Showdown over guns, dairy crisis looms this week under Wisconsin's divided government

MADISON – State lawmakers are set to meet this week in what will be another partisan battle in this new era of divided government, but this time the debate will be over two of the most significant issues facing Wisconsin: the loss of dairy farms and gun violence.

The showdown pits Republican lawmakers against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers once again — the latest fight under the Capitol dome to dramatically slow legislation since Republicans lost the governor's office last year. 

Senate Republicans are on track to reject on Tuesday Evers' nomination of Brad Pfaff as secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Doing so would be the first cabinet secretary to be voted down in more than 30 years.

Pfaff has overseen the agency that plays a key role in the state's response to the crushing struggles plaguing the dairy farm industry since January. 

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican from Juneau, asked Evers on Friday to withdraw Pfaff's nomination ahead of Tuesday's floor session. On Sunday, Fitzgerald said Pfaff hadn't dealt with the dairy crisis "at all."

"He has bungled this job since day one and I know other members of our caucus feel the same way," Fitzgerald said in an interview with WTMJ-TV.

Administration Secretary Joel Brennan tried to visit Fitzgerald Monday to discuss Pfaff's nomination but Fitzgerald wasn't in his Capitol office. 

Afterward, Brennan told reporters in recent days he's talked to some Senate Republicans who were uncomfortable with rejecting Pfaff, but he declined to name them. He said he hoped to persuade Republicans to back off their plans. 

"I don't think anybody likes being the ones to take unprecedented steps," Brennan said. "There are historic things, but there are ways in which I think you're taking the institution to historic lows and this is an example that I think some of the people in the majority in the Senate feel that way and so I've had conversations with them."

He said Republicans and Democrats are going to disagree, but they should be able to have "healthy conversations."

"This is not something that's going to lead to more of that conversation," he said. "It's going to be the kind of thing that grinds things to a halt and that's not what anybody here wants."

Fitzgerald's office on Friday pointed to three clashes between Republican lawmakers and Pfaff since Pfaff was appointed by Evers, primarily over whether the state was doing enough to help farmers cope with a deteriorating livelihood.

One of the debates was over recent rules outlined by the Scott Walker administration and put forward by Pfaff designed to protect farmers' neighbors from the stench of manure by expanding setback requirements for manure storage facilities. 

Agriculture groups say they urged the agency to abandon the rules in September, but Pfaff didn't back off from moving forward with them until Friday, just after Fitzgerald told Evers he didn't have enough votes to confirm Pfaff's nomination. 

"Since holding public hearings earlier this year, the department has held ongoing, constructive meetings with stakeholders on this complex rule," Pfaff said in a Friday statement. "Given the tremendous importance of our dairy and livestock industries to the state of Wisconsin, we’ve decided to take more time to continue these discussions.”

Pfaff removed the rules from consideration of the agency's board at a meeting scheduled for Thursday, but more than a dozen groups wrote letters to the board in recent days urging members to reject them permanently. 

“It’s not enough to delay consideration," Wisconsin Dairy Alliance President Cindy Leitner said in a statement. "These proposed changes would have a devastating impact on the struggling dairy industry in Wisconsin. ... The dairy industry has been sounding the alarm bells on these rule revisions for months and DATCP simply ignored us."

Doug Rebout, the president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, also joined a letter sent Friday urging the rejection of the rules. While he wants Pfaff to abandon the rules, he also said Monday it is essential to keep Pfaff on board while farmers are struggling with what he called a perfect storm of trade wars, low prices, bad weather and a dispute over federal ethanol rules.

Sidelining Pfaff and trying to get a new secretary up to speed won't help, he said. 

"Brad is someone that knows agriculture," Rebout said. "We just need that stability and continuity going on."

Rebout sent a letter to all senators Monday asking them to delay Tuesday's vote. He said he and his members are trying to talk to senators, including Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee who unanimously backed Pfaff in February. 

"We're having that conversation with them and reminding them they did support him once and we're hoping they'll come around and support him again," Rebout said.

The Wisconsin Agri-Business Association, Cooperative Network, Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and Organic Valley also appealed to senators Monday to confirm Pfaff. 

"Brad is a good man, steering the ship to better times for Wisconsin agriculture," Tom Bressner, executive director of the agri-business association wrote in an email to senators.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach of West Point said Republicans who supported Pfaff in committee should stick by him.

"If you're a Republican senator who supported him, you're going to have to answer to not your Republican constituency back home, but your ag community back home," he said.

The Senate has not rejected a cabinet secretary going back to at least 1987, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau. Records before then were not immediately available.  

Last year, Republicans in the Senate denied the confirmations of the heads of the state's ethics and elections commissions. Those officials were appointed by their commissions, not the governor. 

After the Senate rejected the heads of the ethics and elections commissions, there were disputes over the effect of the vote and whether the commissions could reinstate them to their jobs. 

In response, Republican legislators in December established a law that said those rejected by the Senate could not be reappointed to their jobs.

The measure was tucked into legislation passed during an overnight floor session before Evers took office, which drew national attention because it diminished the power of the governor in numerous ways. 

The new law means Evers won't be able to reinstate Pfaff if the Senate denies his confirmation. But Evers would still have the ability to give Pfaff other high-ranking jobs, either at the Department of Agriculture or elsewhere. 

Lawmakers plan no debate on gun bills

Republican lawmakers on Thursday plan to swiftly reject Evers' call to debate legislation that would expand background checks on firearm purchases and transfers and allow judges to confiscate firearms from anyone deemed a threat, a so-called red-flag law. 

In October, Evers called a special legislative session this week to consider legislation he wants to add more state rules on who can have a firearm. 

Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester immediately rejected the idea, saying they don't see enough support among state Republicans to move forward with the bills and considered the proposals to infringe on Second Amendment rights.

Fitzgerald said he would likely gavel out of the session called by Evers within moments of convening it. Vos has said his members plan to take the same action. 

Evers has called Fitzgerald's plans unacceptable. 

"He has the responsibility to let his Senate vote on this," Evers said.

A September Marquette University Law School poll found 81% of registered voters supported red-flag legislation. The same poll showed 80% backed universal background checks.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.