Both chambers of the GOP-dominated Wisconsin legislature voted this week to place an advisory referendum on the April 4 ballot asking if “able-bodied, childless adults” should have to “look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits,” a non-binding measure aimed at helping the party in the crucial state Supreme Court race that will also be taking place that day. Badger State voters that day will now also get to decide the fate of a constitutional amendment to allow judges to consider additional factors for bail.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who does not have a veto over these matters, urged the state Senate on Tuesday to approve an advisory referendum asking voters if they wanted to repeal the state’s 1849 abortion ban, an idea Republicans quickly shot down. “Today was about workforce,” state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said mere days after he and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos first proposed their advisory referendum. The Associated Press’ Harm Venhuizen notes that the state “already requires recipients of unemployment benefits to look for jobs.”
LeMahieu said that the non-binding results could, in Venhuizen’s words, “be used to back a push to require some Medicaid recipients to look for work,” but no one is under any illusions that this is about anything other than boosting the GOP’s prospects in the Supreme Court election. While that race will determine whether progressives will have a majority on the state’s highest court for the first time in a long time, this advisory opinion could help Republicans turn out conservative voters who aren’t already motivated by the massive stakes in front of them. (Voters in the 8th Senate District in the Milwaukee suburbs also have an important special election that day where the GOP’s super majority is on the line.)
The legislature also voted to place the proposed constitutional amendment on the April 4 ballot that, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explains, “would allow judges to consider the totality of the circumstances of a defendant, including a person's past criminal record and the need to protect the public from ‘serious harm,’ when setting the monetary amount of bail.”
State law requires two consecutive legislative sessions to approve the same version of amendments before they can go before voters, and it cleared this hurdle last year before advancing again this week. The measure got the support of 10 Democrats in the Assembly on Thursday two days after a pair of Democratic state senators also backed it: One of those senators, Brad Pfaff, was the one Democrat in either chamber to advance the advisory referendum.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow, who is one of the two conservatives running for the Supreme Court, quickly made it clear she was strongly in support of the amendment. Dorow, notably, presided over the high-profile trial where Darrell Brooks was sentenced to life in prison in November for killing six people at the 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade: The amendment, which was first proposed in 2017, became a GOP priority after that tragedy, with supporters highlighting how Brooks had posted a $1,000 bail for a different case two days before.