by Benjamin Yount
A lawsuit is brewing over Milwaukee’s 2022 get-out-the-vote effort.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Wednesday filed an open records lawsuit against Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the city’s Elections Commission.
“The lawsuit is related to the lack of response from Mayor Johnson’s office related to the ‘Milwaukee Votes 2022’ initiative,” the party said in a statement. “The Republican Party of Wisconsin requested communications between the mayor, Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg and GPS Impact, a communications firm that works to elect Democrats ‘in red states.’”
Milwaukee’s mayor originally announced the program back in May, but doubled down earlier this month when he suggested that city workers would play a role in the effort.
Johnson has since been silent about any kind of partnership with GPS, and there have been no real details about the work that the group is doing.
“Democrats in the Evers administration and in the City of Milwaukee are withholding crucial information that the public has every right to see and they’re doing it for political gain with just weeks before the election,” Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson said.
GPS Impact also has ties to Gov. Tony Evers.
State Sen. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, told The Center Square last week that a former top staffer in Evers’ office is running GPS Impact.
The Republican Party also filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Gov. Evers’ office for information about the veterans home in Union Grove.
Republicans say they’ve been requesting records from Evers, his Chief of staff Maggie Gau and administrators at Union Grove since June. It comes after Republican Congressman Bryan Steil began sounding the alarm in 2020 about treatment of veterans at Union Grove.
“Between hiding what is happening to our veterans, hiding potential communications with Democrat organizations and hiding what violent criminals Tony Evers and his parole board are releasing into our communities in 2022, it is clear Democrats don’t want voters to know what is happening behind closed doors,” Jefferson said.
This is the second open records lawsuit for the Evers Administration this week.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued over not getting information from Evers’ Parole Commission.
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Person Going to Vote” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY 2.0.
