SHARE Rep. Chris Kapenga

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The state Legislature's most vocal advocate for right-to-work legislation inside Wisconsin is working outside the state to hold a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution.

On Tuesday, state Rep. Chris Kapenga, a Delafield Republican, was elected the co-president of the Assembly of State Legislatures by a few score of lawmakers from around the country in a meeting at the Naval Heritage Center in Washington, D.C.

An impressively daunting task awaits Kapenga and the group he helped found last year: preparing the way for a convention that has never happened since the U.S. Constitution was framed in 1787.

"The states have never done it before," Kapenga said.

As the keystone of the American republic, the Constitution generally gets deference and even reverence from voters across the political spectrum. Changing it is the heaviest of all possible lifts in the politics of the nation.

That's a good thing, say Democrats such as state Rep. Dana Wachs of Eau Claire, who see a constitutional convention as a potentially hazardous and unpredictable exercise for Americans' rights and way of life. Wachs said such a convention could be hijacked by special interests.

"It's as dangerous a thought as a person can possibly have," Wachs said. "We've got enough challenges to democracy as I see it."

Kapenga said the challenges are the reason his group is first seeking to set the basic rules and procedures for holding an eventual convention.

Under Article Five of the U.S. Constitution, a convention can be held with the approval of two-thirds of the states. Any proposed amendments then would have to be approved by three-quarters of the states.

Kapenga said past efforts to hold conventions have been hampered in part because there are no rules governing how the conventions would be conducted.

One of the Wisconsin Legislature's most conservative members, Kapenga also has been a vocal advocate for legislation that would prohibit companies and unions from inking contracts that require workers to pay union dues.

With his amendment push, Kapenga's long-term goal is to change the U.S. Constitution to require the federal budget to be balanced, as the state budget is.

He sponsored state legislation last session to call on Congress for a constitutional convention on a budget amendment. That proposal passed the state Assembly on a party-line 58-38 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats against, and then died in the Senate.

The joint resolution would not have needed any action from Gov. Scott Walker.

Kapenga said he believed the scope of a constitutional convention could be limited and that the states would still have to approve any amendments passed out of the convention.

The group is made up of mostly Republican lawmakers but includes some Democrats, including Kapenga's co-president, Missouri state Sen. Jason Holsman.

Other conservative goals for amendments include term limits for elected officials. Liberals are interested in proposals such as undoing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case that allowed corporations to do independent spending in political races.