(C) Wisconsin Watch

(C) Wisconsin Watch
This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .

Dems: Remove Wisconsin election official for voting comments [1]

['Harm Venhuizen', 'Associated Press', 'More Harm Venhuizen', 'Report For America Corps Member', 'Wisconsin Watch']

Date: 2023-01-18 22:35:25+00:00

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

A Wisconsin election official who came under fire for comments he made about minority turnout in Milwaukee said Wednesday he hasn’t spoken with the Republican leader of the state Senate who appointed him, even as Democratic lawmakers called for his removal from the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Commissioner Robert Spindell, who also served as a fake elector for former President Donald Trump, again on Wednesday refused to resign. Spindell was first appointed in 2019 by former Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu reappointed him in 2021 for a term that expires in May 2026.

Spindell has been under pressure after he publicly applauded GOP tactics in Milwaukee during the 2022 midterm, crediting them with depressing turnout from Black and Hispanic voters.

Ten of the 11 Democratic members of the Senate signed onto a statement Wednesday asking LeMahieu to rescind his appointment of Spindell. Democratic Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Mark Thomsen, along with multiple Milwaukee-based community organizers and voting rights groups, have also called on Spindell to resign.

Spindell told The Associated Press Wednesday he hasn’t spoken with LeMahieu since his comments became public a week ago. LeMahieu has declined on several occasions to comment and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson said the senator was unavailable.

“Remove this man,” Democratic Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who is Black and from Milwaukee, said at a news conference. “There’s nothing that can be said, there’s no apology. Even when he tried to clarify his comments, he made them worse.”

Spindell has stood by his comments. He accused Democrats of taking his comments out of context and claimed he was touting positive efforts by the GOP to counter liberal messaging in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee. High turnout there is crucial to Democratic victories in statewide races.

“They need to look at their own situation to see why they weren’t able to get a very good turnout,” he said.

Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys said Democrats’ request Wednesday was a chance for LeMahieu to prove he was sincere in suggesting that he wants to do more to work across the aisle during the new legislative session. But Republican lawmakers already have rejected a petition from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to put a nonbinding abortion referendum on the ballot.

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Close window X Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site. You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules. Credit should be given, in this format: “By Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin Watch”

If published online, you must include the links and link to wisconsinwatch.org

If you share the story on social media, please mention @wisconsinwatch ( Twitter Facebook and Instagram

Don’t sell the story — it may not be marketed as an individual product.

Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.

Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.

Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.

Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use.

If we send you a request to change or remove Wisconsin Watch content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately. You are welcome to republish our articles forusing the following ground rules. For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Andy Hall, executive director, at [email protected] Dems: Remove Wisconsin election official for voting comments <h1>Dems: Remove Wisconsin election official for voting comments</h1> by Harm Venhuizen / Associated Press, Wisconsin Watch January 18, 2023 A Wisconsin election official who came under fire for comments he made about minority turnout in Milwaukee said Wednesday he hasn't spoken with the Republican leader of the state Senate who appointed him, even as Democratic lawmakers called for his removal from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Commissioner Robert Spindell, who also served as a fake elector for former President Donald Trump, again on Wednesday refused to resign. Spindell was first appointed in 2019 by former Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu reappointed him in 2021 for a term that expires in May 2026. Spindell has been under pressure after he publicly applauded GOP tactics in Milwaukee during the 2022 midterm, crediting them with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-milwaukee-wisconsin-e980c3ada22f58799ee8dd818db46a4a">depressing turnout</a> from Black and Hispanic voters. Ten of the 11 Democratic members of the Senate signed onto a statement Wednesday asking LeMahieu to rescind his appointment of Spindell. Democratic Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Mark Thomsen, along with multiple Milwaukee-based community organizers and voting rights groups, have also called on Spindell to resign. Spindell told The Associated Press Wednesday he hasn't spoken with LeMahieu since his comments became public a week ago. LeMahieu has declined on several occasions to comment and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson said the senator was unavailable. “Remove this man,” Democratic Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who is Black and from Milwaukee, said at a news conference. “There’s nothing that can be said, there’s no apology. Even when he tried to clarify his comments, he made them worse.” Spindell has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milwaukee-2020-united-states-presidential-election-wisconsin-us-republican-party-0739fbecad773256307344f30d675352">stood by his comments</a>. He accused Democrats of taking his comments out of context and claimed he was touting positive efforts by the GOP to counter liberal messaging in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee. High turnout there is crucial to Democratic victories in statewide races. “They need to look at their own situation to see why they weren't able to get a very good turnout,” he said. Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys said Democrats' request Wednesday was a chance for LeMahieu to prove he was sincere in suggesting that he wants to do more to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-covid-madison-tony-evers-e23a0a0400d5a40781772fdced1d2faa">work across the aisle</a> during the new legislative session. But Republican lawmakers already have rejected a petition from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to put a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-politics-tony-evers-wisconsin-8c284d735f32c642ed97554f83ccf5ab">nonbinding abortion referendum</a> on the ballot. This <a target="_blank" href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/01/dems-remove-wisconsin-election-official-for-voting-comments/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://wisconsinwatch.org">Wisconsin Watch</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-WCIJ_IconOnly_FullColor_RGB-1.png?fit=150%2C150&quality=100&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://wisconsinwatch.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=1275819&ga=UA-17896820-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/01/dems-remove-wisconsin-election-official-for-voting-comments/

Published and (C) by Wisconsin Watch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 Intl.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/wisconsinwatch/