Dan Knodl says he would consider impeaching Janet Protasiewicz if he is elected to the Senate
MADISON - Republican state Senate candidate Dan Knodl says if his election gives Senate Republicans a two-thirds majority, he would "certainly consider" support launching impeachment proceedings against Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz.
Wisconsin Republicans are defending a two-thirds majority in the state Senate that they achieved in November but quickly lost after the retirement of longtime GOP state Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills. If Knodl replaces Darling, Senate Republicans will have enough members to be able to remove state officials who are impeached by the state Assembly.
The Wisconsin Constitution allows lawmakers to remove state officials "for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors," but Knodl said Sunday he would consider launching impeachment proceedings for criminal justice officials "who have failed" at their jobs.
Knodl, of Germantown, faces Democratic environmental lawyer Jodi Habush Sinykin of Whitefish Bay in the April 4 special election to replace Darling. The district represents areas of the north and northwest suburbs of Milwaukee.
In an appearance on WISN-TV's political talk show "UpFront," Knodl said the "Milwaukee County justice system is failing" and said he believes its prosecutors and circuit court judges "need to be looked at" including Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Protasiewicz.
"She has failed," Knodl said. When asked directly if he would support impeaching Protasiewicz, Knodl said "I certainly would consider it."
Knodl did not immediately say whether his comments meant he would consider voting in favor of impeaching Protasiewicz if she is elected to the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.
"It simply gives us some more authority in the areas of oversight and accountability of elected officials or appointed officials," Knodl told WISN-TV. "If there are some out there who are corrupt, who are failing at their tasks, we have an opportunity to hold them accountable."
"I feel the Milwaukee County justice system is failing and that includes prosecution, so DA Chisholm I think should be looked at," he said. "The circuit court judges I think have failed the community by releasing or not having high enough bail on these criminals, the perpetrators. And so, they need be looked at — Janet Protasiewicz is a circuit court judge right now in Milwaukee and she has failed."
Sam Roecker, spokesman for Protasiewicz, did not directly respond to Knodl's comments.
"It's not surprising that the same people supporting this absurd plan to overturn the will of the people stand with (Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate) Dan Kelly, a partisan operative who advised on the plan to overturn Wisconsin's election results in 2020 and who has welcomed an insurrectionist to the campaign trail with open arms," Roecker said, referring to a letter Knodl signed with other 14 other Republican lawmakers urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to block President Joe Biden's 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump.
The letter asked Pence to put off certifying the presidential results a day before a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent Biden from becoming president. Kelly advised state GOP leaders on their participation of a plan involving battleground states like Wisconsin to gather Republicans in each state to submit false paperwork claiming to be electors for Trump, in an effort to persuade Pence to block certification of Biden's win.
Protasiewicz, Dan Kelly competing for Supreme Court
Protasiewicz faces former Justice Kelly in the April 4 election.
Kelly and Republicans have raised questions about how Protasiewicz, who worked as an assistant district attorney before being elected to the bench, has handled the sentencing of serious felons.
On at least three occasions, Milwaukee County prosecutors asked Protasiewicz to sentence a felon to time in prison for harming a child and she issued a sentence to time served in jail — ranging from 200 and 417 days — plus probation.
Protasiewicz has said her opponents are cherry-picking cases in her record, and defense attorneys note some defendants are in jail for as long as two years awaiting trial or a plea deal. Kelly has never served as a circuit court judge, so he has no record of criminal sentencing.
Chisholm came under fire for the low bail a prosecutor in his office recommended for Darrell Brooks in a domestic violence case that posted just days before he drove his 3,000-pound SUV through the Waukesha Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring dozens more.
Habush Sinykin points to the impeachment issue as among 'enormous consequences' of the special election
Habush Sinykin told WISN-TV on Sunday said if she is defeated by Knodl on Tuesday, she expects Republican lawmakers of launching impeachment proceedings against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul and other officials.
"Enormous consequences are attached to this election," she said.
In a statement Monday, Habush Sinykin said Knodl's comments show "partisan fights are more important to him than representing our residents."
State law allows a two-thirds majority in the state Senate to hold impeachment trials for state officials accused of corruption or crimes and misdemeanors if a majority of Assembly members vote to introduce impeachment articles, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau.
The state Constitution and state law do not define what offenses for which a civil officer may be impeached, according to Legislative Reference Bureau director and general counsel Rick Champagne.
"The Assembly would need to identify the offenses in an Assembly resolution laying out the articles of impeachment. The articles would identify the offenses. Passage of this resolution would constitute an impeachment," Champagne told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in November.
If 50 members of the 99-seat Assembly have voted to impeach, the state Senate must conduct a trial. A conviction requires support from two-thirds of the state Senate, which could prove difficult as it would take every Senate Republican's approval. If convicted, an impeached public official is then removed from office and cannot hold another office in the future.
Republicans have a 64 to 35 majority in the Assembly. If Knodl wins election to the Senate he had would leave the Assembly and lift the Republican majority in the Senate to 22-11.
The only impeachment in state history took place in 1853 when the state Assembly sought to remove Levi Hubbell, the first circuit judge in Dane County and one of the first justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, according to the reference bureau and a 1999 article published by The Capital Times that sought to compare Hubbell's impeachment to proceedings underway at the time against President Bill Clinton.
Lawmakers may begin impeachment proceedings for elected state officials other than lawmakers and officials appointed to office, like the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state treasurer, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, judges and all cabinet secretaries.
"Once you get below state elected officers and appointed state officers, the government positions subject to impeachment get a little less clear," Champagne said.
Champagne said district attorneys are likely considered state civil officers under the state constitution for the purposes of impeachment but that the constitution does not define who is a state civil officer nor has a court weighed in on the question. The Wisconsin Constitution and state law also do not define what offenses could trigger an impeachment, according to Champagne.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Knodl says he would consider impeaching Protasiewicz if he's in Senate
