It was sad to watch last week’s vote by the Wisconsin State Senate against confirming La Crosse County native Brad Pfaff as the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).

The vote is a glaring example of a lack of bipartisanship at the Capitol.

Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said senate Republicans weren’t comfortable with Pfaff. There’s little doubt that’s true. New Governor Tony Evers is a Democrat. Pfaff has affiliations with Democratic lawmakers in his background. It could be issues like the potential philosophical backlash against large-scale farming, more consumer protection regulations and a potential hit to state trade that worried Republicans. There really weren’t any hard-and-fast answers given regarding why Republicans ganged up on Pfaff and basically fired him.

The reason for Pfaff’s removal is two-fold. He has Democratic ties and he spoke up when he saw a problem in state government.

Pfaff was openly critical of the Joint Finance Committee, controlled by senate Republicans, for slow-playing providing funding for mental health programs for state farmers.

Senate Republicans didn’t like that.

Evers has 16 cabinet members and only seven of them have been confirmed by the senate. The others can operate in their jobs without senate confirmation. However, at any time any of those nine unconfirmed cabinet members can be called by the senate into a confirmation hearing. They can then be “unconfirmed.” In effect, the vote is a termination notice for cabinet members who have been on the job since the start of Evers’ term.

The vote against Pfaff sent Evers into a tirade about his cabinet appointments and how the senate is handling, or not handling, their confirmations.

“If I was a total cynic, I’d say keep your damn mouth shut. But I’m not. I want them to be forthcoming, I want them to be professional, that’s why we hired them,” Evers said after the vote. “They’re the best people for the job. To think that they’ll have to keep their mouth shut for the next, who knows, four years in order to get approved by this Senate… that is just absolute bulls---.”

It was Evers’ most vocally-scathing moment of his young tenure.

There’s good reason for him to be upset. It’s the first time since 1987 that the state senate has “fired” an acting member of the governor’s cabinet in this manner.

Pfaff was the best qualified person in many regards to be secretary of DATCP. He had grown up on a Wisconsin dairy farm. He is well-educated, with degrees from UW-Green Bay and George Mason University. As a young political player, Pfaff had been elected to serve as a county supervisor, and 15 years ago lost an election for state senate as a Democrat. He had worked for U.S. Rep. Ron Kind for several years before taking on key roles at the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Obama Administration. Due to his experiences and understanding of the federal-state-local legislative connection, there are few people in Wisconsin better suited to serve as DATCP secretary. But to Republicans, that history of working with Democrats was a handicap. Anyone who Republicans would deem as or more qualified than Pfaff to be secretary of DATCP would simply only share their political philosophy. That attitude is unhealthy for Wisconsin.

Pfaff had become versed in the needs of all the state’s farmers due to his work as the director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency for Wisconsin. Pfaff wasn’t distant from Green County. He was in Monroe for the finals of the Alice in Dairyland program this summer.

Pfaff had been endorsed by the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association, which represents all member dairy farms in Wisconsin, large and small. Pfaff was endorsed by the Cooperative Network, which includes members of the state’s cutting-edge cooperative agriculture movement. Doug Rebout, Rock County farmer and president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, said Pfaff was the right person to lead DATCP.

Senate Republicans shut their eyes to Pfaff’s positive attributes and axed him. Perhaps they simply saw Pfaff as a potential political rival they wanted to cripple while they could. That’s how politically motivated this vote can be measured.

It’s hopeful to think Wisconsin will somehow realign itself and return to its progressive roots, which were founded on statesmanship.

The vote by Senate Republicans against Pfaff’s confirmation shows partisanship continues to be detrimental to our state’s best interests.

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.