MAGA Fascists In Wisconsin Plot Partisan Impeachments To Maintain Their Authoritarian Hold On Wisconsin

Update to Big Win For Defending Democracy And Women’s Reproductive Rights In Wisconsin.

While Democrats continue to win statewide races in Wisconsin, where Republican extreme gerrymandering exists in legislative and congressional districts to maintain a “permanent” Republican majority, Democrats have not broken through, because of continued GQP tribalism. Republican voters have yet to turn against un-American MAGA Fascism. They are about to face a test of their loyalty to American democracy.

The Guardian reports, Wisconsin senate supermajority win gives Republicans impeachment power:

Wisconsin Republicans won a supermajority in the state senate on Tuesday, giving them the necessary votes to impeach statewide officials, including the state’s Democratic governor and potentially state supreme court justices.

Wisconsin Republicans now control 22 of the senate’s 33 seats after Dan Knodl, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin in a special election to represent a district that includes Milwaukee’s northern suburbs. Republicans also control 64 of the state assembly’s 99 districts. The Wisconsin constitution authorizes the state assembly to impeach “all civil officers of this state for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanor” by a majority vote. A two-thirds majority is required in the senate for a conviction.

Republicans got their supermajority on the same night Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state supreme court, giving liberals a majority on the bench when she is seated in August. The new liberal majority could strike down the state’s legislative districts, which were drawn by Republicans and give them a virtually impenetrable majority in the legislature. The court is also expected to strike down the state’s 1849 abortion ban.

It is not clear whether state lawmakers will move forward with impeachment. The assembly has only once before impeached an official – a judge in 1853 who was acquitted, according to the Associated Press. It’s also not clear who qualifies for impeachment, as the constitution does not define who is a “civil officer.”

Knodl, the Republican candidate who won on Tuesday, has said the legislature’s impeachment power would “certainly be tested” if he were elected. He has said he would consider impeaching Protasiewicz, who is currently a circuit court judge in Milwaukee, if she remained on the bench there. He did not say whether he would consider impeaching Protasiewicz as a supreme court justice, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Duey Stroebel, a Republican state senator, told the New York Times that impeaching Protasiewicz over rulings on abortion and electoral maps was not likely “but certainly not impossible.”

“If she truly acts in terms of ignoring our laws and applying her own personal beliefs [as Republican judges have done for decades], then maybe that’s something people will talk about,” he told the Times. “If the rulings are contrary to what [Republicans want our] our state laws and constitution say, I think there could be an issue.”

“We can’t say what the legislature will do or how likely any action is. But for this gerrymandered legislature to take steps toward removing democratically elected officials would be a profound abuse of power,” said Dan Lenz, a lawyer for Law Forward, a progressive non-profit legal group.

Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he thinks the legislature is ready to “play hardball.”

“Republicans, in their majority for the last 12 years, have not been shy about exploring what tools are available to them and trying to push them as far as possible,” he said.

NBC News follows up, A liberal just won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Republicans are already talking about impeaching her.

Janet Protasiewicz may have just won a seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court, flipping the ideological balance of the court to the bench’s liberal bloc for the first time in 15 years.

But if a newly elected Republican state senator gets his way, that could all come crashing down.

In the closing days of his campaign, Republican Assemblyman Dan Knodl, who won that exurban state Senate district outside Milwaukee, said that he would consider impeaching Protasiewicz from her current position as a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

Now, with Protasiewicz’s victory Tuesday, the comments quickly spurred concerns among Democrats in the state that Republicans in the Legislature would make a move against Protasiewicz’s seat in the Supreme Court.

In an interview last week with WISN-TV, Knodl said that a Republican supermajority in the state Senate would give the party “more authority in the areas of oversight and accountability of elected officials and appointed officials.”

“If there are some that are out there that are corrupt, that are failing at their tasks, then we have the opportunity to hold them accountable … up to impeachment,” Knodl said.

“Janet Protasiewicz is a Circuit Court judge right now in Milwaukee, and she has failed,” he continued. Asked whether he “would support impeaching her,” Knodl replied, “I certainly would consider it.”

It remains unclear whether Knodl was referring only to her position on the Milwaukee Circuit Court, or whether he would also consider impeaching her if she won the Supreme Court race.

Spokespersons in Knodl’s state Assembly office and state Senate campaign did not respond to questions from NBC News.

Democrats, however, have expressed concerns that the remarks — as well as similar threats from other state Republicans — foretell a GOP strategy of trying to impeach statewide elected officials, including Protasiewicz, with their new Senate supermajority.

“There’s going to be a supermajority in the state Senate that will allow the legislators in control of the state Senate to do what they were threatening back in November, which is to start impeachment proceedings,” Jodi Habush Sinykin, who lost to Knodl on Tuesday, said in an interview with WISN-TV before the election.

Knodl — one of 15 Wisconsin GOP state lawmakers who urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the 2020 presidential election results — narrowly won election, The Associated Press projected Wednesday morning. The seat had been left vacant after Republican incumbent Alberta Darling retired in November. Because her retirement took place after Election Day, Evers scheduled a special election.

Knodl’s win gave Republicans 22 votes in the Senate — an amount equivalent to a two-thirds majority in the chamber of 33 seats. This affords the party the ability to override vetoes from the governor, if the state Assembly also votes to do so, as well as to convict and remove officials in impeachment trials.

Under the Wisconsin Constitution, the state Assembly can impeach with a simple majority “all civil officers of this state for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court has previously ruled that those civil officers include the governor, lieutenant governor and judges.

Note that the Constitution does not provide for impeachment for policy differences, which is a political question to be decided by the electorate. Knoll, who participated in Trump’s Coup Plot is the one who should be removed from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, along with the other 14 GQP state lawmakers who participated in the Coup Plot.

Republicans currently hold 64 of the 99 seats in the lower chamber. If the Assembly votes to impeach, the Senate can then remove that official from office with a two-thirds majority.

A spokesperson for Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who would have to approve such proceedings in that chamber, did not immediately respond to questions from NBC News. A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Republican Party referred NBC News to recent comments from another GOP state senator who indicated that the Senate would not advance any prospective impeachment proceedings against Protasiewicz.

[T]hroughout her campaign, Protasiewicz made it clear that her positions on many issues — most prominently abortions rights — aligned with those of the Democratic Party. She was endorsed by the Democratic abortion rights group Emily’s List, Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder and several other prominent Democrats.

She faced relentless criticism from Kelly and Republican officials in the state for having so prominently telegraphed her positions [values] on political issues like abortion and the state’s gerrymandered legislative maps, as well as other hot-button topics the state Supreme Court is all but certain to decide in the coming years.