From Kriss Marion

Circle M Market Farm, Blanchardville

Lafayette County Supervisor Dist. 8

To the editor:

Last week, like hundreds of you, I reached out to my state representatives and requested they vote NO to the lame duck legislation rushed through, mostly in secret, by majority leaders in Extraordinary Session.

Rep. Todd Novak voted NO to all three bills authored by Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Robin Vos, citing the high volume of constituent calls he received in opposition. Sen. Howard Marklein voted YES to all three, which was no real surprise. (His record shows him voting with Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald 99.3 percent of the time.) What was surprising is that Marklein acknowledged the tremendous amount of calls, apologizing via email for his full voicemail. But he dismissed constituents in as being “misled.” Rather than respect voters who elected Evers as Governor and Kaul as Attorney General just over a month ago, he sided with party bosses to hamstring them before they take office. Remember that Marklein very recently ran a re-election campaign promising to fight Madison insiders, saying in one mailer: “I don’t care for political gamesmanship.” 

I’m not sure what the Senator calls the lame duck power grab, recently signed into law by Scott Walker, but last week Politifact called it a “Full Flop.” Marklein, Vos and Fitzgerald fought to award Gov. Walker additional powers during his terms, then fought to take them away from Evers. Political gamesmanship has succeeded, for now.