>> We leave it there. Bridgette Krause, thanks
very much. >> Thank you.
>> The state Senate adjourned this week, but
not before passing bipartisan bills to release
more than $125 million for PFAs cleanup protections
and help for communities poisoned by the forever
chemical. After years of impasse, the measures now
head to the governor for signing in. Related news,
tonight we share a new on air program and podcast
from W, r and PBS Wisconsin News. Inside Wisconsin
Politics is a weekly political roundtable that
brings together our most experienced Capitol
reporters to share the week's political and
government news, explaining what happened, what it
means and why it matters. PBS Wisconsin senior
political reporter Zac Schultz w p r Capitol
Bureau Chief Shawn Johnson and w r political reporters
Rich Kramer and Anna Van Wagtendonk joined The
conversation. Today's program included the
breaking news that the Republican state Senate
majority leader will not run for reelection. The
crew unpacked whether the governor will sign the
online sports betting bill passed out of the chamber,
the approval of money for the UW to offset name,
image and likeness costs of athletes and data centers,
and how the politics of the final regular Senate
session played into it all. Here's an excerpt.
>> The Wisconsin Senate wraps up its regular
business for 2026. What passed, what didn't, and
what can we learn from the way this Senate voted? This
is inside Wisconsin politics.
The Senate gave us lots to talk about, including as
we're getting ready to record news that the Senate
majority leader, Devin LeMahiue, is not going to
seek reelection, which in the world of the state
Capitol, as you all know, that is a pretty big deal.
Zac, what can we take from that, given the way that
the Senate has been acting this week? And how big a
deal is it in the Capitol? >> Well, it certainly felt
like a week of voting where people weren't worried
the next term. There were questions of whether that
signaled LeMahiue knew that his majority position was
at stake. As Republicans are worried about having
the Dems flip the Senate. But I think the bigger
picture to look here is we're going to have a new
majority leader in the Senate, a new speaker in
the Assembly and a new governor. And the last time
that happened was 2011 with Scott Walker and the Fitz's
running the show. Big changes that time. We might
see big changes next session, too.
>> A wave election. And there's people, of course,
every every election is nationalized right now. And
there have already been people talking about
nationalized democratic you know, that Capitol
building and you know how much sway leaders carry,
how big of a deal is it to you that Devin LeMahiue,
the leader that you've covered in that Senate
since you've been here is stepping down?
that came forward where there was a real question
of whether Devin would let them get to the floor,
because he did not have Republican votes. And so
there were kind of threats being floated about what
that would mean for his leadership position. And
those bills passed with necessary Democratic votes
in order to pass. And so then him stepping down, it
really is this kind of signal that he whatever
kind of consequences might have come in the caucus, he
doesn't have to worry about them anymore.
>> And Rich, you were covering the session this
week and that question of whether or not to get
Democratic votes is talking about. And, you
know, the Senate Senator LeMahiue even had some kind
of not so veiled threats thrown out from a member of
his own caucus. Don't do that. Basically, how
unusual was this session week in terms of
bipartisanship? Frankly. >> Things are changing
there. It feels like things are changing in the Senate.
They used to have a supermajority not that long
ago. Then we got new maps after the Wisconsin Supreme
Court's Liberal majority struck down ones that were
drawn by Republicans back in 2011. And then we had an
election under those maps. So that supermajority went
down to 18 Republican senators. And that threat
goes to this thing called the the rule of 17. It's an
informal rule, but the idea is that if you're in the
majority, you pass bills with majority support. You
don't even really consider them if you don't have
those 17 votes. But we saw examples where Devin
LeMahiue went ahead and passed them anyway with
Democratic support. >> So let's unpack a couple
of the bills where this did end up being a factor this
week. And one of the bills that did die was this
Republican data center bill would regulate data centers.
Speaker Vos very helpfully had a forum on the last day
of Senate session where he had some opinions about the
Senate not taking up his data center bill. Ana what
did he have to say? >> Yeah, I mean, this was
basically the closest that the legislature came to
having any type of regulatory bill for data
centers, which of course, are kind of exploding
across the state. And the fact that it is that it did
not reach the floor of the Senate means that the
session has passed without basically any guardrails,
any new guardrails coming on. But this was a
Republican bill Vos championed it. It had a few
Democratic votes in the Assembly, but most
Democrats said this is rushed. We need to be more
thoughtful about how we are regulating data centers.
And then the Senate didn't even bring it to the floor.
But Vos talked about, you know, that really being as
he thought, an issue for Senate Republicans, that if
they don't kind of lead on this issue, that it might
cost them votes in November. >> Yeah. It's rare to hear
a speaker come out against a majority leader from his
own party the week that he's still in session with
that kind of criticism. I think sort of the secret
was sort of out on Tuesday. I mean, we didn't know know
that Devin LeMahiue was not going to seek reelection,
but there was talk about it. There was speculation about
it. People are looking at the Senate math and they're
thinking about it. >> Well, it changes a lot
when no one has to worry about reelection next year.
And Serve Wisconsin LeMahiue can all speak in
ways that we have not heard or we have not heard them
speak publicly. We've heard them off the record or
heard from their staffers. But I think this bill in
particular still has the next election cycle written
all over it, as Vos pointed out, because it's a major
issue in the gubernatorial campaign. I think if
LeMahiue had a strong point of view, he would have
brought up the floor and let Democrats help pass it
if he thought that was the way to go. But there's not
a clear advantage at this a clear advantage at this