'UPFRONT' recap: Gov. Evers says he'd veto bill that would abolish Wisconsin Elections Commission

Gov. Tony Evers says he would veto a GOP bill that abolishes the Wisconsin Elections Commission and transfers election authority to Wisconsin's secretary of state. "Under no circumstances, simple as that," Evers said on WISN's 'UPFRONT' which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com. "It's ridiculous, I have to put it that way. Moving it to the secretary of state and having the secretary of state essentially be overseen by the Legislature, that's a non-starter. We've got a good system. We've got a good leader in the system, and I'm going to veto anything that moves us in a different direction."Evers appointed Democrat Sarah Godlewski as secretary of state after Doug LaFollette stepped down. "I think she's a very capable person, but we have a good system now," Evers said. "I want to keep it." Evers also weighed in on the state of discussions surrounding UW officials and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos just before Friday's deal was announced and UW Regents rejected the deal Saturday involving DEI, pay raises and capital projects. "They ask me for my opinion from time to time, and I find it hard to just personally to say this is really great keep it up because I think it's all B.S.," Evers said. "I think they'll resolve it. I think at some point the court will take on my lawsuit, and I think they're going to say that it's accurate, but I'm hopeful these people that are working right now get it done, get it out of their system." The governor also defended his use of an alias email account and said he will continue to do so under a new name after it was reported he was using the name of former Milwaukee Braves pitcher Warren Spahn to conduct state business."I think it's a nothing issue," Evers said. "I very seldom use it, period. I occasionally will communicate internally on it if some issue comes up, and those are open to the public. If people want to do an open records request they can do it. I don't know how many out-of-state government emails I've sent over on that account. I can't think of any right off the top of my head." Evers talked at American Family Field just after signing the Brewers funding deal, which he said came close to falling apart."I think it was very close," Evers said. "I think it was very close. It took on a bit of life itself." Meanwhile, Rep. Scott Krug, chair of the Assembly elections committee, says he still plans to hold a hearing on the bill to eliminate the Wisconsin Elections Commission despite the governor's promise of a veto. "I think it's an important bill enough to have a hearing to figure out what might be viable in that bill, what might not," Krug said. "There's still a lot of ideas out there that we're going to hear this session that probably won't become law, but it's our job as committee members to vet these ideas and figure out what might work and what might not into the future." Krug, though, said he didn't specifically back the proposal which would transfer election authority to the secretary of state. "I don't know if I like the idea per se," Krug said. "I think there's some merit to doing what 33 other states are doing, having an elected individual at the top of our elections administration. I think there's some merit to that. I don't know if this is the bill that's going to get us there, but at least it's a good starting point." Krug also said he didn't back a push by some Republicans to impeach Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, a resolution Assembly Speaker Robin Vos referred to the Assembly Government Oversight Committee. "We’ve decided as a committee this is above our pay grade," Krug said. "We’re going to focus on issues we can deal with and things we can good conversations about bipartisanly. Seeing there’s not going to be bipartisan agreement on this, I’d rather move on find out ways to reform or to audit postelection, so that’s another bill we’re going to talk about in January is a post-election audit of WEC each time we go trough our system, so I’m not on the impeachment train right now." Krug said he also didn't believe there was enough support among Assembly Republicans to move the resolution forward. "I think if there was enough support it would have already happened," he said. "I don't think there is." In January Krug said his top priority will be to pass a proposed artificial intelligence bill that would require any ads paid for by candidates or groups to disclose the ad contains synthetic media like deepfakes. "We see a lot of advancements in artificial intelligence and we want to make sure that what you see is what you get when it comes to advertising and political campaigns," Krug said. "So we’re really going to push to get this AI bill through the legislature and on the governor’s desk early next year."Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske says the public nature of disputes involving the current justices will be the backdrop to what could be a significant year of high-profile cases. "I think they've got a lot of work to do," Geske said. "Unfortunately the court itself became a little dysfunctional I think is the best way to describe it. And there’s always conflict on Supreme Courts because there’s a lot of big egos, I was one of them, you know that’s going to happen and it happens in every state. But usually, you try to keep it within the court, and a lot of it spilled out into public and it takes a lot to be able to get back into the relationship, so I’m hoping over the next year or two they will settle down and hopefully be able to be more collaborative.” The court could hear and decide on cases involving the state's legislative maps, abortion, Act 10, and school choice."It is a big year because what’s happening are progressive groups, Democrats, liberal groups are trying to get the court to relook at everything the court has done historically," Geske said "To have all these big issues, school choice is another one that’s coming up, and I don’t know where they’ll all land. I suspect some of them the court wont’ take."