>> A powerful figure in the state legislature is not
seeking reelection after 22 years representing his
Racine County district and 13 years leading the
Assembly, Republican Speaker Robin Vos said late
this week he is retiring from office. The Vos
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 more on. Hi, Zach.
>> Hello, Fred. >> So describe just how
powerful Speaker Vos 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 foes. Vos Vos
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're
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're 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.
Vos said he had a mild heart attack last fall. He
certainly is. He said he's going to continue to
campaign. He certainly set up a machine within the
Republican Party to win those seats, even when
they're facing into headwinds, so I wouldn't
count that out. It's a lot about optics, though.
Democrats are going to campaign and say they've
got momentum because of this. And certainly the
idea of what the Assembly will look like in the
future without Robin Vos, no matter who is in charge,
means there's 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 they had those same seats
that they had two years ago. And 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 they won ten, 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 Vos 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
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 expansion to give one year
postpartum coverage to to new mothers. I thought Vos
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 opposed Medicaid
expansion. However, the people that were lined up
the Republicans out front to announce they'd reached
a compromise were those very vulnerable Assembly
Republicans running to protect that majority for
next year. It wasn't a coincidence that they were
ones to announce that that bill was going to pass. And
in the end, Vos voted for in the end, Vos voted for