Divisive politics ruled Wisconsin over the last decade

Patrick Marley , Molly Beck | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It was the decade that nearly broke Wisconsin — a point in state history that turned neighbors into rivals.

The last 10 years in Wisconsin were defined by politics, and the politics of the last decade have been defined by dissension. Republicans saw historic highs and Democrats hadn't felt any lower.

In a state that for decades and decades weathered political shifts and divided government, policy disagreement mutated into resentment.

As if in tribute to the state's purple history, voters elected Democrats to lead state government into a new decade while Republicans held control of the Legislature.

But there's no sign of the bipartisanship of an earlier Wisconsin returning anytime soon: Lawmakers are on track to close out the session passing the fewest new laws in recent memory amid bitter feuding.

Here are the stories of Wisconsin politics that defined the last 10 years.

GOP wave

Blue turned into red across the country on the night of Nov. 2, 2010, in sharp rebuke of President Barack Obama — especially in Wisconsin, where Republicans experienced their greatest electoral gains in decades.

Scott Walker was elected governor, Ron Johnson captured Democrat Russ Feingold's U.S. Senate seat, and two House seats previously held by Democrats now belonged to Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble.

Wisconsin Republicans gained a governor and U.S. senator in the same election for the first time since 1938 and this was the only state in the country where Democrats lost the governorship, a Senate seat and an entire legislature.

Republicans newly in control of state government quickly went to work on a piece of legislation that would change the state forever.

Act 10

Wisconsin was the first state to allow public employees to collectively bargain over wages and their workplace.

It's now also the state best known for eliminating most of those abilities after a raucous episode in 2011 known forever as Act 10.

Act 10 was the name of the bill that effectively eliminated union power in Wisconsin, but it's now used to describe an event — the event in the state's recent memory.

Seizing a moment when his party had full control of state government, Walker abruptly rolled out Act 10 with plans of getting it through the Legislature in a week. Privately, he referred to the surprise move as dropping “the bomb” and later said he regretted not spending more time explaining to voters why he thought the move was the best way to shore up state and local budgets.

His hopes of swift approval for Act 10 were dashed by Senate Democrats, who promptly fled the state. Twenty of the Senate’s 33 members had to be present to take up the legislation because it had budget elements, but Republicans held only 19 Senate seats. After three weeks, Republicans removed the budget provisions from the bill and approved it without any Democrats on the Senate floor.

For much of that period, opponents of Act 10 occupied the Capitol and its grounds, bringing the largest protests to Madison since the Vietnam War era.

Act 10 brought with it numerous lawsuits, but state and federal courts upheld the measure.

Walker survives recall election

Act 10 also spawned a wave of recall efforts unlike any in the country’s history. Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and 13 state senators – 10 Republicans and three Democrats – faced recall elections.

Republicans were mostly triumphant in the recall elections, with Walker becoming the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall vote. Democrats had a small measure of success because the recalls allowed them to take control of the Senate for a few months in 2012 – but they lost it that fall in the regular elections.

John Doe

Throughout Walker's first term as governor were separate but related criminal investigations initiated by a Democratic Milwaukee County prosecutor that examined events and activities during Walker's time as Milwaukee County executive and as governor.

Prosecutors conducted the probes under the state's "John Doe" statutes that grant extraordinary powers to investigators to compel testimony and maintain secrecy.

The first John Doe investigation, begun in 2010, led to convictions of six Walker aides, associates or appointees on charges ranging from theft from a veteran's group to misconduct in office.

The second Doe probe, launched in 2012, looked into coordination between conservative political organizations and Walker and other candidates during recall elections.

The second probe was effectively halted in January 2014 when the judge overseeing the investigation ruled the activities in question were not illegal.

The state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 to end the investigation for good.

No charges were filed in the second investigation and Walker has denied wrongdoing.

The probes sparked and continued to fan flames of division between Republicans Democrats. Republicans saw the probes as a sweeping invasion of privacy, which included early morning raids of homes of Walker's aides, in the name of politics.

But Democrats saw the investigations as holding the governor accountable and found illegal the collaboration between issue groups and Walker's campaign.

The decision from a court that was itself divided politically was seen as opening the door to reshaping how campaigns are run in Wisconsin because it made clear campaigns can work closely with outside groups, allowing more political money to flow without the names of donors being disclosed.

Redistricting

Republicans couldn’t have timed their takeover of the statehouse any better. Their 2010 victory meant they were in complete control of the once-a-decade process of redistricting, where lawmakers draw new legislative and congressional maps to account for population changes detected by the census.

How those maps are drawn can determine which party has an advantage, and Republicans used that power to protect their majorities. Other than for a few months in 2012, they maintained control of the Assembly and Senate for the decade.

Democrats and their supporters challenged the maps in court. An initial lawsuit resulted in changes to two Assembly districts on Milwaukee’s south side after judges found they violated the voting rights of Latinos.

In a second lawsuit, a panel of federal judges ruled the maps violated the voting rights of Democrats. But the U.S. Supreme Court found those bringing the lawsuit didn’t have legal standing and sent the case back to the trial court for further proceedings.

Before a new trial could be held, the Supreme Court ruled in cases from North Carolina and Maryland that federal courts couldn’t hear cases that alleged maps were drawn to benefit one political party. That decision effectively killed Wisconsin’s lawsuit and left the pro-Republican maps in place.

A new set of maps will have to be drawn after the 2020 census. Republicans won’t have the same edge they did because Democrat Tony Evers now holds the governor’s office.

'Cheesehead revolution'

After Walker became the first governor to ever survive a recall election following protests from more than 100,000 people, his star rose.

At the same time, Reince Priebus became chairman of the Republican National Committee and Congressman Paul Ryan was named GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's running mate.

The national ascent by the three Wisconsin Republicans became known in 2012 as the "cheesehead revolution."

Walker would go on to run for president, Ryan became House speaker, and Priebus eventually worked as President Donald Trump's chief of staff.

The "revolution" would end in 2018 when all three left their high-profile jobs: One was defeated in an election, one retired and another was forced out.

Tammy Baldwin makes history — again

The early 2010s were good for at least one Democratic lawmaker: Tammy Baldwin.

Baldwin, then in the U.S. House, defeated the state's beloved former governor Tommy Thompson in a race for the U.S. Senate.

Baldwin was the first openly gay member of the Senate, just like she was in the House.

Since then, Baldwin has gone on to be one of the most formidable politicians in Wisconsin. She won re-election in 2018 by an 11-percentage-point margin following an expensive effort by Republicans to unseat her.

Walker runs for president

The night of Walker's 2014 re-election, it was clear what was next for the governor.

Walker's victory speech that night focused on the strengths of America as much as those of Wisconsin and he aimed his attacks at Washington, D.C. He also spoke of immigrants seeking promise in America — something he rarely did during the governor's race.

Sure enough, Walker began visiting Iowa — a lot — after emerging as a favorite at the Iowa Freedom Summit in January 2015 where Walker ostensibly spoke as a governor but clearly pitched himself as a presidential contender.

Walker was considered a front-runner until, ironically, he officially announced his candidacy for president in July of 2015. After that point, his popularity began to fade as Donald Trump gained ground during debates where Walker was largely invisible.

Meanwhile, back in Wisconsin, his own GOP colleagues had grown unhappy with Walker, who had proposed a state budget that some viewed as tied with his presidential platform and included unpopular measures such as cutting funding for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin System.

After 71 days, Walker dropped out of the race, urging other GOP presidential candidates to coalesce around one person who could force Trump out of the race.

Trump wins Wisconsin

Walker — and Republicans statewide — ultimately changed course and got behind Trump, who would become the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win Wisconsin.

The 2016 election put Wisconsin on the nation's radar as a canary in the coal mine for Democrats.

The state had once been known as part of the Democrats' "blue wall," but voters, largely in rural areas, supported Trump with enough force to flip the traditionally blue state to red.

His win came even as some Wisconsin Republicans, especially in the conservative suburbs of Milwaukee, recoiled.

Just a month before the election, Ryan disinvited Trump from a rally hosted by the 1st Congressional District Republican Party of Wisconsin following the release of a recording made by "Access Hollywood" during which Trump boasted he had sexually assaulted women.

Evers beats Walker

Two years after Trump's election came Democratic victories the party hadn't seen in years. The most significant was the election of Evers as governor.

Evers, a 67-year-old former elementary school principal from Plymouth who indulges in Egg McMuffins and games of euchre, defeated Walker — one of the most formidable politicians the state had ever seen.

The state schools superintendent narrowly defeated Walker by focusing on kitchen-table issues — education, roads and health care .

Both sides saw early warning signs for Walker because of his brief presidential run and the Democratic response to Trump and Republican control of Congress.

Evers' election delivered to Democrats power inside the state Capitol for the first time in nearly a decade.

GOP takes power away from Democrats

Just days after the election of Evers, who was one of six Democrats to win statewide offices in 2018, Republican lawmakers began drafting legislation that shifted power away from the new Democratic governor and Attorney General Josh Kaul.

The changes included limiting the freedom state agencies have to run their programs and giving the Legislature power over Kaul's ability to withdraw from and settle lawsuits.

The bills were passed after an overnight legislative session that kept lawmakers inside the Capitol for about 24 hours.

Walker, in one of his last acts as governor, signed the legislation limiting the power of the office he was leaving.

The episode set the tone for the next year of divided government. The Republican-controlled Legislature and Evers have agreed on nearly nothing and barely communicate.

The Legislature is on track to pass the fewest laws in history, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Journal Sentinel reporter Craig Gilbert contributed to this report.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.