Divisions among Wisconsin Republican lawmakers over an effort to oust the state’s top election official spilled onto the Assembly floor this week as GOP leaders continued to block efforts by a small faction to impeach the leader of the Wisconsin Election Commission.
Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Republican from Menomonee Falls, on Tuesday tried for the second time to bring forward to the floor a resolution to launch impeachment proceedings against administrator Meagan Wolfe over false claims about the 2020 election.
The move during Tuesday’s Assembly floor session was blocked and characterized by Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August on Thursday as a grift and a “big show for the cameras.” Brandtjen issued a press release calling August, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Keven Petersen Wolfe’s “PR team.”
“If she has the support to move the resolution forward, she can do so. But the fact is, she doesn’t. Our caucus is focused on real things,” August told reporters ahead of another floor session Thursday.
Following August’s comments, GOP Rep. Scott Allen of Waukesha accused his caucus leaders of blocking representation unlawfully.
“When a single member is ignored, when a member is not recognized, we disenfranchise nearly 60,000 Wisconsinites,” Allen said, referring to the number of residents in Brandtjen’s district in the Milwaukee suburbs.
“When we as members allow the abuse of power by leaders of this chamber, we erode the prestige and the honor of the Assembly and we damage the legitimacy of our democratic republic,” Allen said. “We step onto a slippery slope that leads to even greater abuse of power.”