Voters defeat both constitutional amendments in another win for Democrats

Wisconsin continued to gallop back toward its historic standing as part of the Democratic Party’s midwestern Blue firewall as Democrats celebrated the defeat by wide margins Tuesday of two major constitutional amendments the party had opposed.

One measure would have given the state legislature more control over the spending of federal funds — the governor has almost exclusive authority to distribute so-called emergency funds now — while the other would have prohibited the legislature from delegating its power to appropriate money. 

Both measures were shot down by nearly 60 percent of the voters statewide. Both also failed in Oneida County by about 700-vote margins each.

The significance of the outcome was not lost on Democrats, who aggressively opposed the measures. On the heels of a solid progressive win last spring to take the majority on the state Supreme Court, top Democratic officials pointed out that they viewed the vote as a referendum on the Evers adminstration.

“This was a referendum on our administration’s work and the future for Wisconsin we’ve been working hard to build together, and the answer is reflected in the people’s vote tonight,” Evers said. “My administration stabilized and rebuilt Wisconsin’s economy from the ground up during the worst economic crisis in a decade and the worst public health emergency in a century. And the proof of our hard work is in the pudding.”

In recent years, Evers said, Wisconsin’s seen the largest surplus in state history, historically low unemployment, a record-high number of Wisconsinites employed, and the most capital investments from businesses in over a decade.

“Our economic recovery didn’t happen by accident — it happened in large part because my administration and I made smart, strategic decisions that not only responded to immediate needs and crises but looked toward the future to build a better, safer, and stronger economy and state,” he said. “We worked quickly to respond to a global crisis expeditiously, effectively, and efficiently even as other branches of government, at best, consistently failed to meet that moment and, at worst, actively sought to make our work more difficult.”

Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said voters “defeated an attempt by MAGA politicians to bend our constitution.”

“Tonight, voters had the final say,” Wikler said. “Wisconsinites rejected GOP power grabs, and chose responsive and effective government. Wisconsinites came together to vote down another shameless GOP attempt to award politicians more power at the expense of our first responders, our child care providers, and local communities.”

Wikler said Democrats were proud to have organized to defeat what he called risky and misleading constitutional amendments — marking only the second time since 1996 that a constitutional amendment had been defeated at the ballot box. 

“Republican politicians in Madison pushed these amendments because they recognized their grip on power was waning with new, fair maps, and they were desperate to cement their extreme agenda into Wisconsin’s Constitution,” he said. “Tonight, Wisconsin voters defeated an attempt by MAGA politicians to bend our Constitution. In November, Wisconsin Democrats will ensure the Republican politicians who pushed this power grab will be defeated as well.”

If at first you don’t succeed …

Over in Minocqua, the third time was a charm as a measure to exceed annual levy caps by $750,000 passed by 804 to 758. It had been defeated twice previously.

Locally, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, state Rep. Rob Swearingen, and state Sen. Mary Felzkowski all won their races for Republican nomination, running unopposed.

In November, Swearingen will face Democrat Dennis Nitzel, Felzkowski will square off with Democrat Andi Rich, and Tiffany will be challenged by Kyle Kilbourn.

Statewide, Trump-backed candidate Tony Wied won the Republican nomination for the eighth congressional district, defeating state Sen. Andre Jacque and former state Sen. Roger Roth. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos won his primary election handily with nearly 70% of the vote.

Rebecca Cooke won a hard-fought battle for the Democratic nomination to face U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in a swing district on Wisconsin’s west side.

Yet another constitutional amendment will head to voters in the November 5 general election — a vote on whether to specifically make U.S. citizenship a requirement for voting eligibility. That would seem to be a settled question because the Wisconsin constitution states: “Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district.” 

But progressive Democrats have argued that the language leaves wiggle room for statutory enactments that would allow noncitizens to vote. Specifically, they argue, while the language states that age-eligible resident citizens are automatically “qualified,” it doesn’t specifically preclude noncitizens, if they are authorized by statute.

The referendum question in November is: “Eligibility to vote. Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?”

The amendment adds the word ‘only’ to make the language clear.

In addition to those ballot measures, two proposed amendments cleared the first session of the legislative hurdle and need to be passed in the next session to head to the voters — one relates to the freedom to worship by prohibiting government officials from closing churches for any reason; the second measure would enshrine voter ID in the constitution as a requirement for voting. 

Other issues, such as prohibiting ranked-choice voting and prohibiting the governor from using a line-item veto to increase spending, were introduced but not passed and will likely be taken up in future legislative sessions.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.