasteful spending in state and local governments. Its first focus: diversity, equity and inclusion. But it's drawing diverse opinions. The backstory The state assembly recently created a new committee modeled after the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which was created to lower any wasteful spending. Republican Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he wanted to do something similar with the state, through the newly-formed Governmental, Oversight, Accountability and Transparency Committee (GOAT). GOAT is after receipts to see how local governments spend money. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News State Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers), is vice chair of the committee. Sortwell is sending open records requests to all 72 counties and the 50 biggest municipalities asking for details on how they are spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). What they're saying "The goal is to find unnecessary spending in state government, so that we can cut taxes, lower costs and be able to reprioritize and make sure we're spending money on the things that the people of Wisconsin actually want us to be spending money on." Sortwell said GOAT won't just focus on DEI. He said any aspect of government spending will be reviewed for fraud and waste. "It's adding up and costing the taxpayers a whole lot of money. How much money? We don't know, because they haven't shown us that information yet." The other side That caught the attention of Democrats on the committee, like State Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-Racine). Cruz notes the committee has not met once, or had any lawmakers bring a bill forward. "From my perspective, it's a complete waste of taxpayer money and an abuse of power to go after local municipalities over a petty personal project to specifically target already disenfranchised populations," Cruz said. "I think that they are conflating their chair positions with positions of power in a committee that has not been clearly defined yet." FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android Dig deeper Waukesha, Racine, West Allis and Kenosha all confirmed to FOX6 News they've received the request and will respond. The City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County have not yet. The Source FOX6 News talked with elected officials.
