Here & Now

State Of The State: Recap And Analysis

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Walker's hour-plus speech on Wednesday covered a range of topics from tax credits to F-35 war planes. State Democrats labeled it an election year campaign ad. We will hear from the Assembly minority leader right after a few more words from the governor on his priorities and accomplishments.

Scott Walker:

Rich or poor, big city or small town, Republican or Democrat, these are the issues that people want us to work together on. Issues like pushing for more ways to help our schools improve student success. Growing the number of opportunities for our young people to pursue great careers that will keep them here in our state. Expanding our Wisconsin works for everyone welfare reforms. Helping small businesses grow across the state. Continuing to reform our government. Creating a new child tax credit to help working families. And providing stability in health care. These issues are the seven common sense principles of our ambitious agenda for 2018.

Gordon Hintz:

Republicans passed the largest funding cuts to public schools in our state’s history while at the same time handing out tax cuts for the wealthy that will cost the state more than $1.3 billion by the end of next year. For Wisconsin to achieve educational excellence for every school and every student, Wisconsin needs a sustained investment. Wisconsin Democrats believe education is the biggest priority and should be the biggest priority every year, not just election years.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, the governor’s State of the State address was longer in length and stronger on political moderation compared to years past, very clearly a re-election message. In tonight’s first look we are joined by WPR’s Shawn Johnson to break it down. Thanks for being here.

Shawn Johnson:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

As you know, the governor’s newly-announced plans, ranging from health care help to juvenile corrections changes to welfare reform, also include some money in your pocket if you’ve got kids.

Scott Walker:

Families from across the state will receive $100 for every child under 18 living at home. A couple hundred dollars more in the family budget could really make a difference. Particularly when getting ready for the next school year.

Frederica Freyberg:

So that's obviously got to be popular.

Shawn Johnson:

Walker calls it a reform dividend, which would affect what his office says would be 671,000 households at a cost to the state of $122 million per year. The governor says the projected budget balance of $385 million should go back to the people. He also wants to spend more in other areas: rural schools, attracting workers, a rural economy development fund, new juvenile institutions. Here’s what Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz had to say about it. “We are witnessing a desperate career politician who say do and do anything to be re-elected. This speech sounded a lot like a going out of business sale.”

Frederica Freyberg:

It has to be said that the tone of the governor’s speech was decidedly more moderate. The governor even singled out a Milwaukee Democrat for his work on juvenile corrections reforms. The change in tone stood out to political observers including UW-Milwaukee Professor Mordecai Lee, who told us this about Governor Walker’s speech. He said, “He is trying to change where he stands politically. I think it indicates that his election campaign will be about persuading those leaning to vote Democratic to vote for him. That’s the opposite of his recall campaign, which was to mobilize the base.” I know that the governor stated that the election results earlier this month in the 10th Senate District over near St. Croix County, where a Democrat won that usually Republican district, should represent a wake-up call for Republicans. But do you suppose that this address its new plans is a manifestation of that alarm bell?

Shawn Johnson:

I mean it could be. Think about what the governor said when he was asked about the wake-up call the day after that election. What do you mean? And he said that he thinks that people need to know more about what Wisconsin Republicans have done here. Essentially don’t confuse us with what’s happening in Washington, where Republicans are in control, and not getting everything they want done. We’re doing things here in Wisconsin. So you heard the governor hit that theme over and over again especially in the early going in the speech of things that he has done, he has accomplished. That message I think definitely ties into that wake-up call that he was talking about.

Frederica Freyberg:

So half of his speech was about that, and the other half was about his so-called ambitious agenda. But given the duration of the legislative session, do you think he can get that agenda through?

Shawn Johnson:

There’s a lot there, yeah, especially when you think about the legislature potentially being out of session by maybe the end of February, maybe March, more realistically. That’s not a lot of time to get all this stuff done. In a way, for Walker it doesn’t matter if they pass it. He’s put a marker down here and said I support this.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right.

Shawn Johnson:

You know, in the case of like the tax cut for people with kids, that’s something that they would want to pass in some form in 2018 if they actually want to have that money in the pockets of people who would vote by election day.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right. So what else stood out for you in his speech?

Shawn Johnson:

You know, I think we were all watching the speech to see what the governor would say about Foxconn. This is one of the biggest accomplishments, whether or not you like it or hate it, the biggest, most consequential thing that has happened in certainly this term of the Walker Administration. So there was some question about what the governor would — how much import he would give to Foxconn in the speech, where he would emphasize it. I think by my watch it was about 35 minutes into this hour-plus speech. So it’s not like he made it the crown jewel of the speech. It’s kind of the term that keeps coming back to mind.

Frederica Freyberg:

But he didn’t ignore it.

Shawn Johnson:

He did not ignore it. He did talk about that.

Frederica Freyberg:

So while we’re here we wanted to catch up on the latest of the state Senate’s move to remove the administrators of the state Elections and Ethics Commissions for what Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says was their work while at the now-defunct Government Accountability Board which took part in the John Doe investigation into the Scott Walker. Now this week, the Senate voted on party lines. Tell us what happened this week in this very crazy kind of action on this.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah. Here’s what Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said ahead of the vote not to confirm the pair.

Scott Fitzgerald:

It's unacceptable, and both of these individuals that are before us here today were there. Can I nail down exactly what they were part of and what they did and how much of it did they look away from or were they complicit or were they guilty of something criminal? I have no idea. But that’s not what we’re doing here. We’re trying to judge if this body is comfortable, if each individual senator in this body, is comfortable picking up the phone and calling over there for some straight advice about something related to ethics or elections.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the Senate voted on party lines earlier this week to block the confirmations of administrators Michael Haas and Brian Bell. How did that vote come out?

Shawn Johnson:

So that was along party lines as you mentioned in the Senate. Then midweek the Elections Commission voted 4-2, with one Republican voting in favor of reinstating Michael Haas as the administrator of the Elections Commission. The Ethics Commission did not follow suit. They voted 5-1 to keep their administrator job vacant. So where does that leave things? We still have Michael Haas at the Elections Commission. They still consider him the leader of the Elections Commission, but technically he’s an attorney at the Elections Commission now and he got a pay cut. Brian Bell, who was the leader of the Ethics Commission, has gone to the Department of Safety and Professional Services and that agency does not have a leader right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is this really about?

Shawn Johnson:

What is this really about? I mean, I guess the feelings that Republicans had about the Government Accountability Board and the John Doe investigation of Governor Walker’s campaign and other Republicans, those have not gone away. And so, I mean, Scott Fitzgerald was pretty frank about not wanting somebody associated with the former GAB to be in these leadership positions even if a report that recently came out, an investigation of that investigation, showed that Haas and Bell weren’t exactly making the calls in that investigation.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is it expected that this will end up in the courts?

Shawn Johnson:

I think it’s a pretty good possibility when you’re talking about who’s in charge of an agency and whether a Senate can kick them out or not through a confirmation vote. It’s just maybe a question of who sends it to court first? We do know if it were to go up to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, it’s run by a pretty strong conservative majority there and has sided with Republican lawmakers in a lot of the big issues of the day.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, we will be taking a closer look at this issue of the elections administrator just ahead. But Shawn Johnson, thanks a lot.

Shawn Johnson:

You're welcome.