Republican rift over impeaching elections chief Meagan Wolfe boils over in Assembly

MADISON – Divisions among Wisconsin Republican lawmakers over an effort to oust the state's top election official spilled onto the Assembly floor this week as GOP leaders continued to block efforts by a small faction to impeach the leader of the Wisconsin Election Commission.

Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Republican from Menomonee Falls, on Tuesday tried for the second time to bring forward to the floor a resolution to launch impeachment proceedings against administrator Meagan Wolfe over false claims about the 2020 election.

The move during Tuesday's Assembly floor session was blocked and characterized by Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August on Thursday as a grift and a "big show for the cameras." Brandtjen issued a press release calling August, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Keven Petersen Wolfe's "PR team."

"If she has the support to move the resolution forward, she can do so. But the fact is, she doesn't. Our caucus is focused on real things," August told reporters ahead of another floor session Thursday.

Following August's comments, GOP Rep. Scott Allen of Waukesha accused his caucus leaders of blocking representation unlawfully.

"When a single member is ignored, when a member is not recognized, we disenfranchise nearly 60,000 Wisconsinites," Allen said, referring to the number of residents in Brandtjen's district in the Milwaukee suburbs.

"When we as members allow the abuse of power by leaders of this chamber, we erode the prestige and the honor of the Assembly and we damage the legitimacy of our democratic republic," Allen said. "We step onto a slippery slope that leads to even greater abuse of power."

Allen then called on Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Kevin Petersen to resign if he refused to allow Brandtjen to speak about the resolution on the floor when the proposal was not before the house.

Petersen shot back, accusing Brandtjen of using the Wolfe impeachment effort to harass her Republican colleagues.

"A member working with groups posting for days on social media to attend an Assembly session so that that member can then harass other members in the chambers because they are ineffective on passing their bills through the normal process is not decorum," Petersen, R-Waupaca, said.

"As long as I'm in the chair, this will not be tolerated. It is a blatant disregard for the integrity of this institution."

In an interview Wednesday on WTAQ, Brandtjen said the state Senate has "signaled" to the resolution authors that Republicans in that house support holding an impeachment trial. Senate President Chris Kapenga has urged Vos to advance the impeachment articles.

The resolution was put forward in November by Brandtjen, Allen and three other Republican members of the Assembly. It contains 15 articles of impeachment against Wolfe that include accusations that have been debunked or are based on decisions made by the bipartisan panel of commissioners who oversee Wolfe.

Vos assigned the resolution to a committee led by GOP state Rep. David Steffen of Green Bay, who signed onto the resolution as a co-author on Wednesday.

The resolution has languished in the Assembly even as former President Donald Trump has shared with his 6.5 million social media followers a press release from Brandtjen criticizing Vos for not moving to impeach Wolfe. The 2024 GOP presidential primary frontrunner continues to cast the state's nonpartisan election administrator as a villain in his false narrative about the battleground state's 2020 election.

Brandtjen's efforts to initiate a vote also first came amid a six-figure ad campaign in the Milwaukee media market threatening to unseat Vos unless he moves to impeach Wolfe.

The group behind the ads launched a recall effort against Vos in recent weeks over the 2020 election and his actions to block the impeachment resolution.

The impeachment articles against Wolfe were first circulated by a group of Republican members of the Assembly on Sept. 21. Vos said at the time he instead preferred using a legislative process that allows a committee to hire a new administrator. But a Dane County judge has blocked lawmakers' efforts to remove Wolfe because the bipartisan commission has not voted to hire Wolfe for a new term.

Wolfe has served as a target for nearly three years to those in the Republican Party base who believe widespread election misconduct delivered an election loss to Trump in 2020, despite court rulings, nonpartisan audits, and recounts paid for by Trump, showing President Joe Biden was elected fairly.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin GOP rift over impeaching Meagan Wolfe boils over in Assembly