Wisconsin Voting Rights Trial: Ex-GOP Staffer Names Republican Senators Who Cheered Voter Suppression

"The former staffer to a Wisconsin state Republican senator who went public last month with accusations that the state's voter ID law was passed by GOPers looking for a political advantage elaborated on the claims in federal court Monday and identified the previously unnamed legislators he said were gleeful over the law."

Todd Allbaugh, testifying in a case challenging the law, named then-Sens. Mary Lazich, Glenn Grothman, Leah Vukmir and Randy Hopper as being 'giddy' in a 2011 private caucus meeting about passing the bill," (Journal Sentinel), reports Tierney Sneed, TPM. See also Opoien, The Capital Times.

The expected two-week trial, (One Wisconsin Institute v. Nichol (U.S. District Court of the Western District of Wisconsin (Case 15-cv-324)), began today and is expected to focus attention on Republican Party efforts to suppress as many perceived non-Republican voters as possible through a variety of changes to election law, supported by Republicans and only Republicans against unanimous Democratic Party and voting rights activists' opposition.

Though national political chatter often speaks of a crack in Republican Party unity, stopping non-Republican voters from voting is universally acclaimed, and supporting voting suppression is part of the price of admission to Republican politics.

U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson is presiding over the One Wisconsin bench trial.

The Democratic Party remains the party of voting rights, not a particularly popular position in the American political culture.

Earlier this month, Wisconsin's Democratic congressional delegation requested a U.S. DoJ review of the Wisconsin Voter ID law and other voter suppression tactics enacted into law by Wisconsin Republicans since 2011, (Mal Contends).

Wisconsin Voting Rights Plaintiffs Seek to Admit Former Senators' Statements at Trial

Plaintiffs in the federal voting rights case, One Wisconsin Institute v. Nichol (U.S. District Court of the Western District of Wisconsin (Case 15-cv-324)) filed a motion on May 29 to introduce several public statements of two former Wisconsin state senators.

The statements by former State Senator Dale Schultz, and Wisconsin Congressman and former State Senator Glenn Grothman are argued to be relevant to the Voting Rights Act claims made in this case because they establish racial appeals and objectives to suppress voting of ethnic groups, among other objectives demonstrating a racial animus by laws enacted with intent by a legislative body.

Reads one point in the motion:

Plaintiffs seek to introduce a video and transcript (the latter of which is attached as Exhibit 5) of an April 5, 2016 interview in which Rep. Grothman, when asked about the fact that Republicans have not been able to win presidential races in Wisconsin since 1984, said, 'Well, I think Hillary Clinton is about the weakest candidate the Democrats have ever put up and now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well.' (p.3)

Much of the motion is an legal evidentiary argument addressing exceptions to the hearsay rule.

The federal trial is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

The pre-trial motion follows a letter sent by Wisconsin’s Democratic congressional delegation urging the "Justice Department to conduct a review of Wisconsin’s potentially discriminatory voting requirements to determine whether they are consistent with the Voting Rights Act and federal constitutional protections for the right to vote," (Pocan, Press Release) (Mal Contends).

Glenn Grothman: Those Prevented from Voting "really got a problem," their problem

Glenn Grothman has made idiotic statements his trademark.
In 2012, campaigning for Rick Santorum he said
"money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job,
maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday,
ma be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a
so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.”
Grothman made his remarks about women and money
"following Gov. Scott Walker's decision to repeal his state’s equal pay law,
a move that makes it more difficult for victims of wage discrimination
to file lawsuits for lost earnings and back wages,"
reported Aliyah Shahid in the New York Daily News

Simpletons populate any political jurisdiction, but in Wisconsin are over-represented in the state legislature, in which State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend, Wisconsin) has reached the level of the most prominent dolt in Wisconsin's upper house.

From Emma Rollor in Slate Magazine:

If there were an annual award for Zaniest State Legislator of the Year, Glenn Grothman probably wouldn't win, but he'd come close. ... Grothman has spoken out against Martin Luther King Jr. Day and denounced Kwanzaa as a liberal scam. ...

Now, Wisconsin Senate Assistant Majority Leader Grothman is speaking out on behalf of black Wisconsinites again, this time on the issue of voter ID:

Wisconsin Republicans are pushing a bill to end early voting on the weekend. The measure would make it harder for people in the state’s most populous areas to cast a ballot—and it would hit blacks especially hard.

But state Sen. Glenn Grothman, a Republican who is sponsoring a Senate version of the bill, told msnbc it’s already easy enough to vote.

"Between [early voting], mail absentee, and voting the day of election, you know, I mean anybody who can’t vote with all those options, they’ve really got a problem," he said. "I really don’t think they care that much about voting in the first place, right?"

Understandable that Grothman's arguments on voting were not proffered in open court or in briefs by Wisconsin Dept of Justice attorneys in the federal, potentially landmark trial on states' voter ID laws just concluded.

Grothman has made off-the-wall political remarks over his long career in the Wisconsin legislature his trademark.

Glenn Grothman campaigning for Rick Santorum in April, 2012 also said "money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.”

Grothman made his remarks about women and money "following Gov. Scott Walker's decision to repeal his state’s equal pay law, a move that makes it more difficult for victims of wage discrimination to file lawsuits for lost earnings and back wages," reported Aliyah Shahid in the New York Daily News during the 2012 race for Republican nomination for president.

From MSNBC:

 (S)crapping weekend voting will hit African-Americans particularly hard, Rev. Willie Brisco, who leads an alliance of Milwaukee churches, told msnbc. "A lot of people in our community are working two or three jobs, odd hours, having difficulty with childcare," said Brisco. "So the weekend and the early voting reaches a lot of those people. Brisco said his organization ran a "Souls to the Polls" drive last year, encouraging congregants to vote en masse after church on Sunday. "We really need our community to stay engaged in the political process, and to be a determining factor," Brisco said. "And there is a concerted effort to make sure that doesn’t happen."