Molly Beck

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - One of the Legislature's top Republicans said he helped write a sweeping plan that weakens the incoming Democratic governor because Republicans "don't trust Tony Evers right now."

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau said Monday Republican lawmakers must pass the plan to preserve policies enacted under Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature over the past eight years.

"The manufactured outrage by the Democrats right now is hilarious," Fitzgerald told WISN's conservative radio host Jay Weber on Monday. "I mean, most of these items are things (that) we never really had to kind of address because guess what — we trusted Scott Walker and the administration to be able to manage the back and forth with the Legislature. We don’t trust Tony Evers right now in a lot of these areas."

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Republicans released a 141-page plan late Friday that would move the 2020 presidential primary election to March in order to benefit a conservative Supreme Court justice's election bid, limit early voting to roughly two weeks before an election, and weaken the authority of Gov.-elect Tony Evers and incoming Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul.

Fitzgerald's comments came hours before Democrats planned to pack a Capitol hearing room before the Legislature's finance committee, which will vote later Monday to send the plan to the full Legislature.

“It’s unfortunate that Senator Fitzgerald is continuing to play politics and rushing to make sweeping partisan changes before even meeting with Governor-elect Tony Evers," Evers' spokeswoman Carrie Lynch said Monday. "Senator Fitzgerald should stop this rush to a lame-duck session and at least take the time to meet with Governor-elect Tony Evers before making any dramatic changes to state laws."

Evers on Monday said he would consider litigation should the plan pass the Legislature and be signed by Walker. Fitzgerald said that notion is "troubling" and warned conservatives that Evers will have "absolutely the most liberal administration that we have ever seen in the state of Wisconsin."

Fitzgerald pointed to Evers' work as a classroom teacher and a school principal as evidence, and as an administrator at a regional agency that provides services to schools.

"Then he was the lap dog of WEAC and that’s how he emerged as a statewide candidate," Fitzgerald said. "He is going to unleash the most liberal agenda in the middle of February which will be his day to introduce the state budget. You have never seen anything like this. He will make Jim Doyle look like a piker."

Fitzgerald also noted Evers also hired members of the liberal-controlled Dane County Board, and a former Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin official.

The Senate leader's strong words come weeks after he said he "looked forward to working with the governor-elect."

"I think any review of the rule-making process is appropriate at the beginning of any session. I don’t think that’s got anything to do with Tony Evers," Fitzgerald told reporters on Nov. 8. "It’s equal balanced government and you know, we’ll respect Tony Evers like we have any other governor and we’ll work with him."

Evers, Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul and other Democrats have said the Republican plan seeks to ignore the will of voters, which elected Democrats to all statewide offices on Nov. 6.

Kaul, whose authority would be most affected by the plan, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sunday "this is just not the process we should have in an advanced democracy."

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The plan would allow lawmakers to replace the attorney general with private attorneys of their choosing for key cases; require lawmakers to sign off on court settlements; give lawmakers instead of the attorney general control of how to spend court settlements; and eliminate the solicitor general’s office that oversees high-profile litigation.

Fitzgerald said the measures are, in part, a response to Kaul being unknown to Republicans.

"I literally did not know Josh Kaul before the election," Fitzgerald said. "I have met him for one minute outside the Capitol. We have no idea what Josh Kaul has up his sleeve."

Fitzgerald said lawmakers want to be "able to say we don’t think you’re doing a very good job representing us and if you’re not, we want to be able to hire our own counsel to make our point."

Republicans have held a different view on this issue in recent months.

Earlier this year, Walker attempted to block Evers from doing exactly that in a lawsuit a conservative legal firm brought against Evers challenging his power to write his own rules and regulations related to school policy and curriculum.

The state Supreme Court sided with Evers, and allowed Evers to choose his own attorney instead of being represented by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, who said he sided with the group suing Evers.

Lawmakers were called in by Walker to take up legislation that would provide a tax incentive package to Fox Valley papermaker Kimberly-Clark in exchange for keeping jobs in Wisconsin. However, lawmakers have not scheduled a vote on the bill.

Walker blamed Democrats, though Republicans in the state Senate also do not support the bill, contributing to its death.

"So much for working together. Hundreds of good-paying jobs will be gone in the Fox Cities because Wisconsin Democrats will not support a bill to keep Kimberly Clark jobs here," Walker tweeted.