A Democrat governor calls a special session to force the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to take up his slate of gun control bills. Where have we heard that before?
It happened in Virginia. That’s where Ralph Northam, following the Virginia Beach shooting, drew up a long list of gun control measures he wanted to see enacted and called a special legislative session to force the issue on the (slimly) GOP-controlled legislature.
The legislature closed the session only 90 minutes after convening without voting on any of the governor’s bills.
As we noted at the time, Northam lost in the legislature, but the political battle remained. That was a battle he won with the help of millions from Michael Bloomberg.
Perhaps taking a cue from his blackface-wearing colleague in the Old Dominion, Wisconsin Democrat Governor Tony Evers adopted the same strategy. Last month he called the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature into special session to take up his proposals for “universal” background checks and a red flag law.
He probably had no illusions about either bill actually making it into law. But just as in Virginia, a special session is a no-lose proposition for an anti-gun governor.
The session itself focuses public and press attention on the issue. If the legislature caves, the governor gets new gun control measures to sign into law in front of the cameras. If it refuses, he has a prominent issue on which to base the next election campaign.
Yesterday, in Madison, the GOP house Assembly speaker Robin Vos shut down the mandated special session only seconds after convening it.
From Courthouse News . . .
While Evers’ executive order required the Legislature to meet, it did not have the power to make it actively debate the bills. The result was two sessions promptly gaveled in and out in the Assembly and Senate by the GOP majority in less than a minute.
Evers said Thursday night that the Legislature’s decision not to debate gun control amounted to telling “80% of Wisconsinites and a majority of gun owners ‘go jump in a lake.’”
His comment referred to a recent Marquette University Law School poll which found that 80% of those polled support expanding background checks and 81% support red-flag laws.
Yes, well, we all know how accurate that kind of polling can be.
The brief special session immediately followed the conclusion of a regular floor session during which a bi-partisan suicide prevention bill was approved.
The Assembly passed the suicide prevention package with near-unanimous support, which included a provision to give gun shops up to $5,000 to make storage space for people who want to store guns safely while they or a family member are experiencing mental health issues.
Vos applauded the passage of the suicide prevention bills in a release, saying he was proud of the bipartisan task force that spearheaded them.
“We’re setting an example that a great deal can be accomplished when you put politics aside,” he said.
But don’t look for Governor Evers or the state’s media to give the legislature any credit for that. All of the attention will instead be focused on a special session that never (really) was.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Tony Evers called lawmakers in Thursday to act on guns. GOP leaders rejected it within seconds.
Wisconsin State Journal:
Senate, Assembly adjourn special sessions on gun control immediately after they begin
Wisconsin Public Radio:
Republicans Bypass Governor’s Special Session On Gun Laws
The question now becomes whether Evers can use the issue to effect in November, 2020. That’s a long way off. And it won’t be an off-year election. The presidential race will be at the top of the ballot ensuring a large turnout and plenty of voters on both sides will participate.
Republicans here said they’d can it in less than a minute, and held true to their word…evers is a one term, lame duck gov with no hope of accomplishing anything…
While some in the state forgot what it was like under doyle, our republican controlled house and senate have not…
What he said. (Above)
I remember Doyle and his bullshit. I was very disappointed when Evers won as well and just like WI Patriot says, it’s basically 2 counties that F it up for everyone if everyone doesn’t vote.
It’s is nice to live here most of the time as a gun owner. When Evers won, I knew that he’d try this kinda thing and so far he’s getting kicked in the teeth. I also agree with WI Patriot on another point. 1 term is all he’ll get here.
@Victoria. You don’t hold all the blame. We see lots of transplants from Illinois moving up here.
Same across the lake. In MI; Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Kent counties control the entire state.
It’s painful to watch things like Wolf hunting get voted down by people that have never visited the U.P. let alone, lived there.
How much democrat voter fraud was involved for Evers to win in Wisconsin? I’m sure it was widespread voter fraud. We had vacations planned for Wisconsin but cancelled them because they voted that crook and liar in.
This Gov, just all the Demonrats suffer from most all of the 7-deadly sins: Pride is an excessive belief in one’s own abilities, that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity. Envy is the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation. Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath. Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
It was rather puzzling to watch the election results roll in…Walker had been ahead all evening, significantly at some points, and then, at the “11th hr”, evers wins…
How about legislation to remove a governor that violated his oath by proposing unconstitutional laws.
Nah, not worth the effort or taxpayer $$$, we’ll just watch him squirm for the remainder of his term, and then watch him take the “walk of shame”…
josh kaul(WI AG) is another that won’t make a 2nd term, he’s sucked right up to ever’s anus…
Where’s the “Recall the governor” people? The democrats haunted Walker for years. Was that all taxpayer funded? I don’t remember who was running that.
And if you recall, all those efforts to recall Walker failed, miserably, even the recall election, when barrett ran, Walker still came out on top…the ONLY reason Walker lost to evers was that Walker pissed off the unions, primarily the teachers union when he(Walker) got rid of collective bargaining…
The unions got spoiled, fat and lined their pockets under doyle, who destroyed just about everything Thompson had worked so hard to do for so many yrs…
Mind you, a lot of this goes back 20+yrs…
Thanks WI Patriot, (I couldn’t click on a “reply” to you.) I was wondering what happened to Walker. I sure hope things change next election. I’l like to move there just to vote. My vote is meaningless down here.
Don’t discount the selective marijuana advisory referendum in selected counties that had a high college student population. It up the turnout if the young and liberal
It would appear the legislature gave the un Constitutional proposals the thought they were due and adjourned.
He could be impeached for attempted to violate the rights of Wisconsin residents by pushing unconstitutional laws.
Again, taxpayer $$$ wasted, easier, better and cheaper to wait it out, evers will NOT get a second term, and conservatives generally are in control…
We need a 6-3 SCOTUS to put an end to these stunts. Maybe.
With C.J. Roberts being the Leftist link,one might conclude that 7 – 2 to be a better number.
The danger is, if the decision is too narrow and applies only to NY state transport laws, we will be buried by infringement upon infringement by multiple state legislatures hostile to special Leftist interests.
But that is what I fear is that is exactly what Roberts is going to force on us. He bent right on over when Obama threatened his court not to rule his precious ObamaCare unconstitutional, and Roberts ruled the mandate was a ‘tax’.
Practice your bending over exercises, cause that’s likely what’s coming from the SCOTUS…
I still think Roberts was threatened or blackmailed. (Epstein Island?) Maybe his family was threatened. We were all shocked when he went full-Obamacare.
No need for tin foil. Playing the middle gives a justice extreme power.
And no SCOTUS is not going to go for strict scrutiny from the NY case
Roberts was blackmailed with the two kids he adopted from oversea. All was not up and up with how Roberts and his wife procured the two children.
After his vote on Obama Care it seemed his problem with the questionable adoption just went away.
Awesome! I have land in WI that I want to build a house on when I escape CA (want to head to NV first but can’t due to a foster baby). Glad some Republicans somewhere have some intestinal fortitude.
Utah man, Utah!
Yep. Utah is where its at. I’m working on getting my wife used to the idea of moving from the progtard-infested, dark-winter state of Washington to sunny southern Utah or northern Arizona in a few years, when the daughter graduates from college and we can sell our house.
Evers is an ass and a constitutional numb-nuts. The Democrats are are pissed at one billionaire but brown-nose another, one who does not have the true interest of the country at heart.
Wisconsin isn’t Virginia. All the Democrats had to do in Virginia is flip a couple seats in each House. A couple of seats in Wisconsin is in the noise.
There were a lot of Demographic factors in play in Virginia that aren’t present in Wisconsin. Despite all money and noise, gun control was not the deciding factor. Steyer and Soros outdprn Bloomberg by a wide margin and while they are gun control supporters that wasn’t their number 1 issue.
I note that Soros poured a lot of money into the last Wisconsin Supreme Court race and lost.
As did bloomberg when he tried to buy the race for Milwaukee Co. sheriff, bloomberg bet on the wrong horse in that race…
Yeah. He backed the white guy. How racist.
No, he backed the liberal, the one that could be controlled…
You sound really stupid with your race card stupidity, like all stupid democrats do.
Wisconsin like much of the Midwest and Great Lake states has also been trending more red then blue the last 20 years, and it’s entirely the result of the hyper liberal SJW and anti gun agenda now embraced by the DNC. Democrats have been so obsessed with trying to flip the south back into their hands, that they neglected and lost their biggest bastion of power outside of NY and CA. And all they have to show for it is flipping VA.
WI for the most part is conservative, HOWEVER, there are 2 major liberal strongholds, Madison, which has always been(back into the 60’s, even more liberal than Berkeley) and always will be liberal, and Milwaukee, which is changing, at a very slow rate…Green Bay plays a part in both at times, depending…
Blame the colleges. My kids went to college in WI and flipped to become leftists. Unfortunately they stayed in WI (Madison) and vote. Sorry Wisconsonites, I’m going to have to move and cancel their vote. Can you vote multiple times, like in Chicago?
Nothing can be done about Madison, it is what it is, what WE need to do is to get the rural’s out to vote, some think they don’t count, and we know that’s just not the case, as we showed liberals in 2016…
Word. I went to college at UW-Madison and managed to not become a liberal douche – mostly because I am an independent thinker, veteran, and support the Constitution.
For the most part, that’s true. Unfortunately, the virus that is progressivism has slowly been spreading out from Madison into surrounding bedroom communities. I live northwest of The Peoples Republic by about 25 miles and the spread of liberalism is slowly taking hold. Disturbing.
In total spending by his political groups Bloomberg spent about 10x per vote in Virginia compared to Wisconsin spending by himself and Soros combined. You have to consider most Bloomberg spending is NOT filed campaign contributions, but money laundered though his non profits that make a big impact without crossing the line to FEC classification as campaign contributions.
If (when) bloomberg decides to spend as much in Wisconsin he could have a very big impact. I agree the demographics changed in Virginia. But this was not all or even mostly hispanics, Bloomberg was able to convert a massive number of white women suburbanites among whom gun control polls very well as a edge for Democrats.
And Wisconsin has some gerrymandering issues the Dems can go after given how that also had a significan impact in Virginia.
so not the same on amount of hispanic growth, not the same on several trends, but Wisconsin GOP has several vulnerabilities that Bloomberg can go after based on lessons learned from his success in Virginia. moreover the press will support him which is another leverage.
Virginia did not have a Statewide election. It was a legislative election by district. Those suburban women were concentrated in Northern Virginia so piling votes in Arlington and Fairfax Counties had no impact since the Democrats already had a lock on those seats
Virginia elections are off-off year and they are generally low turn out in the years when there is no election for Governer. The side that gets the vote out wind Wisconsin holds legislative elections in normal years so the turn out is much higher. In 2018, which was a Democrat year, the Republicans picked up a few legislative seats. The Republicans hold the legislature so what ever gerrymandering went on does not favor the Democrats. There was a lawsuit that reached SCOTUS last term. The Democrats lost.
There is more to the Demographics then just Hispanics. There has been an outmigration of retiring boomers and influx of people from suburban Marylandand the District as well. Retirees are sitting on a mountain of cash in their houses and leave the State and cash out. I sold my small Arlington house for $725k and bought a house in Wisconsin for less than half of that.
If governors that push for unconstitutional laws were to be impeached then maybe future governors will learn that unconstitutional actions will not be tolerated.
Impeachment is meaningless. They have to be removed which requires a supermajority. There is more to the Federal and State Constitutios than the right to bear arms.
Imagine if a Republican governor called a special session to take up restrictions on speech or voting.
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