Yuck!
Scott Fitzgerald, a fixture of the Wisconsin state Senate for the last 25 years, announced Tuesday he would seek a higher office in the U.S. House of Representatives.
If you think Jim Sensenbrenner is a stinker, wait until you get a look at Scott Fitzgerald who announced today that he’ll run for Sensenbrenners’ House seat (Wi-05).
Sensenbrenner recently announced that he won’t run for re-election in 2020 and Fitzgerald couldn’t wait to jump in to this heavily gerrymandered (for Republicans) seat. Fitzgerald is so extreme he makes Sensenbrenner look like a liberal.
Fitzgerald has been the State Senate Majority Leader for well over a decade. You may think you don’t know who he is, but I promise that you do.
You’ve heard a lot about Wisconsin during the 2011 uprising. The state was aptly referred to as FitzWalkerStan because of the extremist laws being passed and the harassment of protesters. Yup, you guessed it, Scott Fitzgerald (and his brother Jeff, who was Assembly Majority Leader at the time) was the “Fitz” part. They’re the guys behind “right to work” for less, union busting, refusal to expand Medicaid, stripping money from our schools and university, and a myriad of other evils.
Naturally, he was one of the first supporters of Donald Trump for President.
In his political career, Fitzgerald supported legislation making Wisconsin a right-to-work state, authored a bill to ban partial-birth abortion and pushed for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman only. That amendment, approved by voters in 2006, was later invalidated when courts legalized gay marriage.
He also ushered through a polarizing state budget and bills in 2011 that have fundamentally reshaped Wisconsin for a decade so far, championing Gov. Scott Walker's signature union law known as Act 10 that drew tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol and catapulted Wisconsin to a national spotlight.
And, of course, he was also infamously the author of a series of Lame Duck Laws in 2016 that followed the ousting of Scott Walker and the election of a full slate of Democrats to state office. He called the Legislature into session following the election on a pretext and proceeded to ram those bills through.
The Lame Duck Laws particularly eviscerate the powers of the Governor and State Attorney General.
He’s also gotten away with a whole lot since Republicans have controlled the state government. A good example is his secret gerrymander done in a private building outside of the State Capitol on private computers that were wiped clean after use was illegal. He got away with it and is still reaping the benefits of majority control in the State Legislature and Wisconsins’ Congressional representation. Despite Democrats wining the state and capturing the majority of votes for the Legislature, Republicans still dominate due to that gerrymander.
I know a lot about this district. I live here. It’s been gerrymandered for Republicans for a long time. While it includes Waukesha County, it also pulls in parts of Milwaukee County to prevent a second Democrat from being elected to Congress or have an even fair chance of doing so.
It includes a whole lot of blue collar workers who have a choice of 2 RW radio stations to listen to while on their way to and from work. The local radio hosts blast the propaganda so hard and fast that their listeners actually believe that up is down or that it’s sunny even when the rain is pouring down on their heads. In fact, RW radio is so important to Republicans here that Fitzgeralds announcement was made during AM drive time today on one of those 2 stations.
I never thought I’d say I miss Jim Sensenbrenner, but I might.