Over the last few weeks, Wisconsinites got a first-hand look into what a Tony Evers administration might look like. The Daily Kos community has been overwhelmingly supportive of the Governor-Elect’s choices. I am excited about a few of them myself as we transition to the next phase of Wisconsin politics. Wisconsin has only had a handful of Governor’s being that one served from 1987-2001.
Governor-elect Evers has a big decision.
Evers has indicated that he will not resign the office of State Superintendent until he takes the oath office as the next governor. This prevents any appointments that soon to be former Governor Walker might make. tony Evers has decisively won elections in that position in 2009.13 and 17. May activists were concerned that the GOP was going to go after Evers in 2017 but that was his biggest victory yet. Winning with 70% of the vote.
Evers can choose to appoint someone, State supreme court justices, Shirley Abrahamson, David Prosser, Daniel Kelly, and Rebecca Bradley were all appointed by the Governor before they ran statewide themselves. The second choice is to call a special election. Let the voters decide who will replace Evers as State Superintendent.
If he appoints someone. It could be one of the major decisions of his first term. It would give the candidate the power of incumbency. Will he play it safe and call a special election or will he be bold with an appointment.
News on Transition
When I blogged about the members of the Governor-elect’s transition team. There was a comment by a DailyKos user that pointed out the lack of public administration and tax law. In fact, let me put a quote from the user fairmarketman “Most importantly, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of experience in public administration and tax and budget issues in this group. The absence of that knowledge can be a problem for new gubernatorial administrations. Insufficient fiscal and public administrative savvy can lead to slow implementation of new policies”. Before that, the user pointed out that the individuals seemed to be centrists and the lack of ties to certain advocacy groups. Fairmarketman brings up some great points. I usually shy away from putting comments from the last diary in my current diary but fairmarketman brought up some good points. With that Ever’s two new announcements
Ever’s has announced that Aaron Olver will lead the transition personnel recruitment efforts for the upcoming administration. Olver is the Managing Director of University Research Park and former Commerce Secretary under former Governor Jim Doyle. (1) This does bring some public administration experience to what seems to be a team from the private sector.I would like to see who Olver recruits. I can imagine himself being a part of the new administration. Time will tell.
Evers has also announced that Tia Torhorst will be the Deputy Transition Director. Torhorst is Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. She also works for Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. I do believe that the Evers Administration wants to build a bridge with the County Executive. Torhorst ran for the state assembly in 2014 but lost to future State Party Vice Chair David Bowen.
I expect Evers to get more aggressive with appointments after the holidays. I am excited to see who he puts in key positions throughout the state. Even the most shortlived Governors had made key appointments. Anyone remember Scott McCallum’s key appointment of Ashland County District Attorney.
1.
www.dailykos.com/…
www.thewheelerreport.com/…
universityresearchpark.org/…
speakers.wisc.edu/…
milwaukeecourieronline.com/…