Republicans in Wisconsin’s GOP-dominated state legislature are pulling out all the stops to keep their state’s new liberal-majority Supreme Court from weighing in on two redistricting cases brought before the court quickly after Justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn in this year.
It’s a two-prong effort, at least right now. My colleague Kate Riga reported today on the disingenuous “nonpartisan” redistricting proposal state Republicans put forward this week in their latest effort to avoid a court challenge to their skewed maps. Alongside this scheme, state Republicans are also floating impeaching Protasiewicz, clinging to her past remarks on the state’s maps being “rigged” as justification for subverting the will of the people — that and the fact that her campaign received donations from the Democratic Party.
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) announced today that he’s sort of, kind of getting impeachment ball rolling. The Republican Assembly leader said he’s created a panel to look into the criteria necessary for impeaching Protasiewicz as he and his colleagues make up their mind on whether to move forward with such a plan. The panel will be made up of three former unnamed Wisconsin Supreme Court justices. Vos told the Associated Press that the panel members’ identities wouldn’t be made public until after they’d completed their inquiry, which he said would wrap up in the “next few weeks.”
But as state Republicans’ efforts to overturn the results of the state’s last election ramp up, a new poll conducted by the progressive research group A Better Wisconsin Together found that Wisconsin voters are solidly opposed to Republicans efforts to impeach a duly-elected judge. The group found that among Wisconsin voters, almost twice as many oppose impeachment as support it, 47 percent to 24 percent. The survey, which was conducted September 7-10 by the national polling firm GBAO, also found that Democrats are more united against impeachment (80%) than Republicans are in support of it (55%). Additionally, the group found that voters approve of the job she’s doing since she was sworn in by an 11–point margin.
While the survey was conducted by a progressive group, this is perhaps one of the most interesting data points: 46 percent of voters polled indicated they see Republican efforts to go after Protasiewicz as rooted in political payback rather than wrongdoing on the judge’s part.
Per A Better Wisconsin Together:
Only a third of voters (33%) believe Republicans want to impeach Protasiewicz because they “believe she did something wrong and should be removed” while nearly half (46%) think it is because Republicans “are upset their candidate who could have helped them hold on to political power didn’t win.” Even 14% of Republicans believe it is because their party’s chosen candidate didn’t win.
The Best Of TPM Today
Here’s what you should read this evening:
Evers Condemns Wisconsin GOP’s Newest Gambit To Entrench Its Control Permanently
New from Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky: Jack Smith’s Deputy In Jan. 6 Case Is A ‘Lawman Type’ Who’s Taken On Trumpworld
New episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast: Ep. 290: If At First You Don’t Succeed, Impeach
Dems Mock McCarthy For Not Being Able To Muster The Votes To Launch Bogus Biden Impeachment Inquiry
Keeping The Real Speaker In The Loop
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
After Securing Impeachment From McCarthy, Freedom Caucus Pretends That Wasn’t Part Of Their Demands — Emine Yücel
What We Are Reading
Judge restricts Trump’s access to classified info in docs case and limits what he can say — NBC
Lauren Boebert ditches the MAGA thing in Colorado — Politico
With Nothing on Joe Biden, Republicans Move Toward Impeaching Him Anyway — Mother Jones
