Tony Evers says he 'always believed' Josh Kaul would seek permission to withdraw from Obamacare lawsuit

Gov. Tony Evers said Friday he knew Attorney General Josh Kaul would follow the law when he told a statewide audience he was directing Kaul to withdraw from a federal lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act — an act Kaul is legally barred from taking. 

"When I said that, I always believed and I still believe that Josh Kaul as attorney general will follow the law and go according to what they put together in the lame-duck session," Evers told reporters in Milwaukee. "There's nothing inconsistent with what I said and what was actually going to happen. I always knew that Josh Kaul was going to the Joint Finance Committee."

Evers on Tuesday during his first State of the State address told a televised audience he "fulfilled a promise I made to the people of Wisconsin by directing Attorney General (Josh) Kaul to withdraw from a lawsuit that would gut coverage for 2.4 million Wisconsinites who have pre-existing conditions."

That statement sparked controversy because a new law Republicans passed in December bars Evers or Kaul from taking that action without approval from the Legislature's finance committee, which is controlled by Republicans who support the lawsuit.

Permission from lawmakers is a new requirement, one of several measures passed during a legislative session called in the weeks before Evers and Kaul — both Democrats — took office. 

RELATED:Josh Kaul asks lawmakers to withdraw state from lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act

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RELATED:Tony Evers reverses course, won't direct Josh Kaul to withdraw from Obamacare lawsuit after all

Republicans quickly accused Evers of directing Kaul to take an illegal act. A spokeswoman for Evers walked back his comments the day after his speech, saying Evers did not direct Kaul to take any specific action. 

"It's been reversals in some people's minds — there's never been reversal in this head," Evers said. "I am not discouraged at all about that controversy ... it was never a controversy in my mind."

Poll shows support for leaving lawsuit

Evers said he was encouraged by a recent Marquette University Law School poll, which showed 48 percent of those polled want Wisconsin to get out of the federal lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act as Evers does, while 42 percent want to continue it.

Kaul on Wednesday asked lawmakers to give him authorization to withdraw from the lawsuit, but it's unclear whether they will grant the request. 

Evers said he's hopeful the committee will approve Kaul's request and will use the bully pulpit of the governor's office to advocate for the action.

"If we continue to be stuck in this position that is absolutely inconsistent with what the people of this state want, we'll continue to talk about that," Evers said. 

Nearly 50 percent of voters polled also saw Evers as trying to cooperate with GOP legislative leaders, while only 22 percent saw Republicans in Madison as trying to cooperate with Evers. 

Not everything went Evers' way in the poll, which was released Thursday. Many voters said they don't know enough about him to say whether they approve of the job he's doing, and more voters approved of the job GOP lawmakers are doing than the one Evers is doing. 

Evers said he celebrated the support for the Republican-controlled Legislature's work as well as the support for key issues he campaigned on.

"Good for them," Evers said. "We want people to actually feel good about what's going on in the state ... maybe at the end of the four years, we'll both be 70 percent in the positive range and we can all celebrate."

The poll also found that an overwhelming 72 percent of voters said they support legislative and congressional district boundaries being drawn by a nonpartisan commission rather than the state Legislature, as Evers favors. That's compared to just 18 percent who said the Legislature should continue to draw the boundaries.

"It speaks to the fact that people believe that the way our geographic regions have been drawn for legislators is absolutely wrong, and it's not a Democrat or Republican issue, it's an everybody issue," Evers said. "And we hear that loud and clear, so we're looking forward to changing that."