Unlike Wisconsin's governor, its Senate GOP leader showed practicality

'No cop in the state' would arrest Senate dems: Fitzgerald

Wisconsin State Journal
DEE J. HALL | Posted: Saturday, April 2, 2011 3:00 pm

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was repeatedly warned he would be stepping outside the law if he forcibly returned 14 Democratic senators who fled Wisconsin in February, according to internal emails.

Records obtained from the offices of Fitzgerald and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Ted Blazel show Fitzgerald was told he was on shaky legal ground by attorneys from three state agencies. The memos and email correspondence were released in response to a public records request from the State Journal.

In an interview Friday, Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the flight of the senators and the resulting legislative stalemate were “uncharted territory” that no one knew how to navigate.

But he acknowledged the efforts to return the senators to Madison came off as “comical” and would have become a public relations “disaster” if any lawmakers had been hauled back to Madison in a squad car.

(More here.)