City Attorney Tearman Spencer's new dress code; GOP race for governor

City Attorney Tearman Spencer's new dress code

Apparently, there's never a dull moment in the Milwaukee City Attorney office.

Daniel Bice recounts the greatest hits under City Attorney Tearman Spencer: "A mass exodus of staff, allegations of a toxic work environment, a backlog of court cases and accusations of sexual harassment."

And now, the latest: A dress code, which Bice writes includes "no revealing or tight clothes, no cleavage, no dresses or skirts above the knee, no bare backs, no halter tops, no open-toe shoes and no fragrances."

"It sounds like out of the 1950's," chimed in Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun.

Milwaukee attorney Dan Adams also weighed in.

"It’s unbelievable to me that Mr. Spencer’s solution to extraordinary staff flight is to impose Don Draper-era fashion codes," Adams said, referring to the early 1960s Madison Avenue advertising executive character in the fictional "Mad Men" series.

You can read the article here.

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GOP race for governor

A couple of interesting stories in the Republican race for governor.

First up, businessman Tim Michels, who said the last presidential election might have been stolen despite repeated findings it was conducted fairly.

Patrick Marley writes that "in an interview on WTAQ-AM, Michels said he wanted to see if he could make changes to the Wisconsin Elections Commission before deciding whether to dissolve it and criticized Assembly Speaker Robin Vos by saying he hoped the Rochester Republican could eventually achieve a passing grade."

Michels was asked by conservative host Joe Giganti if he believed the election was stolen, and responded: "Maybe."

"Certainly, there was a lot of bad stuff that happened," said Michels, who referenced the partisan probe overseen by former Justice Michael Gableman. "There was certainly illegal ballots. How many? I don't know if Justice Gableman knows. I don't know if anybody knows."

Meanwhile, Molly Beck has a story on state Rep. Timothy Ramthun, who doubled down on "nullification" of the 2020 election and said Vos should be prosecuted.

"I did modify the words. If there was the word 'decertification' anywhere in it, I took it out and I had it replaced with either 'nullify' and/or 'reclaim' to address the ballot specifics or the votes' specifics so we can have a tighter focus (on) the language so that there wouldn't be excuses from the naysayers," Ramthun said in an April 29 virtual town hall event organized by supporters of Trump's false claims of significant voter fraud in the 2020 election.

In a separate event earlier in April held in Oconomowoc hosted by a group known as the Lake Country Patriots, Ramthun said Vos should be prosecuted for what he characterized as obstructing efforts to address election fraud.

"From a judicial perspective, the judiciary is going to have to get involved to start prosecuting up to and including, in my humble opinion — are you filming? — the speaker," Ramthun said at the April 13 event, according to a video recording of his speech posted online, prompting the crowd to cheer. "Because he is the origin of obstruction in this entire thing. He even hired somebody who found truth as well, and he denied him."

Waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court decision

We still don't know if the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

But the issue of abortion is dominating the news.

Some highlights:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Friday he doesn’t believe Wisconsin’s potential ban on almost all abortions would remain in place for long, distancing himself from his four fellow Republicans running for governor.

Speaking to reporters, Johnson did not detail what abortion limits he would like to see but said he did not think a near-total ban would last for long if the Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

Republican attorney general candidate Eric Toney criticized Democratic AG Josh Kaul for pledging not to enforce Wisconsin's abortion ban if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Wisconsin doctors are weighing whether to open an abortion clinic over the Illinois border.

Madison police are investigating arson, threat at an office of prominent anti-abortion group.

Here are Wisconsin’s abortion laws and how they would be affected by Roe v. Wade decisions.

And if Roe is overturned, Wisconsin law would allow abortion only "to save the life of the mother." Doctors say it's not always so clear-cut.

Around the horn

Ron Johnson escalates "guerrilla war" against medical establishment.

Tight Milwaukee budget means historic federal pandemic aid would go to propping up city services.

A Democratic group announces plan to spend $21 million this fall for Tony Evers.

Congressional candidate Derrick Van Orden fined for having a loaded gun in an airport. He calls the incident a mistake.

Tweet of the week

Columnist John Nichols gives a shout-out to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson for a TV ad taking on public subsidies for Fiserv Forum: "Running against corporate welfare and the diversion of tax dollars to fund projects for billionaire team owners is SMART politics. Pundits will say this ad is risky. Wrong! Tom @NelsonforWI understands that Wisconsin voters don’t like policies that redistribute wealth upward."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: City Attorney Tearman Spencer's new dress code; GOP race for governor