Republican leaders elevate, demote as new committees formed

Capitol reports

WisPolitics.com The upcoming legislative session in Madison will feature changes on the committee front including new faces on the budget-making Joint Finance Committee, a revamped committee structure and new leaders for key audit and election panels.

To no one’s surprise, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos formally dropped Rep. Janel Brandtjen as chair of the Campaigns and Elections Committee after hinting at the move this fall.

She is one of just four returning Assembly GOP members who won’t be in leadership, on the Joint Finance Committee or serve as a committee chair for the 2023-24 session.

The other three are: Scott Allen, of Waukesha; Elijah Behnke, of Oconto; and Chuck Wichgers, of Muskego. All of them have crossed Vos in some fashion.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, tapped Sen. Eric Wimberger to co-chair the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, replacing Sen. Rob Cowles in that role next session.

Cowles, R-Green Bay, will continue to chair the Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, backed Vos’ primary opponent this fall, and her Assembly GOP colleagues voted to bar her from closed caucus, saying they could no longer trust her. Now she’s running in a spring special election to decide who will succeed Alberta Darling, who has left her 8th Senate District seat in the Milwaukee suburbs.

Meanwhile, Wichgers also supported Adam Steen in his challenge of Vos. The Constitution and Ethics Committee that Wichgers chaired this session was eliminated.

Allen wasn’t appointed chair of any committees for the 2021-22 session after he circulated a letter to colleagues shortly before the 2020 election complaining the caucus leadership in place at the time hadn’t been aggressive enough.

Allen’s office told WisPolitics.com Allen was “not surprised or dismayed” by Vos’ committee assignment decision.

And Behnke, who won a spring 2021 special election to fill a vacant seat, was caught on a secretly recorded tape calling Vos a “swamp creature” while saying he wanted to punch Democrat Gov. Tony Evers.

Brandtjen used her position as committee chair this session to push a series of false claims about the 2020 election. She will be replaced in the post by Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa.

Brandtjen and the other three were still appointed to serve as members of various committees. Brandtjen will serve on the Corrections and Government Accountability and Oversight committees, for example.

Along with eliminating the Constitution and Ethics Committee, the others Vos dropped for the upcoming session were: Public Benefit Reform; Science, Technology and Broadband; Small Business Development; and Substance Abuse and Prevention. The chairs of the other four committees either will lead other committees in the new session, have joined leadership or won’t be in the Assembly next year.

Also, the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee was merged with Health. Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, will chair that committee.

In the Senate, all 21 GOP members will either chair a committee or are in leadership.

Some of the other notable Senate committee changes include: *Sen. John Jagler, R-Watertown, will chair Education. He replaces Darling, of River Hills.

*Sen.-elect Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, will chair Health. Pat Testin, of Stevens Point, chaired that committee this session. He was appointed to the Joint Finance Committee and will chair Labor, Regulatory Reform, Veterans & Military Affairs.

*Sen.-elect Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, will chair Universities & Revenue. Sen. Roger Roth, who ran for lieutenant governor, chaired the Universities and Technical Colleges Committee this session.

*Sen.-elect Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, will chair Transportation & Local Government. Sen. Jerry Petrowski, who didn’t seek reelection this fall and will be replaced by Tomczyk, chaired the Transportation and Local Government Committee this session.

More significant for many at the Capitol is the lineup on the Joint Finance Committee, the 16-member GOPrun panel that will do the heavy lifting in revising Gov. Tony Evers’s two-year budget plan to be presented to the Legislature in mid-February.

LeMahieu has appointed Testin and Wimberger to his caucus’ two vacant posts on the JFC.

They fill the slots of GOP Sens. Kathy Bernier, of Chippewa Falls, and Dale Kooyenga, of Brookfield. They didn’t seek reelection this fall.

LeMahieu also formally announced he has reappointed Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, as Senate co-chair along with three existing members of the committee: Duey Stroebel, of Saukville; Mary Felzkowski, of Irma; and Joan Ballweg, of Markesan.

Stroebel will serve as the Senate vice-chair. And Kelda Roys, of Madison, and LaTonya Johnson, of Milwaukee, will serve as the Senate Democrats on the panel.

On the Assembly side of JFC: --For the GOP, Mark Born, of Beaver Dam, is cochair, and Rep. Terry Katsma, of Oostburg, is vicechair, plus Alex Dallman, of Green Lake; Tony Kurtz, of Wonewoc; Jessie Rodriguez, of Oak Creek; and Shannon Zimmerman, of River Falls.

--The two Assembly Dems are: Evan Goyke, of Milwaukee, a returning member, and Tip McGuire, of Kenosha, a new member.

For more, go to www.wispolitics.com The Capitol Report is written by the editorial staff at WisPolitics.com, a nonpartisan, Madison-based news service that specializes in coverage of government and politics, and is distributed for publication by members of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Copyright © WisPolitics.com