GOP Senate leader requests impeaching state's top election official

 

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A top Senate Republican is urging the GOP leader of the state Assembly to move forward with a proceeding to remove the state's top election official.

Senate President Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) asking him to consider impeaching the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Meagan Wolfe, who has refused to vacate her position after a lawsuit was filed in wake of the Senate firing her last month.

While the move would be unprecedented, Kapenga argued the Legislature must "use every tool" to remove Wolfe as Democrats and Republicans have contested whether the Senate's vote to reject her reappointment was legal.

"Impeachment is not taken lightly, but when we have lost trust in justice to be impartially carried out at all levels, it is time to act and put this embarrassment behind us," Kapenga said in a statement. "It is time to restore confidence not just in our elections process, but in the rule of law."

Kapenga's letter comes after five Republican lawmakers in the Assembly proposed a resolution calling for Wolfe to be impeached, alleging "maladministration during her tenure." Wolfe called the effort an attempt by lawmakers to "willfully" distort the truth.

Vos, who has the power to bring impeachment articles to the floor, has floated removing the state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protastiewicz if she hears cases involving the state's legislative maps, but he has yet to say whether he'd welcome the same process for Wolfe. The Rochester Republican was not immediately available for comment.

Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit immediately after the Senate voted along party lines to oust Wolfe, saying it was unlawfully held.

Since the fallout of the 2020 election, Wolfe has been the target of election misinformation and former President Donald Trump, who falsely claimed widespread fraud was linked to his loss to President Joe Biden.

Wolfe has been blamed for policies the six-member bipartisan commission enacted during the pandemic to administer the election such as the use of absentee ballot drop boxes and not allowing special voting deputies into nursing homes. Last year, a judge ruled ballot drop boxes are illegal and the issue is at the center of another legal challenge.