Commission rejects petition to bar Trump from Wisconsin ballot, complaint headed to court

MADISON – The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday swiftly threw out a petition to bar former President Donald Trump from the state's 2024 presidential ballot because it was filed with the wrong state officials.

Kirk Bangstad, a Democratic activist and firebrand owner of the Minocqua Brewing Co., filed the petition Thursday afternoon with the state's election agency. Bangstad alleges that Trump violated a provision of the 14th Amendment that disqualifies certain officials who take part in an insurrection from holding office again, based on his actions surrounding violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the Wisconsin Elections Commission disposed of Bangstad's complaint without consideration, a move that likely shifts the issue to the courts.

In an email to commissioners, a staff attorney said because Bangstad filed the complaint against commissioners directly, the complaint would be disposed of without consideration.

"It is the position of the Commission and its staff that a complaint against the Commission, against Commissioners in their official capacities, or against Commission staff, warrants an ethical recusal by the body," the attorney wrote.

Not only is recusal the policy in this situation, the commission itself has no role in placing candidates on the presidential ballot.

That's done by a presidential preference selection committee, which state law requires to be composed of the state chairperson of a state party organization or the chairperson's designee, one national committeeman and one national committeewoman designated by the state chairperson, the speaker and the minority leader of the Assembly or their designees, and the president and the minority leader of the Senate or their designees.

The committee is required by state law to place the names "of all candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States" on the ballot, and may include additional names.

"It seems pretty obvious that Mr. Bangstad is interested in getting to the court, because the commission cannot address a complaint against itself," WEC chairman Don Millis told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "This is a policy; it's well known by anyone who pays attention. So, to me, this is perhaps a ploy to get into circuit court faster. But, more fundamentally, the commission has no role in placing any candidate on the presidential ballot. The statutes make it very clear that there's a presidential preference committee."

Bangstad acknowledged his hope that the issue will ultimately be settled by the state Supreme Court, which in August flipped to a liberal majority for the first time in years. Wisconsin's presidential primary is April 2 and the general election is Nov. 5.

"Why am I doing this? First of all, (U.S. Attorney General) Merrick Garland spent a year-and-a-half not doing anything to try to prosecute Donald Trump at the federal level, and our Attorney General Josh Kaul has yet to do anything to hold … politicians from Wisconsin accountable for being part of the conspiracy to overthrow our election," Bangstad told reporters after filing the complaint at the elections commission office in Madison. "I am simply a brewer from northern Wisconsin, but I care about my country, and I care about democracy."

Bangstad's complaint requests the members of the bipartisan commission find that Trump is disqualified from serving as president and refuse to allow him access to the 2024 Republican primary ballot. He said he expected the commission to reject his complaint, and said he plans to challenge the decision in Dane County Circuit Court, "where there are very smart judges."

"It's pivotal that somebody at least try in Wisconsin to do this, because I believe it is the law and it was intended to be the law after the Civil War," Bangstad said.

The move follows competing rulings on the same issue in Colorado and Michigan. Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was barred from another term — and therefore banned from the state’s primary ballot — by violating the 14th Amendment.

The Colorado Republican Party has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.

On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an appeal designed to keep Trump off the state's ballot, choosing not to overturn a lower court's decision that parties can place whichever candidates they choose on presidential primary ballots. Several other states have dismissed similar challenges.

The commission has twice voted unanimously to reject complaints against the 10 Republican electors who met in state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be electors for Trump. Reports have indicated an attorney who helped design the fake electors scheme is cooperating with Wisconsin investigators, but Kaul has maintained that the state Department of Justice does not "confirm or deny the existence of investigations."

Bangstad is a former Democratic candidate for the U.S. House and state Assembly who has since created a political action committee using his brewery's namesake to raise money for Democratic causes. The brewery produces beer with politically themed names like "Fair Maps" and "Bernie Brew."

He has been active in the state's courts.

Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit funded by Bangstad's super PAC seeking to eliminate funding for the state's four taxpayer-funded school voucher programs and independent charter schools. He plans to pursue the lawsuit through circuit court.

Bangstad was also ordered in October to pay $750,000 for defaming Lakeland Times publisher Gregg Walker in posts on the brewery's popular social media outlets. It was the state's largest defamation judgment.

The Minocqua Brewing Company super PAC also funded an unsuccessful lawsuit alleging U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany conspired before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol to keep Joe Biden from becoming president.

Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com. Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and John Fritze of USA Today contributed.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Minocqua Brewing owner petitions to bar Trump from Wisconsin ballot