Brian Bell removed roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, so the efforts now to force him out of his job as the head of the state Ethics Commission are mild by comparison. “No one’s — at least not yet — trying to shoot at me or blow me up,” Bell said in a recent interview down the street from the Capitol. But the risks for Bell — as well as Michael Haas, the director of the state Elections Commission — are real. Republicans who control the state Senate say they plan to vote Jan. 23 to deny their confirmations as a way to push them out of their jobs.
The GOP senators are trying to drive them out of their posts because the pair previously worked for the now-disbanded Government Accountability Board, which spent years investigating Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans.
Bell and Haas said they have conducted themselves professionally and there is no reason they should leave. Bell was not involved in the investigations of Republicans. Haas was not part of the core investigation team, but did review legal filings when a John Doe probe of Walker’s campaign was challenged in court.
Full Article: Heads of ethics, elections commissions fight for their jobs.