Rogue Republican makes bid for open Wisconsin Senate seat

MADISON, Wis. — A rogue Republican lawmaker who alienated her colleagues within the Wisconsin Meeting when she embraced debunked election fraud conspiracy theories is vying to win an open state Senate seat, a victory that may give the GOP a supermajority within the chamber.

State Rep. Janel Brandtjen has spent the years for the reason that 2020 presidential election loudly selling unfounded conspiracy theories that President Joe Biden misplaced Wisconsin. She received reward from former President Donald Trump for pushing Meeting Speaker Robin Vos to overturn Biden’s 21,000-vote win within the battleground state.

She even went as far as to assist Vos’ major opponent final summer time. Vos survived reelection and Meeting Republicans punished Brandtjen for her disloyalty by throwing her out of their caucus in November.

Rendered powerless within the Meeting, Brandtjen determined in December to run for an open Senate seat representing Milwaukee’s conservative-leaning northern suburbs. The seat got here open in November after longtime Republican incumbent Alberta Darling determined to retire. Gov. Tony Evers ordered a particular election to fill the place to coincide with the state’s spring Supreme Courtroom election.

Brandtjen will face state Rep. Dan Knodl and Thiensville Village President Van Mobley in a GOP major Tuesday. The winner will face Democratic lawyer Jodi Habush Sinykin within the April 4 basic election.

Brandon Scholz, a retired Republican strategist, stated Brandtjen faces a tough path within the major. Republicans, even the hard-core base that usually votes in primaries, have moved previous election fraud points and Trump’s affect with the social gathering is waning, he stated.

“She’s the strolling Donald Trump billboard,” Scholz stated. “She’s constructed her marketing campaign round that Trump world. There are such a lot of different points on the market. Normally single-issue candidates have a tough time with voters as a result of they are not tuned into that one problem. She has painted herself into that nook and it is going to be tough to get out of it.”

Brandtjen did not instantly return messages. Her marketing campaign web site boasts that she’s “unafraid to ruffle feathers within the political institution and serve constituents over Madison social gathering bosses.”

Democrats hope a robust turnout within the Supreme Courtroom election might propel Sinykin to victory within the traditionally Republican-controlled district. However Scholz stated he sees Knodl because the frontrunner.

“If Republicans carry on message — taxes, crime, not these points Trump used to push individuals away — they need to be in a robust place to maintain the district within the Republican column,” Scholz stated.

Marketing campaign finance studies present Brandtjen trailing Knodl and Mobley badly in fundraising. Brandtjen generated about $20,500 in January. Knodl collected $63,000 and Mobley $106,760 over the identical interval.

A Republican victory would give the GOP a two-thirds majority, 22-11 — sufficient votes to override an Evers veto in that chamber and convict a civil officer in an impeachment trial.

Nonetheless, a Senate vote to override a veto could be symbolic at greatest because it takes a two-thirds vote in each the Senate and the Meeting to override a gubernatorial veto. Meeting Republicans are two seats in need of the 66 votes wanted.

Senate Minority Chief Melissa Agard famous that if simply two Meeting Democrats could not attend a flooring session, Republicans might override a veto. Stopping a GOP supermajority within the Senate with a Sinykin victory could be “one other line of protection,” she stated.

Beneath the Wisconsin Structure, the Meeting can set off an impeachment trial within the Senate with 50 votes. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority vote within the Senate.

It is unclear who the Legislature can impeach, in response to an evaluation the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau ready for Agard this month. The structure states that the Legislature can impeach “civil officers” however does not outline that time period.

The Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom has dominated that the time period doesn’t embody legislators however the structure makes particular point out of the governor, lieutenant governor and judges as impeachable officers. The reference bureau evaluation concludes that different constitutional officers, such because the lawyer basic, state colleges superintendent and state treasurer may very well be topic to impeachment in addition to appointed government company secretaries.

That implies that if Republicans acquire a two-thirds majority within the Senate, they may impeach Evers within the Meeting, attempt him within the Senate, convict him and take away him from workplace.

An try to impeach Evers could be historic. In line with the reference bureau evaluation, solely as soon as in Wisconsin historical past has the Meeting impeached anybody. That occurred in 1853, when the Meeting impeached Decide Levi Hubbell after he requested God to have mercy on a jury that discovered a homicide suspect not responsible. The Senate finally acquitted the choose of 11 impeachment expenses, together with immoral conduct and imposing felony sentences that had been too lenient.