Everyone had figured out what Walker was up to. Fearful that special elections might see Democrats elected in Wisconsin’s historically Republican first State Senate district and its 42nd State Assembly district, Walker had simply refused to call the elections after the seats went vacant last year. The judge said last week that the governor was flat wrong.
Referring to the arguments made by Walker’s lawyers as “inconsistent, incompatible and irreconcilable,” Dane County Circuit Court Judge Josann Reynolds explained: “To state the obvious, if the plaintiffs have a right to vote for their representatives, they must have an election to do so.”
But the governor and his legislative allies are not giving up, and that has created a chaotic circumstance in Wisconsin.
Walker and Republican leaders in the legislature are still looking for ways to avoid following the existing law. On Tuesday, they announced a plan to rewrite state statutes so that governors would no longer be required to call special elections to fill legislative vacancies “as promptly as possible.” Under the Republican rewrite of the statutes that was unveiled Tuesday, legislative vacancies occurring after early December of odd-numbered years could be left unfilled until the regular November election of the following year.
This legally-dubious attempt to overturn a judge’s order by writing a new law would radically alter rules that have been in place for decades—and in some cases more than a century—for holding prompt special elections. Yet, Republican legislative leaders plan to call an extraordinary special session April 4 to pass the legislation, and Walker says he will sign it immediately. Then, if the special elections have been called by the governor in order to a contempt of court ruling, Walker allies suggest, the governor will then cancel them.
Отсюда
Республиканцы в Висконсине, чтобы не потерять большинство в ассамблее и сенате штата, вместо внеочередных выборов на пустующие места, которые положены по конституции, откладывают выборы до ноября. Судья постановил, что это незаконно, но на то ассамблея и есть законодательный орган, чтобы поменять закон под себя и не терять большинство. А к ноябрю, глядишь, поменяется ситуация и все останется по-прежнему.
На самом деле прецедент УЖЕ есть. Обаме в своё время не дали назначить своего Верховного Судью, просто не став собирать контролируемый республиканцами Сенат для утверждения оного, отложив выборы до нового президента. Президентом стал республиканец Трамп и вместо либерального судьи США получили судью консервативного. Вопреки закону и обычаям. "Я сам решаю что у нас тут закон!"