Edited tite: Shiiit in WI just got REAL. R senator resigning, leaving senate evenly split

curlydoglover

This shiit just got REAL.  This leaves the senate evenly split.  Galloway was facing recall as well, so now there's no one running against the D candidate.

http://www.jsonline.com/newswatch/142927885.html

Madison - State Sen. Pam Galloway, who faces a recall election this summer, plans to resign from the Senate shortly, leaving an even split between Republicans and Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) confirmed her plans Friday and said he believed Galloway would make an announcement later in the day.

Fitzgerald said Galloway was resigning because of health issues in her family. He said he was confident she could have defeated Rep. Donna Seidel (D-Wausau), who was running against her in the recall election.

 

Apparently Rep. Danou has been quoted as saying "I can't imagine you're not going to stack this board full of hacks and cronies."  HA! 

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/22-hours-in-and-no-end-in-sight-for-assembly-4c4jjkf-142923335.html

Madison - Democrats dragged out debate through the night and into the morning in the state Assembly seeking to block action on a bill overhauling the board of the Milwaukee Area Technical College.

"We're here at six in the morning because you made a decision to stick it to Milwaukee," Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said to Republicans.

Democrats called the changes a power grab, but Republicans had the votes and were holding fast, saying the bill would tighten the connection between the MATC board and business. If passed by the Assembly, the bill would go to Gov. Scott Walker.

The Assembly's last day of the regular session began more than 22 hours ago and has no end in sight. Republicans have dozens of bills they want to get through, but Democrats frustrated their efforts from about 3 a.m. until after 8 a.m. by forcing debate on Democratic proposals.

Now, the Assembly has taken up the MATC bill. Democrats have 70 amendments to it, meaning more hours of debate are likely.

Their hope is to wear Republicans out, so they will give up on the MATC bill, thus killing it.

"I will talk and I will talk and I will talk," said Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber (D-Appleton).

Responded Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha): "We're going to be here till Monday. I get that."

In interviews, Democrats and Republicans showed they were entrenched.

"It doesn't take a genius to see the minority party does not approve of the MATC changes," said Rep. Louis Molepske Jr. (D-Stevens Point). "Neither does MATC or the other technical schools. If the Republicans want to end session, they could easily do it by removing this objectionable bill from the calendar."

That didn't appear likely.

"I've never seen our side give up on something," said Jeff Stone (R-Greendale).

"If we back down, it would be silly," said Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette). "It would give them their victory."

The entire membership of the MATC Board would turn over almost immediately under the proposal, a move that would jeopardize MATC's license for its public television station, according to the college's attorney.

MATC holds the Federal Communications Commission license for Channels 10 and 36, and MATC's governing body is the college's board. At issue is whether replacing all nine board members at the same time would constitute a transfer of control. Federal statute requires FCC approval for transfer of control.

MATC's legal counsel said Thursday that if the bill were to become law, the board turnover would result in a transfer of control. A Legislative Council attorney disagrees, arguing the board would continue to exist and control MATC to the same extent that it does now; it would just have nine new members.

The Journal Sentinel contacted an independent attorney in Washington, D.C., whose practice focuses on regulatory and business issues facing companies in the broadcast industry. She agreed with MATC's attorney.

Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) said he had a statement signed by the chairmen of the Ozaukee and Washington County boards of supervisors, promising they would keep six of the current nine members for the first year if the bill passed and they received appointment authority. Three of the six board members would then be replaced in 2013, and the other three, in 2014, Grothman said.

Under the legislation, the Milwaukee County executive and the county board chairs in Milwaukee, Ozaukee and Waukesha counties would appoint the new MATC board. The bill calls for current members to be replaced within two months. Current MATC board members would not be allowed to serve out their terms, but instead would be removed as soon as their replacement was named, according to a memo from the Legislative Council, a non-partisan agency that provides legal analysis for lawmakers. The term of each newly appointed board member would expire in 2014, 2015 or 2016.

Critics argued at the eleventh hour that it wasn't good public policy to replace an entire board with new members who don't understand the workings of the college.

The measure is a response, in part, to the Milwaukee area business community seeking a stronger partnership between manufacturers and MATC, especially because of the region's high concentration of manufacturing jobs.

The Assembly vote was scheduled after the Senate passed it 17-16 on a party-line vote Tuesday.

FCC rules

An independent attorney contacted by the Journal Sentinel agreed that MATC's public television license could be in jeopardy if the board were overhauled.

Board member names are filed with the FCC when the initial license is obtained and then every other year, as part of a required ownership report, said Sally A. Buckman of Lerman Senter PLLC in Washington. "For a licensee that is governed by a board, when less than a majority of the board members change there is no transfer of control; however a wholesale change, there is a transfer of control," Buckman said.

MATC's FCC legal counsel in Washington D.C., "opined that the removal and replacement of all nine current MATC Board members at one time would constitute a transfer of control of the institution; thus, requiring prior FCC approval of the new board members before they could assume their positions," said Janice Falkenberg, vice president and general counsel for MATC.

"The FCC approval process could take several months depending upon whether any objections were filed," Falkenberg told the Journal Sentinel.

A cursory review of the federal statute by the Legislative Council drew a different conclusion.

"It appears that enactment of (the bill) would not constitute a violation and therefore would not put MATC in jeopardy of losing its television station license," said a Legislative Council memo released Thursday.

While current board members would be removed and replaced, "the MATC Board would continue to exist and would continue to control MATC to the same extent that is does currently," the memo says. "The change effected by (the bill) appears to be analogous to changing the membership of a corporate board of directors, which is a routine practice and does not appear to require FCC approval."

Legislative Council staff contacted the FCC to discuss this issue, but was waiting for a call back.

The bill would not affect the state's other technical college boards.

It would reshape the MATC board to consist of one school administrator, one elected official, two at-large members and five people appointed to represent for-profit businesses or nonprofit medical facilities. At least two of the five would come from manufacturing businesses.

The board now is required to have one school district administrator, one elected official, three at-large members, two employers and two employees.

A committee of 20-plus school board presidents currently appoints MATC board members. If the bill becomes law, board members would be appointed by the committee of four county officials.

Michael Rosen, an economics instructor at MATC and the president of the union representing teachers at the college, dismissed the bill Thursday as unneeded and deceptive.

"It's clear that this was done with some political vendetta in mind," Rosen said. "It's simply about power."

curlydoglover

Also, I'm not sure what the deadline for filing is for the election but, as it stands now, the general is set for May 8th.  If more than 1 GOP candidate files, the primary would be May 8th with the general on June 5th.

Meanwhile the filibuster continues....