Two Republicans who have been subpoenaed by Congress for their role in posing as fake electors met with Kleefisch and Nicholson campaigns.

MADISON, Wis. – Top Republicans associated with Rebecca Kleefisch and Kevin Nicholson’s campaigns met in secret at the state Capitol as part of their plot to overturn the 2020 election and hired armed security to protect themselves as they carried out their plan.

The group, who posed as fake electors in an attempt to overthrow the will of the people, is tied very closely to Kleefisch and Nicholson. Bill Feehan, who detailed this plot on a podcast, serves on an advisory board for Kleefisch’s campaign; Darryl Carlson serves as the executive director of Kevin Nicholson’s political group; former GOP state party chair Andrew Hitt has donated thousands to Kleefisch’s campaign for governor and was previously announced as the chair of Adam Jarchow’s campaign for attorney general; and Kelly Ruh, a Republican activist, served as a key advisor of Kleefisch as a member of the leadership board of the 1848 Project. Hitt and Ruh have been subpoenaed by Congress for their role in posing as fake electors.

Wisconsin Republicans will do anything to win an election, even if it means undermining the Constitution and plotting a coup. It goes all the way to the top — even Assembly Speaker Robin Vos asked the state’s Legislative Reference Bureau if it was possible to send in different presidential electors.

A Republican governorship would be extremely dangerous to our democracy. Kleefisch has supported attempts to make it more difficult for eligible voters to participate in elections and suggested that she would be open to allowing the legislature to overturn the results of a statewide election.

Read more about the Republicans’ coup attempt below.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors met in a 'secret location,' brought armed security with them, one member says

Wisconsin Republicans who posed as presidential electors in 2020 met secretly for an hour before filling out official-looking paperwork at the state Capitol and were accompanied by armed security, according to one of the participants.

The account — given a year ago in a podcast by would-be elector Bill Feehan — provides one of the most detailed descriptions yet of a meeting that is now being scrutinized by federal prosecutors and the U.S. House committee investigating last year’s riot at the U.S. Capitol.

"I left my home a little after 8 o'clock and drove to a secret meeting place in Madison and met all the other electors there. There was security — armed security — to protect us. And other officials from the Republican Party of Wisconsin were there," Feehan said in a podcast that was posted online a month after the meeting.

“It’s all super secret for security reasons, so we met in a secret location. We waited for almost an hour before they took us to the state Capitol."

Republicans viewed secrecy for the meeting in Wisconsin and other states as important, according to legal memos for Donald Trump's campaign that were made public Wednesday by the New York Times.

"It might be preferable for them to meet in private, if possible, to thwart the ability of protesters to disrupt the event," attorney Kenneth Chesebro wrote in a Dec. 9, 2020 memo.

The memo, like one written three weeks earlier, was directed to James Troupis, the former Dane County judge who oversaw Trump's legal operation in Wisconsin as he pursued recounts and legal challenges to Joe Biden's victory in the state.

The memos made the case for Republicans to meet as electors in states Trump had lost in hopes that courts or Congress would ultimately give Trump a second term.

Republicans in seven states held such meetings.

[...]

In response to a lawsuit brought by Troupis, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court ruled against Trump an hour before the Electoral College met. Wisconsin's Republicans met as electors even though the court had found the state's 10 electoral votes belonged to Biden.

The decision was 4-3, with Republican-backed Justice Brian Hagedorn joining the court's three liberals.

"The mood was one of excitement up until we heard the result of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court's ruling," Feehan said on his podcast, "Fact Check with Bill Feehan."

[...]

Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, downplayed the secrecy surrounding the event. She noted that three days before the meeting Troupis included a footnote in a filing to the state Supreme Court that said the Republicans planned to gather as electors.

"If one of the electors discusses the process in a podcast, by definition, it’s not all that secretive," Kelly said by email.

She said the "secret location" Feehan mentioned was the state Republican Party's headquarters in Madison. They met there beforehand so they could travel to the Capitol together, Kelly said. Troupis did not participate in their meeting, she said.

Feehan and his colleagues now find themselves under a microscope.

In addition to the U.S. Department of Justice review, the state Elections Commission is expected to meet in March to consider a complaint on the issue. The House committee last week subpoenaed two Wisconsin Republicans over the meeting, along with a dozen Republicans from the six other states that hosted similar events.

[...]

The day the Republicans gathered, the Wisconsin Capitol was closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans said at the time they weren’t sure if they could get in the building and planned to hold their meeting on the Capitol grounds if they couldn't get inside.

Feehan did not say how the Republicans got in the Capitol or which room they used. He did not return a phone call on Thursday.

"We had to arrange to be let into the state Capitol, where we had a meeting room reserved, and that’s where we met to cast our ballots in the Electoral College," Feehan said on the podcast.

Rooms were reserved in the Capitol that day on behalf of the state Republican Party by aides to Scott Fitzgerald, who at the time was the majority leader of the state Senate and now is a member of Congress. It’s unclear if the Republicans used one of those rooms or gathered elsewhere in the Capitol.

Feehan did not say in his podcast why the Republicans had armed security. The Capitol Police patrol the Capitol and its grounds.

[...]

After the 2020 election, Feehan teamed up with one-time Trump attorney Sidney Powell to file a lawsuit based on a far-fetched theory that voting machines were hacked. A federal judge threw out the suit days before Feehan and the others claimed to be electors.

Feehan is the chairman of the La Crosse County Republican Party and serves on an advisory board for the campaign of former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who is running for governor.

Another one of the Republicans who claimed to be an elector, Darryl Carlson, serves as the director of No Better Friend Corp., a political group established by Kleefisch’s primary opponent, Kevin Nicholson.

Last month two others in the group were subpoenaed by the House committee exploring the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They are Andrew Hitt, an attorney who was chairman of the state party at the time of the meeting, and Kelly Ruh, a De Pere city council member and chairwoman of the 8th Congressional District Republican Party.

[...]

Ruh served on an advisory board for the 1848 Project, a political group launched by Kleefisch before she announced her bid for governor. Mary Buestrin, another one of the Republican would-be electors, also served on that board.

[...]

Two days before the January 6th Insurrection, Johnson met with Trump officials and other conspiracy theorists to try to make up cases of voter fraud that did not exist.

MADISON, Wis. – A new report shows that Senator Ron Johnson was more involved in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results than was previously known. On January 4th, 2021, two days before Ron Johnson planned to delay the presidential election certification, Johnson met with Trump officials and other conspiracy theorists to try to make up cases of voter fraud that did not exist.

“Instead of protecting U.S. democracy and Wisconsinites’ constitutional right to vote, Ron Johnson met behind closed doors with political allies to push his self-serving agenda. Wisconsinites have seen time and time again that when it matters the most, Ron Johnson is only concerned with himself and not what is best for the state and country,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Senate Communications Advisor Philip Shulman.

Read more below.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson participated in a Jan. 4, 2021, session at a Trump hotel on the potential delay of the election certification

Ron Johnson was one of three Republican U.S. senators to attend a Jan. 4, 2021, meeting convened by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell as loyalists to then-President Donald Trump sought to gather information and rally support to delay certification of President Joe Biden's election victory.

[...]

The Post reported: "What the senators heard from a handful of presenters were some of the most fantastical claims among those alleging that the election had been stolen — including, according to Cramer, that the 2020 vote had been influenced by foreign powers and that proper investigation required gaining access to voting machines around the country."

The meeting came two days before the Jan. 6 insurrection, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Congress reconvened and certified the election results. Johnson was among those who voted in favor of certification, after first indicating that he planned to join with 10 other Republican senators in objecting to the certification.

On Dec. 16, 2020, Johnson, then head of the U.S. Senate's homeland security committee, held a hearing on the election.

"The senator’s hearing was part of what should be ongoing congressional oversight meant to transparently address that problem," a Johnson spokesperson said. "Following the hearing, he and his staff continued to gather information and consider allegations, that is why he joined the meeting.

In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Lindell said: "I called the meeting, a few people came in and did a presentation on what they had for election fraud. And that was it."

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell speaks before President Donald Trump's campaign appearance Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, at the La Crosse County Fairgrounds in West Salem.

Lindell, who has pushed false conspiracies about the 2020 election, said he never spoke individually with Johnson but praised him.

"Ron Johnson cares about Wisconsin, cares about the United States and cares about our future," Lindell said.

Asked whether he considered Johnson to be an ally, Lindell said:

"I believe he is an ally of the American people. Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, he is for the people and wants to have fair elections going forward."

The Post also reported the existence of a Dec. 18, 2020, memo circulated by Trump allies that advocated using data from the National Security Agency and Defense Department in an effort to show foreign interference in the election.

Johnson's office was among those to receive the memo, the Post reported.

"Staff received the memo on January 13 and took no further action," a Johnson spokesperson said. "The request from the Washington Post was the senator’s first knowledge of this memo, he has not seen it."

[...]

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/union-workers-s5.jpgDemocratic Candidate for Senate wants to Raise Wages and Put More Money Back in Working People’s Pockets

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/vote-47-mb5-s5.jpgPriorities also announced record-breaking fundraising totals, positioning the organization to invest early in key states.

MADISON, Wis. — Ron Johnson had another busy week on the campaign trail convincing Wisconsin voters that he’s in Washington to serve himself. Johnson told Wisconsin voters:

• It isn't "society's responsibility to take care of other people's children." But Johnson had no problem changing the 2017 tax bill in a way that benefitted himself and his richest donors. His own multi-million dollar fortune has roughly doubled while he’s been in office.
• Claimed once again that Social Security is a “ponzi scheme,” falsely saying that the trust fund, which is worth trillions of dollars, has “no value.”
• Held a dangerous disinformation event about the safety of the COVID vaccine.

“Ron Johnson worked overtime to deliver massive tax breaks that benefited him and his biggest donors but thinks that Wisconsin children and senior citizens should be left to fend for themselves. It’s clear that Ron Johnson is in Washington to enrich himself and prioritize his self-serving agenda,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Senate Communications Advisor Philip Shulman.

MADISON, Wis. — Following Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to direct taxpayer dollars back to Wisconsin families now, Rebecca Kleefisch came out against the tax credits, saying she was “disappointed” in the plan. Thanks to Gov. Evers’ leadership, Wisconsin has a projected record-breaking $3.8 billion budget surplus — and Wisconsinites have still received a 15% tax break.

While Gov. Evers has proposed giving a portion of the surplus back to Wisconsinites now, Republican leaders have indicated they’re going to wait over a year to return taxpayers’ money — essentially holding it hostage until someone from their political party is in power.

Here’s what’s in the plan Kleefisch calls a “non-starter”:

• $150 tax rebate for every Wisconsin tax filer and each of their dependents
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Credit, giving an average of $274 back to more than 100,000 Wisconsinites
• Create a new $100 million Caregiver Tax Credit, benefiting approximately 370,000 tax filers
• Nearly $750 million to improve education quality while keeping property taxes down

Kleefisch couldn’t explain why she’s opposing this common-sense plan to return money to working families. Kleefisch supported a tax rebate in 2018, when Wisconsin’s finances and economy were in a much weaker position. At the end of the 2018 fiscal year, Wisconsin’s budget surplus was only $588 million and the state’s rainy day fund only had enough to keep state government running for nearly seven days. Thanks to Gov. Evers’ leadership, Wisconsin now has a rainy day fund that’s five times larger, the lowest unemployment rate in state history, and a record budget surplus.

Today, Wisconsin families are also facing rising costs, and with this unprecedented budget surplus, we have an opportunity to return this money back where it belongs, in the pockets of Wisconsinites.

”It doesn’t matter what the issue is, if it doesn’t help Rebecca Kleefisch’s political campaign, she won’t support it — even if it means returning taxpayer dollars to working families,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Iris Riis. “While Wisconsin’s economy is miles ahead of the rest of the nation, families are still struggling with rising costs — that’s why it’s so important to direct the unexpected surplus money to taxpayers right now. Governor Tony Evers knows that the right thing to do is to invest this budget surplus back into the economy and directly into Wisconsinites’ pockets.”

Democratic Governors Association expresses dislike.

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, failed Republican Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson announced his candidacy for governor of Wisconsin.

Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Noam Lee released the following statement:

“Kevin Nicholson wants to slash programs for Wisconsin working families while giving handouts to his wealthy friends. Nicholson supported the GOP’s disastrous tax cuts for the rich and big corporations — meanwhile, he backed efforts to strip health care coverage from hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites and went on the attack against Social Security.

“Nicholson is an extremist who has supported bans on abortion that provide no exceptions, even if the mother’s life is in danger. He has already signaled a divisive primary ahead, attacking Rebecca Kleefisch’s proposals for being ‘dumb as a bag of hammers.’ Nicholson’s entrance to the GOP primary will trigger a brutal, expensive race to the right where candidates duke it out over who’s most out-of-touch with Wisconsin values.”

http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/ron-johnson-dc-2022-s5.png“I don’t understand the disinformation – it’s impacting our economy as well as community members,” says Dr. Milosavljevic.

Republican Assembly Speaker, worried about Kleefisch’s chances in tough primary, tells Nicholson not to run for Governor.

Yesterday, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos got involved in ongoing infighting by demanding that Kevin Nicholson not run against Rebecca Kleefisch in the GOP primary for governor. 

“If Kevin Nicholson is listening — you need to not run for governor,” Vos said. “​​I think if he runs, it hurts our chances to defeat Gov. Evers.”

Nicholson quickly fired back, tweeting, “Thanks, @repvos, for the political advice … How about you focus on doing your job?”

This head-butting comes just two days after Nicholson slammed the Republican “political class.” Kleefisch has been an early favorite of GOP insiders, including Vos, but concerns are clearly high that she might not make it out of a competitive primary.

Even with Nicholson not officially in the race, he and Kleefisch have been going at it for months. When Kleefisch suggested she wants to use voting rights protections to win the election, then strip them away, Nicholson called her proposal “as dumb as a bag of hammers.”

“The GOP is too busy fighting each other to put forth any candidate that Wisconsinites can actually get behind,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Party insiders are clearly worried a competitive primary could destroy Kleefisch and drag whatever nominee that makes it through too far to the right to survive the general. The divisive Wisconsin GOP primary is just getting started, and it looks like none of the Republican hopefuls will emerge unscathed.”

MADISON, Wis. - This month, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will report ending 2021 with approximately $6 million cash-on-hand across state and federal accounts, an impressive show of Democratic energy and enthusiasm heading into the election year.

Tuesday’s report came following the announcement that Gov. Evers ended the year with $10.5 million in the bank after having raised more than $5 million in the second half of 2021 – the most ever raised by any Wisconsin governor in the year prior to an election. Gov. Evers’ record-breaking cash-on-hand total is twice as much as what Scott Walker had on hand at this point in both 2014 and 2018 ahead of his re-election campaigns and significantly more than his challenger, Rebecca Kleefisch.

Also this week, Attorney General Josh Kaul reported ending 2021 with more than $1 million on hand – crushing the two declared Republican candidates, who are currently mired in a messy and bitter primary fight. Attorney General Kaul reported having 26 times more on hand than his closest opponent.

“This November, we’re re-electing Gov. Evers and Attorney General Kaul and defeating Ron Johnson – and we’ll have the resources to do it,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin interim executive director Devin Remiker. “These totals reflect a grassroots enthusiasm for electing Democrats and continuing our work towards a more fair, more prosperous Wisconsin. Voters know that Democrats are the party of families, working people and progress, and this tremendous show of support means we can do the work of telling our story, organizing everywhere and protecting the freedom of every Wisconsinite to vote.”