• The lawsuit comes after a 2025 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation.
• The investigation found the state Legislature had spent about $26 million in taxpayer money on legal fees to private attorneys since 2017.

Law Forward, a Madison-based liberal law firm, is suing the Republican-controlled Legislature over its use of taxpayer money to hire private attorneys.

The lawsuit, which was filed last month, comes after a 2025 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found the state Legislature had spent about $26 million in taxpayer money on legal fees to private law firms since 2017.

The investigation found the vast majority of the spending came after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul won the November 2018 election, defeating Republican former Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General Brad Schimel.

The sharp increase in spending also followed a law passed by Republican legislators in the December 2018 lame-duck session that authorized the Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader to hire private lawyers with taxpayer money.

“Wisconsin taxpayers deserve to know their money is being spent lawfully to advance a valid public purpose,” Law Forward President and General Counsel Jeff Mandell said in a statement. “This lawsuit challenges the tens of millions in taxpayer funds, most of which is wasted by the Republican-controlled Legislature on private legal counsel in pursuit of private interests.”

He called the practice a “clear violation of the Wisconsin Constitution’s public purpose doctrine and Wisconsin’s system of divided government.”

The lawsuit names as defendants the Assembly, Senate, Department of Administration and legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.

Vos and LeMahieu could not be reached immediately for comment about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cited a 2023 dispute in which the Senate continued to pay private counsel after it had been removed as a party in a case involving the use of surveillance cameras in Green Bay City Hall. The case cost the Senate more than $1 million in fees, according to records reviewed by the Journal Sentinel.

Assembly leaders also spent $1.8 million on fees related to former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s 2020 election probe, which found no evidence of fraud. The probe ended when Vos fired Gableman in August 2022. The legal fees did not include other investigation-related expenses, like Gableman’s salary. 

Much of the spending at issue stems from the 2018 lame-duck session, in which Republicans passed a series of laws stripping Evers and Kaul of various powers a month before they took office. One of those laws allowed legislative leaders to pay for outside counsel with taxpayer money and circumvent the attorney general to intervene in lawsuits that challenge state law.

Since then, the Legislature has spent more than $8 million defending challenges to the lame-duck laws.

In a July 2025 interview, Vos told the Journal Sentinel the laws ensured the governor did not consolidate too much power.

“The norm is for one person to try to take more authority, because they can make an easier, quicker decision,” Vos said.

“I think that’s really unhealthy for democracy, which is why we have so rigorously defended the right of the Legislature and the court to maintain its own independence,” he added.

OGDEN — In the last week, Ogden police have helped track down two suspects wanted outside of Utah in connection with separate homicides, which has Chief Jake Sube lauding the efforts of local law enforcement.

“Ogden is not a place where violent criminals come to run, hide or blend in. If you victimize people and come here to hide, we will find you,” he said in a social media post Tuesday.

In the most recent case, Ogden officials on Sunday arrested Randy Darius Jenks, 36, wanted in Mount Morris, Wisconsin, in connection with the death of his grandmother. The woman’s body had been discovered that same day at her Wisconsin home, according to court papers filed in 2nd District Court in Ogden as part of Jenks’ arrest accusing him of being a fugitive from justice.

On March 3, police arrested Ziaire Jacob Ham, 22, who is charged in Las Vegas with murder in the killing of a woman and a toddler, according to court papers and Sube’s statement. Ham had been spotted in Ogden by an Ogden officer and subsequently fled to Roy, where he was arrested.

“The arrest of these two individuals reflects exactly how we protect Ogden every day. We use technology, relentless police work and coordinated action with our regional partners to find violent offenders, take them into custody and deliver them to justice,” Sube said.

Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski echoed Sube’s comments. “Ogden is not a hiding place,” he said.

Waushara County, Wisconsin, law enforcement officials found a dead woman on Sunday at a Mount Morris home. Jenks “admitted to multiple family members” that he had stabbed the woman in the neck and killed her, and then drove to Ogden, according to court papers filed in Ogden. Wisconsin authorities alerted Ogden officials, who were also alerted on Sunday by the man’s family here that he was in their home.

“Randy Jenks was located and taken into custody and officers noted the presence of blood on Randy’s person and clothing,” court documents state. Police body camera footage posted to the Ogden Police Department Facebook page shows Jenks surrendering to officers.

According to WLUK, a Green Bay, Wisconsin TV station, Jenks faces a count in Wisconsin of first-degree intentional homicide. The court papers filed in Ogden say Jenks confessed to killing his grandma, complaining that the woman “pushed him too far.” A bloody folding knife found in the Ogden home where Jenks had fled to is the weapon he used to kill the woman, with whom he lived, the charges allege.

In the Ham case, an Ogden officer on March 3 spotted a car that had been reported stolen out of Phoenix, Arizona, with Ham inside, driving. The officer attempted to pull him over, but Ham fled, eventually making it to Roy and abandoning his car. Authorities arrested him nearby.

Ham is charged in 2nd District Court with theft by receiving stolen property, a second-degree felony; failure to respond to an officer’s signal to stop, a third-degree felony; and reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor. According to court papers filed Tuesday, he has waived extradition to Las Vegas. Sube’s statement on Tuesday said Ham confessed to the killings in Nevada when interviewed by Ogden detectives.

Authorities said they thought Ham had discarded a gun somewhere between Ogden and Roy. Ogden police said Saturday that the gun had been located.

BELOIT, Wis. — State Senator Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) and Representative Clinton Anderson (D-Beloit) introduced LRB-5709 on March 5, legislation that would implement ranked choice voting for state, federal, and local elections in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin legislation would also eliminate the need for February primaries in nonpartisan elections.

Today, voters in Wisconsin almost never elect independent candidates, because the state’s elections are decided by first-past-the-post plurality voting (FPPV). In this system, a voter’s expression of preference is restricted to a single candidate. Each voter has just one choice, and if there are more than two candidates in the race, winning by plurality rather than majority is quite possible. 

Consequently, no matter how attractive an independent candidate may seem in the spring, summer, and early fall of an election year, he or she will be tarnished as a “spoiler” on Election Day and will almost certainly lose. 

This unfortunate situation reduces the supply of independent candidates willing to compete and perpetually forces Americans into one of two warring factions.

In contrast, ranked-choice voting (RCV) allows voters to express their true preference for each candidate by ranking them in order of preference. 

If no candidate wins an outright majority, the candidate with the lowest number of first-place votes is eliminated, and the second-preference votes of his or her supporters are redistributed to the remaining candidates. 

This “instant runoff” process continues until a majority winner is determined. Not only does RCV give voters “more voice” in elections, but it also has the potential to stop our political system from tearing us apart into two camps.

Senator Spreitzer called the bill an improvement over a system that forces strategic voting. 

“Under ranked choice voting, voters can vote for the candidate they like the most instead of having to strategically vote against the candidate they like the least,” he said.

“It is a system that encourages positive campaigns, ensures that winners have the support of a majority of voters, and allows more candidates to run without being seen as a waste of a vote or a spoiler.”

Representative Anderson pointed to existing models as evidence that the system works. 

“Ranked choice voting is not a new idea. It’s already working in states like Maine and Alaska, and in cities like New York City,” he said.

“Our current system rewards candidates for tearing each other down instead of building broad support. Ranked choice voting changes that. It encourages campaigns focused on issues and coalition-building, ensures nominees win with a true majority, and creates space for more voices beyond the two-party system.”

For the best analysis of the pernicious effects of a lack of competition in our political system, please read The Politics Industry by Wisconsinite Katherine M. Gehl and her co-author, Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter.