Republican lawmakers cast the GAB Tuesday as a well-intentioned experiment that has failed, while supporters called it a model agency.
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The bill to be heard at a joint Senate and Assembly hearing Tuesday would replace the Government Accountability Board with a pair of commissions headed by partisan appointees.
Another person who spoke against the bill was the Executive Director of the GAB, Kevin Kennedy.
Republicans pushing for change argue the GAB is nonpartisan in name only, saying it exceeded its authority by being involved in the now-closed John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and conservative groups during the recall elections in 2011 and 2012. At the time, she said it sounded good to have nonpartisan judges oversee the state’s ethics and elections decisions. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, who asked about Kennedy’s relationship with former IRS director Lois Lerner.
“Despite repeated accusations that this bill is a partisan takeover or power grab, there is absolutely no evidence to back up that claim”, said bill sponsor Rep. Dean Knudson, a Republican from Hudson.
“Seriously?” Kennedy said. “Have you no decency?” “I owe you no explanation”.
State Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa), a advertiser of a given a contentious, explained a jam packed hearing create space along at the Capitol the fact that the changes should be taken due to the reason that the GAB has did not to execute their several activities it has proven to facing during the last…
Kapenga’s question came during roughly two hours of testimony Kennedy gave, opposing a bill that would eliminate his position and do away with the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board he leads.
It would also allow update state law so that a few outside groups could coordinate directly with campaigns, a practice the state Supreme Court said this year was legal.
“Sometimes you have to look at what you do, and realize we can fix it and make it better”, she said.
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In response, majority Republicans are poised to put the Legislature in charge of policing itself and requiring the new panel to get OK from the Legislature’s budget committee (now controlled by Republicans) to spend more than $25,000 on an investigation.
