Key Assembly Republicans renewed their call Friday for overhauling the state’s elections and ethics board after The Wall Street Journal reported the agency had been in touch with the Internal Revenue Service as it investigated conservative groups. “Nothing should be more important than free speech and it’s outrageous that there’s a coordinated effort to undermine this basic constitutional right,” said a joint statement issued by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Rep. Dean Knudson (R-Hudson). “Now that the state budget is complete, it’s time to double down on finalizing the necessary reforms for the (Government Accountability Board) so the bill can be ready for consideration this fall. Those reforms will include a means to change the way the GAB operates. The agency leadership needs to be accountable to the GAB board and the board needs to be accountable to the Legislature and the citizens of Wisconsin.”
Vos and Knudson have been among Republicans leading the effort to reshape the accountability board, which oversees ethics and campaign finance laws and has assisted with a secret investigation of the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker and conservative groups allied with him. That probe was stalled by a state judge last year, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule this month whether it can be restarted or must be abandoned for good. The ruling is expected soon after Walker formally announces Monday that he is running for president.
Prosecutors have looked into whether Walker’s campaign and groups such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth illegally worked together in recall elections in 2011 and 2012. The club and its director, Eric O’Keefe, say they didn’t violate any laws and allege Democratic Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm violated their constitutional rights. A federal appeals court last year threw out a lawsuit making that claim.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial citing anonymous sources who said investigators “asked the IRS to look into a conservative group that was among the primary targets” of the Wisconsin investigation but the IRS didn’t appear to do so. The newspaper did not name the group.
Full Article: Key state lawmakers renew calls to overhaul elections board.