{"id":185,"date":"2018-02-26T10:27:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T15:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=185"},"modified":"2018-03-01T14:27:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T19:27:27","slug":"wisconsin-governor-scott-walker-sued-for-not-calling-special-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=185","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker sued for not calling special elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FEBRUARY 26, 2018<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dan Whitcomb<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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(Reuters) – An pro-Democratic redistricting group headed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sued Wisconsin\u2019s Republican governor, Scott Walker, on Monday for declining to hold special elections for two vacant seats in the state legislature.<\/p>\n

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FILE PHOTO: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 23, 2017. REUTERS\/Joshua Roberts<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee alleged in the lawsuit filed in Dane County Circuit Court that Walker was violating the law and denying Wisconsin voters representation by leaving the elected offices unfilled until 2019.<\/p>\n

The seats, one in the state Assembly and the other in the state Senate, became vacant in December when two Republican lawmakers resigned to accept jobs in Walker\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Democrats quickly called for special elections, hoping to pick up seats, but Walker demurred. Last month, a Democrat won a special election for another Wisconsin state Senate seat that Republicans had held for 17 years. Republicans control both state legislative chambers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Scott Walker\u2019s refusal to hold special elections is an affront to representative democracy,\u201d Holder, who served as attorney general under former Democratic President Barack Obama, said in a statement issued with the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cForcing citizens to go more than a year without representation in the state legislature is a plain violation of their rights and we\u2019re hopeful the court will act quickly to order the governor to hold elections,\u201d Holder said.<\/p>\n

Representatives for Walker, a Republican first elected in 2010 who has been a leading antagonist of Democrats on labor law and other hot-button issues, could not be reached for comment on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Walker, Amy Hasenberg, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his decision to wait to fill the seats was consistent with the law, more practical and a way to save money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis D.C.-based special interest group wants to force Wisconsin taxpayers to waste money,\u201d Hasenberg told the newspaper. \u201cThe Legislature will be adjourned for 2018 before these seats could be filled in special elections, and staff in these offices are working for constituents until new leaders are elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which bills itself as an anti-gerrymandering group, seeks to position Democrats favorably for the round of redistricting following the 2020 census, according to the election information website Ballotpedia.<\/p>\n

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Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Our Standards:<\/span>The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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FEBRUARY 26, 2018 Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) – An pro-Democratic redistricting group headed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sued Wisconsin\u2019s Republican governor, Scott Walker,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_14-26-19.jpg?fit=694%2C479&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-2Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=393","url_meta":{"origin":185,"position":0},"title":"Bannon sold Cambridge Analytica stake, fined for late ethics report","author":"Donnie","date":"February 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The former White House chief strategist has been causing a stir since his departure from the Trump administration. 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