One of the highlights of the midterm elections was the dethroning of Scott Walker, a man whose primary purpose as Wisconsin governor was to brand every teacher and public employee in his state as an evil leech. It was a big loss for the Koch brothers as well, who pumped nearly $2 million into Walker's re-election campaign. But the Republican-controlled state legislature doesn't plan to let governor-elect Tony Evers undo Walker's grievous damage without a fight. In fact, they don't plan to let him do it at all.

On Monday, in the first lame-duck session in Wisconsin in almost 10 years, the state GOP is preparing to pass sweeping legislation that would restrict the incoming Democratic governor before he even takes office, with Walker poised to sign away his office's powers on his way out the door. Per the Associated Press:

The bills up for a public hearing and committee vote Monday, setting the stage for legislative action Tuesday, would move the 2020 presidential primary to help a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, restrict early voting in way a federal court already disallowed and give the GOP-controlled Legislature the power to sidestep [Democratic Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul] in legal fights.

The moves give Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who leaves office on Jan. 7, one more chance to reshape state government before his term ends. While lame-duck sessions are common in Congress, they are unusual in Wisconsin. There hasn’t been one since 2010, when Democrats in power then tried unsuccessfully to approve union contracts before Walker took office.

Changing Wisconsin's presidential primary, when Democratic turnout is expected to be high, from April to March will likely mean lower voter turnout in a separate election for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, appointed by Walker. By putting Kelly's vote on a separate day, Republicans give him a better chance of surviving. And of the state's 72 counties, 60 have said that they can't accommodate an extra election date.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Michigan are also pulling lame-duck-session tricks to get around voters. A referendum to raise the state's minimum wage looked likely to pass, until the state legislature approved a wage hike on their own, causing the referendum to be taken off the ballot. Now that the election is over, the state Republicans are rolling back their own law to lower the minimum wage and scale back paid sick leave.

If this all sounds familiar, that's because North Carolina attempted the same thing when voters finally kicked out Republican governor Pat McCrory. It was such a naked power grab that political scientist Andrew Reynolds cited it when he declared that, by objective measures, North Carolina was no longer functionally a democracy. Reynolds also cited gerrymandering and voter suppression, but the GOP attempts to quash the effects of elections after they don't go their way are also deeply insidious. It's the natural next step for a party that believes if you won't vote for them, then you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Republicans understand the importance of locking down power at the state level, allowing them to mount coordinated attacks on federal civil rights protections via attorneys general or shut down cities attempting to pass local environmental regulations. And they don't want something as petty as democratic process and the will of the majority of voters to keep them from having that kind of power.