A powerful figure in the state legislature is not seeking re-election.
After 22 years representing his Racine County District and 13 years leading the assembly,
Republican Speaker Robin Voss said late this week he is retiring from office.
The Voss announcement comes as Democrats try to flip control in the legislature in upcoming
elections under new voting maps.
Senior political reporter Zach Schultz is at the capitol with Lauren Heisach.
So describe just how powerful Speaker Voss has been in the legislature.
Well he is the longest serving assembly speaker in state history and that did not come without
him learning how to consolidate power within his own party, within his own caucus in the
assembly.
He had a lot of nicknames from both friends and Voss, Voss, the shadow governor.
It was basically known that nothing could become law without him saying yes and signing off
and allowing it to come to the floor in the assembly and he controlled that chamber for
quite a long time.
What does his departure say about how real the potential of November elections might
be for the partisan makeup of the legislature?
Well Democrats certainly see it as a positive sign.
They are definitely proclaiming in all their press releases that this is the sign Republicans
know that this is going to be a Democratic fall and they are going to pick up those five
seats that they need to flip the assembly.
I wouldn't look as far into it as that.
In his announcement he wasn't going to seek reelection of Voss that he had a mild heart
attack last fall.
He said he is going to continue to campaign.
He certainly set up a machine within the Republican party to win those seats even when
they are facing into headwind.
So I wouldn't count that out.
It's a lot about optics though.
Democrats are going to campaign and say they have got momentum because of this and certainly
the idea of what the assembly will look like in the future without Robin Voss no matter
who is in charge means there is a lot of uncertainty coming to the chamber and to the capitol.
How realistic is a flip from Republican to Democratic majority in the assembly and Senate?
Well in the Senate it's two seats that the Democrats need to pick up.
They have their eyes on those and they feel very confident that they've got good candidates
in seats.
They've got some open seats as Republicans are retiring and not choosing to defend some
of those seats.
They're optimistic in that chamber and the assembly it is an uphill climb.
They had those same seats that they had two years ago.
In the Senate side it was seats that weren't up two years ago so they couldn't have done
it.
The assembly Democrats had their chance.
They won 10 but they lost the five.
They needed to flip it.
They've retained candidates.
They've got their eyes on who they want to see targeted.
We all know what those battleground races are going to be.
A lot of it depends on what the wave looks like at the top if there is one one way or
the other.
But down ballot and that's one thing Voss has been known for is insulating his candidates
in those seats so that they don't face some of those political headwinds that may impact
other candidates.
So it is a complete toss up in the assembly.
Meanwhile the assembly was adjourning with a little undone business on the floor including
that deal between the Republicans and the governor over property tax relief.
That could still happen or what do we think?
Well there's always time.
The assembly Republicans say that this is the last time they're going to be in session
that they're taking the rest of the year off to get ready for the campaign.
However there are floor session dates available in March if they want to come back in regular
order and obviously they can always come back in special session or extraordinary session.
This is the kind of deal that could get done on a moment's notice simply because there's
a lot of political incentives going into the fall for both sides to want to figure out
how to spend some of this surplus and campaign on that.
However the two sides are not on the same page right now and they are running out of
their own set deadlines for how long they have.
So who knows?
I wanted to ask you about the bill that passed in both chambers.
That's the Medicaid expansion to give one year postpartum coverage to new mothers.
I thought Faust didn't like that.
Yes he was the lone person standing in the way of that bill becoming law for at least
a couple sessions now.
He told me last December he didn't believe in expanding the welfare state which is why
he exposed Medicaid expansion.
However the people that were lined up the Republicans out front to announce they'd
reached a compromise where those very vulnerable assembly Republicans running to protect that
majority for next year wasn't a coincidence that they were ones to announce that that
bill was going to pass and in the end Voss voted for it on the floor.
Alright.
Well Zach Schultz thanks so much.
Thanks Fred.