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Nope, No Wisconsin Impeach-a-thon is Pending [1]

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Date: 2023-04-05  

No, they won't be impeaching soon-to-be "Justice Janet"

Much digital ink has been spilled, and many hands have been wrung, about the State Senate fly in yesterday’s Wisconsin rejuvenating election ointment. The massive news, and balm for progressive Badgers’ weary souls, was “Judge Janet” Protasiewicz’ ten-point win over whiny two-time loser Dan Kelly, which tips the Wisconsin Supreme Court to a 4-3 progressive majority! (Joke going around the Book of Faces: “How is Dan Kelly spelled? With two Ls and zero Ws!!”)

The ink-spilling hand-wringing, alas, is about the special election in the 8th district of the state senate. Republican Alberta Darling won the seat by over 10,000 votes in 2020, but retired December 1, 2022, setting up yesterday’s contest between Republican Dan Knodl and Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin. While Habush Sinykin put up a strong campaign, after the results were complete she fell short of Knodl’s total by a mere 1300 votes. (No recount — she has conceded — but that was delightfully close!)

The extra juice in that race was the possibility of denying the Republicans the supermajority they had won in the appallingly-gerrymandered state senate in 2022. As I recall, at the time, there was very little chatter about the impeachment-conviction power this technically afforded them. Instead, there was more a ragged sigh of relief — Governer Tony Evers (D) had won a second term, and the Republicans did NOT win a supermajority in the Assembly and therefore could not override a gubernatorial veto.

My sense is that the impeachment story mostly became a story with this special election because the media was looking for a story and creating the story by asking questions that would make a story.

Here’s how it looked when Habush Sinykin was asked about the possibility of the state senate gaining and using impeachment powers (headline Jodi Habush Sinykin on the Wisconsin Senate and impeachment). She summed it up thusly:

I just think it's just a big distraction and I hope it doesn't happen.

And while there was a lot of fuss about Knodl suggesting he’d be open to impeaching the new Justice Janet should she win, here’s how it actually went down (alarmist Newsweek headline Janet Protasiewicz May Be Impeached by GOP After Wisconsin Election Win):

Knodl appeared on WISN-TV's political talk show UpFront last week and discussed Protasiewicz. He said that the "Milwaukee County justice system is failing" and added that local prosecutors and judges, including Protasiewicz, "need to be looked at." "She has failed," Knodl said of Protasiewicz. When the Republican was asked if he would support impeaching her, he replied: "I certainly would consider it." However, it was not clear if Knodl meant he would support impeaching Protasiewicz if she were elected to the state's supreme court, according to a report from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Much, much ado about a threat that folks don’t seem to be proactively making or heralding.



And here’s the kicker — the state senate majority leader Devin LeMahieu (R) threw cold water on the whole idea today.

While there was national chatter about that possibility, LeMahieu closed the door. "For impeachment to succeed, there has to be a serious crime, a misdemeanor, something like that, and it shouldn’t be used as a tool to overturn elections," said LeMahieu. "It just has to be something very serious that an elected official or a public official does, and being someone who doesn’t agree with you politically is not a reason to impeach someone."

By the way, Article VII of the Wisconsin Constitution says you can impeach “for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors.”

Well, alrighty then!

Let’s get back to doing our happy dances about Justice Janet, woot!!



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