Nationally, Republicans have, by and large but with a few exceptions, fought against Democratic governors trying to protect their states' residents from the worst of the pandemic. But no Republican-dominated state legislature has been more pro-COVID than Wisconsin's. They have worked hard-- and effectively-- to prevent Gov. Tony Evers, a very moderate Democrat, from instituting rules to keep the state safe. The Republicans have given Wisconsin 36,448 cases of the disease-- 6,260 cases per Wisconsinite. On Saturday there were 926 new cases reported (and 7 new deaths). Yesterday the state reported another new 769 cases. Each case and each death should come with an engraved card signed by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and state Senate president Scott Fitzgerald: "brought to you by the Wisconsin Republican Party; you can thank us in November."Remember this report from CNN in April? "Wisconsin's Republican-led legislature filed a lawsuit Tuesday in an attempt to reopen the state and block the extension of a stay-at-home order issued by state health officials to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The lawsuit was filed against Wisconsin's Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm and other health officials, who recently extended the state's Safer at Home" emergency order until May 26, but loosened some restrictions on certain businesses. In the complaint, lawmakers argue that if this order remains in effect, 'many Wisconsinites will have lost their jobs, and many companies will have gone under, to say nothing of the Order's countless other downstream societal effects. Our State will be in shambles.'" The state Supreme Court is a right-wing sewer and it ruled-- as it always does-- in favor of the Republicans and the Trump Death Cult.This came right after the GOP tried to suppress voting in the April 7 election by overriding Evers' decisions to allow people to vote remotely. It backfired on the Republicans when Wisconsinites turned out in droves and defeated a far right lunatic, Daniel Kelly, and replaced him with Jill Karofsky, a Democrat. She crushed him-- the symbol of the state Republican Party-- 855,981 (55.3%) to 692,523 (44.7%).The following month, though, Evers just basically gave up fighting the non-stop harassment by the legislature. The Associated Press wire story on May 18:
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Monday that he's given up trying to push through any more statewide restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus because he thinks rival Republicans emboldened by a state Supreme Court decision erasing his stay-at-home order would never allow any.Minutes after his administration scrapped plans for a new emergency rule, Evers told reporters during a teleconference that drafting rules would be a waste of time given the GOP opposition. His stance leaves local health officials on their own as they wrestle with whether and how to maintain social distancing mandates."The Republicans made it very clear they don't believe a statewide approach is the right way to go at this point in time," Evers said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense spending a lot of time doing something we know isn't going to be successful."Wisconsin is one of a number of states where governors have run into resistance from Republican legislators over coronavirus restrictions. Democratic governors in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Louisiana have faced a mix of legislation and lawsuits designed to curtail their power. Wisconsin's conservative-leaning state Supreme Court didn't hold back, completely erasing Evers' stay-at-home order last week after Republican legislators alleged that the administration had exceeded its authority.The decision threw the state into chaos. Some bars and restaurants opened immediately while a handful of county officials issued their own stay-at-home orders. Now, the state has a confusing patchwork of regulations that vary from county to county.The DHS released plans for a new statewide emergency rule the day after the court ruling. The agency said the new rule may contain elements of the stay-at-home order and Evers' phased business re-opening plan. Republicans pounced on the statement, saying Evers was trying to circumvent the court ruling and reinstate a stay-at-home order.Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Thursday the two sides might not reach agreement and it will be up to the locals to implement their own restrictions. Republican state Sen. Steve Nass, co-chairman of the Legislature's rules committee, demanded on Friday that the governor withdraw plans for a new rule. The DHS complied on Monday and scrapped them.Vos called Evers' position "disappointing" but said Republicans will keep working with local public health agencies to see if they need help addressing localized outbreaks in the future.Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, pointed to a statement Fitzgerald issued Friday saying that the scope statement was too focused on a phased re-opening and the state needs to move faster.Nass said he has "great faith" that people will make the decisions necessary to fight COVID-19 on their own "without excessive government coercion."As of Monday, Wisconsin had recorded 12,687 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 459 deaths from the disease, according to DHS data.
Repeating myself, as of yesterday, Wisconsin reported another 769 cases, bringing the state's total to 36,448, all compliments of the Republican Party. No doubt there will be a Green Bay spike next month. Why Green Bay?Over the weekend hundreds of Republicans were in Green Bay at the party's state convention, coughing on each other and spreading the contagion while they screamed and went into fits about socialism and anarchy. Of the between 3 and 4 hundred people in the Convention Center, Wisconsin Public Television reported that only about a dozen chose to wear a mask.The disease-spreading freaks in the video up top, Congressman Glenn Grothman was the day's most aggressive defender of Señor Trumpanzee. "It is a disaster for this country if he loses. It'll be open borders. I'm afraid we won't get it back... Marxists have always been opposed to the family. It shows what danger we are in if we would lose."Wisconsin COVID-candidfateThe 5 Republicans in Wisconsin's congressional delegation have no worries there. Regular DCCC incompetence has handed all 5 incumbents easy reelections-- even in a wave election. Bryan Steil, a freshman in a swing district who should be extremely vulnerable, has no plausible opponent. The odious state Senate president and major death cult official, Scott Fitzgerald, is waltzing into the seat from which Jim Sensenbrenner is retiring, with no plausible opposition. Psycho-Grothman has no plausible opposition. Nor do either Mike Gallagher nor freshman Tom Tiffany. Odd, when you consider that, on average, Biden is ahead of Trump in Wisconsin by 6.5 points. In the most recent poll-- by Change Research for CNBC-- Biden leads Trump 51 to 43% among likely Wisconsin voters. Too bad the DCCC has put all its effort into stopping progressives like Marie Newman, Jessica Cisneros, Eva Putzova and Jamaal Bowman from ousting their miserable Blue Dog incumbents instead of capitalizing on an anti-red wave and making efforts to turn swing states like Wisconsin blue.Unfortunately, Randy Bryce isn't running for office this cycle. He's been active helping working class candidates raise money and awareness in Wisconsin and around the country. He told me that "Ever since every Wisconsin Democrat that was in a statewide race won in 2018 the state GOP has done what they could to strip the governor of power. Republicans aren’t in power because of popularity. They’re in power in the legislature because of gerrymandering. It’s because of this that they feel they can get away with anything-- even subjecting people to a deadly pandemic. This helps explain why they had an in person statewide convention. If you notice, quite a few electeds didn’t show up. Notably absent was Senator Ron Johnson who also spent July 4th in Russia not too long ago as well as Aassembly SpeakerRyan Robin Vos who you might recall having been decked out in PPE better than many local nurses are able to access. It wasn’t a surprise to have Glenn Grothman get up on stage and cough into the crowd. With so many people hurting due to the pandemic it’s not too big of a surprise to see that the only thing Wisconsin Republicans want to share is COVID."Blue America has endorsed just two candidates for the Wisconsin legislature so far: Jacob Malinowski-- for a state Assembly seat representing Franklin in a red-leaning district southwest of Milwaukee-- and Emily Voight, for an Assembly seat southwest of Green Bay on the northeast bank of Lake Winnebago in Calumet County. We're also looking at Sara Rodriguez and Deb Andraca. But my friend Chris Larson (a Democratic state Senator for a district just east of where Jacob is running) is way more optimistic than I am about Wisconsin this November. This morning he told me that there is a real "chance to turn Wisconsin blue again and defeat Trump," and that "we also have the next decade hanging in the balance. Because whoever wins gets to decide redistricting, we have the chance to end the Tea Party control of our state once and for all by simply forcing the implementation of fair maps. With a Democratic Governor, the people have a seat at the table but due to the gerrymandering Republicans did in 2010 (Despite winning 54% of the votes in Assembly races, Democrats won just 36% of the seats), they need to flip just 3 seats in each house to gain a veto-proof majority. This would let them again draw maps that tilt the playing field in their favor and against the will of the people. But beyond just holding our ground, we have a real chance at picking up crucial seats and holding Republicans accountable for their botched response to COVID, their defunding of public education, their systematic attacks on working people, and for the largest corporate giveaway in our country's history. We need all the help we can get. The future of our state hangs in the balance."
