(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly is not saying there will never be a vote to impeach the state’s elections chief, but there won’t be a vote anytime soon.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday there’s not enough support among Republicans to call for a vote to oust Meagan Wolfe as Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator.
“We had a brief discussion about it, and we are nowhere near a consensus,” Vos said.
A handful of Republican lawmakers are demanding Vos call for an impeachment vote.
They want Wolfe out for how she handled the 2020 election, and how she has responded to Republican questions about her job performance since then.
Part of the GOP demands include a threat to oust Vos if he doesn’t act.
State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menonomnee Falls, on Monday accused Vos of protecting Wolfe.
“Why is Speaker Vos so committed to safeguarding Wolfe that he is willing to misrepresent the legislature’s authority and the Constitution to retain her in her position? Wolfe has violated the law, not just in the Teigen case ruled upon by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but also in her mismanagement of elections, which could constitute legitimate grounds for her removal under the Constitution,” Brandtjken said.
“We need to move on. The election in 2024 should not be about what occurred in 2020,” Vos said. “I think we need to move forward and talk about the issues that matter to most Wisconsinites. And that is not, for most people, obsessing about Meagan Wolfe.”
Republican lawmakers launched two investigations into how Wolke and the Elections Commission handled ballot drop boxes, indefinitely confined voters, millions spent in the state by the Mark Zuckerberg-backed Center for Tech and Civic Life and dozens of other questions.
Neither of those investigations yielded many answers.
Wisconsin’s senate president has also called for Wolfe’s impeachment, saying she has come close to corrupt conduct in office. That call, too, has stalled.
There was also a vote in the Senate to fire Wolfe, claiming her appointment had run out. Though Senate leaders last month admitted that vote was mostly symbolic.
Vos said he cannot predict what will happen in the future but said he does not see the Assembly taking a vote on Wolfe’s future anytime soon.
