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Rest in peace, Government Accountability Board.

Wisconsin’s strong and nonpartisan watchdog agency is being put down this month by Republican politicians who feared the agency’s independence.

Instead of retired judges with long reputations for fairness overseeing elections and ethical standards, top lawmakers are appointing their partisan pals to look the other way. That’s clear from most of the appointments so far to the ethics and elections commissions, which will replace the GAB at the end of the month.

In fact, the commissions — weak and politically connected — will mostly serve at the pleasure of top lawmakers. That means lawmakers will essentially be in charge of policing themselves. So little scrutiny will occur.

A similar scenario was in place a decade ago, when the old ethics and elections boards had to ask lawmakers for money to investigate some of those very same lawmakers. It was a sham.

And the absence of strong enforcement of campaign rules contributed to the caucus scandal, in which state leaders turned public employees into private campaign soldiers. Only incumbents and the favorite candidates of top lawmakers were given taxpayer-subsidized staff, providing an unfair advantage in elections.