MADISON, Wis. — The start of a new four-year term for Gov. Tony Evers means he once again has to make his case to the state Senate to approve his cabinet appointees, something senators rarely did during his first term in office.
The Senate Democratic leader is optimistic, however, that more of the Evers cabinet secretaries may come to a vote this term.
“It doesn’t mean necessarily that everyone’s going to get confirmed, but it does sound like folks are going to have committee hearings,” Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, said. “I anticipate that some people will be voted down, but that will give the governor the opportunity to go back to the drawing board.”
She said that even a rejected confirmation vote by the Senate lets the governor put a new name forward that might have a better chance in the Republican-controlled chamber.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, did not say, though, that there were any nominees from the governor he is ruling out right now.
“We will treat the appointments with due process,” LeMahieu said in a Tuesday news conference. “We will send them to the oversight committees, they will vet all the appointees and we’ll take a look at each one separately.”
By the end of his first term, close to half of Evers’ cabinet secretaries remained unconfirmed. While that largely did not affect their ability to lead state agencies, it kept the secretary-designees in a limbo that allowed the Senate to fire them on demand by rejecting their confirmation with a simple majority vote.
Once confirmed by the Senate, a cabinet secretary would need to be impeached to be removed by the Legislature. Republicans would need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to do so without any Democratic support — a feat they are close to achieving. If Republicans win an open seat that is on the ballot this April, they capture that supermajority.
“It is vitally important that we win that seat,” Agard said, “because not only will we have the governor’s back when it comes to his ability to veto bills in the state of Wisconsin, but it also has a direct impact on impeachment powers for the Legislature in Wisconsin.”
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