Here & Now

Steineke Previews Lame Duck Session

Zac Schultz:
Republicans have had complete control over state government in Wisconsin for eight years. That will change in January when Democrat Tony Evers is sworn in as governor and that’s why Republicans in the legislature are working on a series of bills they hope to pass in a lame duck extraordinary session next week. To preview the bills we are joined by Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke from Green Bay. Thanks for your time.

Jim Steineke:
Thanks for having me, Zac.

Zac Schultz:
How would you characterize the bills you’re hoping to pass?

Jim Steineke:
Really, the main goal here is to codify some of the things that were done over the course of the last eight years to make sure that the intent of what was passed through the Assembly and the Senate and signed by the governor remains after Governor Evers takes office. So we just want to make sure that the things, the reforms we’ve been able to pass over the last eight years stand the test of time and if governor-elect Evers coming in wants to see changes that he has to work with the legislature in order to get those changes done.

Zac Schultz:
Why weren’t some of those changes made at the time the bills were passed? Why are they still up in the air at this moment?

Jim Steineke:
Some of them quite honestly just weren’t followed through on like the executive order that Governor Walker put in place having to deal with some of the voter ID regulations to make sure that they — they fit with the court’s ruling. Those were done by executive order. We never followed through and put those in statute. It was just more of an oversight than anything. So things like that are things we’re looking to tidy up.

Zac Schultz:
Some of the proposals include giving the legislature more power over appointing members to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation or rolling back the governor’s authority over some rulemaking process. Democrats are saying that you wouldn’t be doing it if Governor Walker had won a third term. So they’re calling this a power grab.

Jim Steineke:
Well, when it comes to WEDC, obviously Governor Walker supported WEDC. WEDC was put in place by the Assembly, the Senate and the governor and if we did nothing, come day one when Governor Evers takes office, he could not make appointments to the WEDC board and virtually make it disappear by taking no action. So that’s what we want to ensure that if he wants to see changes to WEDC, he has to come through the legislature just like through the process by which we created it.

Zac Schultz:
Some of the things out there are still unknown. We haven’t seen the text of the bills yet. For WDC, does the legislature, will they have control over appointing the CEO of WEDC or will that remain with the governor?

Jim Steineke:
Some of those details are still being negotiated out with the Senate so we’re not exactly sure how that’s going to land yet. But the idea again is to make sure that the legislature has a say in any changes that happen to WEDC and the new governor can’t just come in, by doing nothing, make it go away.

Zac Schultz:
Now another big change that’s been proposed or the idea is out there is moving the date of the 2020 presidential primary in order to move an election with predicted high Democratic turnout away from a spring election where a conservative member of the Supreme Court is on the ballot. Is that in the Assembly package?

Jim Steineke:
That’s again still being negotiated with the Senate to see where the votes are on that. Really, the idea behind this is to get partisan elections away from nonpartisan elections. So as a former town chairman and I was on the county board, I ran for office in April. The last thing I want to do is run up against highly partisan races in April when these are really nonpartisan races. So that’s the idea behind that.

Zac Schultz:
But just two years ago conservatives benefited when the Republican presidential primary coincided with a Supreme Court election and Rebecca Bradley won re-election for another ten years on the court. So how can you turn around and say well now it doesn’t make sense when it may hurt a conservative?

Jim Steineke:
I think that’s exactly the point. In the future, it could help Democrats. It could help Republicans. What we’re saying is no matter who it helps, we shouldn’t have those partisan elections during nonpartisan elections. So we want to align those more with the partisan primaries.

Zac Schultz:
Moving an election and creating an entirely new presidential primary could cost up to $7 million I’ve seen in some projections. The clerks around the state are saying they can’t afford this. How can you claim to be fiscally responsible when you’re adding a multi-million dollar election just in what appears to help a conservative candidate.

Jim Steineke:
Sure, again, it’s not about a conservative candidate because it could help Democratic candidates in the future. Really we do have to listen to the clerks and we are taking their input and trying to figure out ways to minimize the effects it will have on local units of government and their election costs. Those are things that are still being negotiated and we’ll do everything we can to minimize the impact to local communities.

Zac Schultz:
We’ve heard from both sides, from governor-elect Evers and from Republicans, that you do want to work together in the coming session. Is this a preview of whether you can work together, if right before you’re taking away some of his powers or moving elections around? Should Democrats be worried about the openness of Republicans?

Jim Steineke:
No, I don’t think so. Not at all. I get along with Governor Evers well. I get along really well with lieutenant governor-elect Mandela Barnes. I think there’s going to be a lot of different areas where we can find common ground and that’s what we promised we will do over the four years that governor-elect Evers is in there. We will do everything we can to find areas of agreement. Where we can’t, we’re going to base our disagreements on policy and not personalities and take our case directly to the people of Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:
On to something hopefully more bipartisan, you helped create the Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness and they just released an action plan. What will you need to make that happen and be a success in the next legislature?

Jim Steineke:
Really we had a great champion of this interagency council in Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. She and the council did amazing work over the course of the last year to come up with a structure for moving forward on how we deal with the homelessness crisis in Wisconsin. Really what we’ll need is Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes or Tony Evers to really step up and champion these issues and we’ll be talking to them shortly about how we can move forward together and implement the recommendations of the council.

Zac Schultz:
Representative Steineke from Green Bay, thanks for your time today.

Jim Steineke:
Thanks for having me.