August in Wisconsin is a time of baseballs, beach balls, cream puffs and cookouts. It’s a month when many people are thinking more about the State Fair than the state government.
But we do have elections in August, and the one on Tuesday will be bigger than most of those held in the dog days of voting.
For the first time in Wisconsin history, two state constitutional amendments will share the Aug. 13 ballot with the fall partisan primaries for congressional, state and county offices. That election also features an unusually high-profile contest for the usually low-profile job of Milwaukee County treasurer.
Constitutional Matters
Both of the constitutional amendments would give lawmakers more control over spending, particularly of federal funds. Republicans say the measures would improve checks and balances, while Democrats see the amendments and their timing as a sneak attack by the GOP-led Legislature on the powers of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
“This is another Republican power grab in a long line,” says Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine.
That line has been well-documented. After Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul were elected in 2018, Republicans stripped them of powers that had been given to their predecessors. Senate Republicans refused to confirm many of Evers’ appointees, a tactic that has allowed the chamber to fire his agriculture secretary and 20 other officials by voting down their nominations months or years into their terms. And when Evers has called special sessions to consider his proposals, GOP leaders have repeatedly gaveled them into immediate adjournment.
Republicans proposed the current amendments in response to the infusion of $5.7 billion in federal funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With few strings attached by Congress, Evers had broad power over how to spend more than $3 billion of that money, using authority that the Legislature had granted to governors in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau.
Evers has directed aid to local governments, businesses and health care providers, while rejecting GOP attempts to add restrictions on abortion, vaccinations and pandemic shutdowns. He vetoed bills to give lawmakers more control over the process, although Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed similar legislation in 2009, when a Democratic-controlled Legislature sought a say in spending billions in federal stimulus funds during the Great Recession.
While other states’ laws vary, conflicts have arisen between governors and lawmakers over how to spend pandemic relief in multiple states, sometimes leading to vetoes and veto overrides, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 2020, New Hampshire’s Democratic-led Legislature even sued Republican Gov. Chris Sununu over the issue, but a judge threw out the lawsuit.
Of the amendments on Tuesday’s ballot, Question 1 would prohibit future Legislatures from again granting governors the kind of spending power they were given in the 1930s, says Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Racine, the measures’ author. Question 2 would require legislative approval to spend federal funds, either through a specific resolution or rules set in advance. Wittke says he thinks the governor still would have power over federal funds if Question 1 passes and Question 2 fails, but Neubauer says that’s not clear.
Wittke says the measures would be “good governance,” regardless of who’s in power. He says constitutional amendments are necessary to avoid partisan gridlock over spending legislation. But at the same time, he says he’s confident that the governor and lawmakers would rise above partisanship and work together for the public benefit if the amendments pass.
Neubauer notes that governors can’t veto legislative resolutions and rules, so the amendments actually would give lawmakers complete power over federal cash. She and a broad coalition of health, environmental and good-government groups fear this would delay emergency aid and hamstring routine funding. Wittke says he doesn’t believe that would happen.
Evers also can’t veto constitutional amendments, the one tool that legislators can use to go over his head and appeal directly to voters. It’s a tool they have rolled out repeatedly, with two amendments on the April 2023 ballot, two on the April 2024 ballot, these two and another one coming in November. That’s the most in 42 years.
But voters have never been asked to weigh in on a constitutional amendment in an August election. Only two statewide referendums of any kind have ever appeared on a fall primary ballot: a binding 1919 measure to raise taxes to pay bonuses to World War 1 veterans and a 1982 advisory vote supporting nuclear arms control. Both were in September, before federal rules on military voting spurred the 2012 move to August primaries. No amendments or other statewide referendums have been decided in the even lower-turnout spring primaries in February (previously March).
Turnout in August primaries has ranged from a low of 14% to the 2022 high of 27%, Wisconsin Elections Commission figures show. Even when the primaries were in September, turnout last topped 30% in 1952.
Neubauer says Republicans manipulated the timing to ensure a vote during a low-turnout election. Wittke says he understood turnout concerns, but the timing depended on when GOP leaders scheduled floor votes.
Although voters have approved 11 of the last 12 amendments that reached the ballot, the “vote no” coalition is spending millions of dollars on a campaign to defeat these two. Conservative groups have mounted a more modest “vote yes” campaign.
County Treasurer Among Key Races
Amendments aside, the main business of Tuesday’s election is to nominate candidates for Congress, the Legislature, district attorney and some county offices. But when all the candidates for a particular office belong to the same party, that party’s primary effectively becomes the final election. That’s the case with elections for Milwaukee County treasurer, Waukesha County DA and a handful of legislative seats.
But what makes the treasurer’s race unusual is that an incumbent is facing a credible challenge from an opponent with roughly comparable levels of funding and endorsements, instead of a long-shot bid from a political unknown or perennial candidate.
Incumbent County Treasurer David Cullen, 64, is seeking his third full term managing the county’s cash flow, investing its funds and collecting delinquent property taxes in the suburbs. His Democratic primary rival is Ted Chisholm, 26, a former political operative and county administrator who is also the son of outgoing Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm.
Cullen, who holds a bachelor’s degree in education from UW-Madison and a law degree from Marquette University, has been an elected official for more than four decades. He served on the Milwaukee School Board from 1983 to 1990, including three years as president, then was elected to the Assembly. After GOP gerrymandering placed his house in a predominantly suburban red district, he ran instead for a County Board seat in 2012. He chaired the board’s Finance Committee before winning a special election for treasurer in 2014.
Ted Chisholm managed Earnell Lucas’ 2018 campaign for sheriff, then dropped out of his religious studies program at Minnesota’s Macalester College to become Lucas’ chief of staff. After Lucas announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, Chisholm returned to political consulting, managed Anna Maria Hodges’ 2022 bid for clerk of courts and became her administrative deputy. He resigned that post to run full-time for treasurer.
Cullen touts his record of earning returns on county investments and collecting taxes, as well as his role in depositing $250,000 of county money in Columbia Savings & Loan, Wisconsin’s only Black-owned bank. Chisholm says he would bring greater transparency to county investments and restructure the office to help delinquent taxpayers keep their homes and get abandoned properties back on the tax rolls.
But a lot of this campaign is about sniping. Cullen says Chisholm lacks a college degree; experience outside his “politically appointed jobs”; and home ownership, meaning he’s never paid the property taxes he would be collecting. “The only thing my opponent brings to the table is his father’s last name,” says Cullen, whose own son succeeded him on the County Board.
Chisholm argues he would be “a more hands-on and engaged leader” than Cullen. The challenger says his county posts gave him responsibility for managing budgets, investing public dollars and supervising more employees than the treasurer’s 10-member staff.
Both candidates are backed by a wide range of current and former public officials and labor unions. Chisholm’s supporters are led by former County Executive Chris Abele — who never finished college, either. Cullen’s backers include U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, who served with him in the Legislature.
Neither of these guys would be treasurer if the state had followed the advice of Cullen’s predecessor, Dan Diliberti, and amended the constitution to allow the county to combine the job with the then-appointed office of controller. Diliberti cited studies showing communities with appointed treasurers earn higher investment returns than those that elect an administrator with no policymaking authority.
Chisholm says he would commission a study on the issue and could support appointing a treasurer if it’s more efficient and cost-effective, although he’s also heard arguments that an elected treasurer is more accountable. Cullen says the 2018 defeat of an amendment to abolish the elected office of state treasurer shows voters want to keep choosing officials like this.
However, electing a county treasurer has led to some bizarre outcomes. In 1988, former Milwaukee Ald. Kevin O’Connor filed for the office, withdrew over a conflict of interest, but stayed on the Democratic primary ballot and beat longtime incumbent Paul McCormack. O’Connor quit after about six months, leaving Deputy Treasurer Frank Pokorny in charge for the rest of what was then a two-year term.
Pokorny and former Municipal Judge John Siefert were part of a five-candidate field in the 1990 Democratic primary. Siefert saved up all his campaign cash for a last-minute television ad promising to hold down property taxes and block a local sales tax – even though the treasurer has no power over levying taxes. Siefert won and used the treasurer’s office as a stepping-stone to return to the Municipal Court bench and eventually a Circuit Court seat, despite complaints that he was “rude, humiliating and intimidating” to people who appeared before him.
Every treasurer since Siefert – Tom Meaux, Dorothy Dean, Diliberti and Cullen – has been a former supervisor, with Meaux and Dean appointed by their colleagues to fill vacancies in the higher-paying post. Earlier this year, County Executive David Crowley vetoed controversial 36% raises for the treasurer, county clerk and register of deeds, leading the board to approve more modest 11.5% increases to about $102,000.
Early voting is already under way for the primaries and the constitutional referendums. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
