State Senators Chris Larson, Lena Taylor and Tim Carpenter are among the targets of a Senate resolution calling for the arrest of the 14 Democrats who fled the state to avoid voting on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said today that the resolution calling for the arrest of the absent Senate Democrats will hopefully bring them back to the floor.
"I’m hopeful by 4 o’clock a Democrat senator or all 14 Democrat senators will be in the chamber and we’ll be allowed to move forward," the Dodge Co. Republican said around noon.
Fitzgerald said if no Dems arrive by 4 p.m., he’ll ask the governor to order law enforcement to assist in the apprehension of the senators. While Fitzgerald admitted the senators’ actions aren’t criminal, the state constitution gives the Senate and Assembly the authority to compel members to attend sessions, and the order is "very similar” to a warrant.
"It’s the same as an arrest. It is an arrest," Fitzgerald said.
The order to arrest the senators does not cross state lines, but Fitzgerald says he’s confident the Democrats have been going back and forth from their homes in Wisconsin to Illinois. He said any individual who spots the senators can call law enforcement to have them apprehended.
However, James Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA), said today that the Senate resolution is “insanely wrong” and an “unreasonable abuse of police power. Read more at BizTimes.
The Dems claim the latest move won’t change their minds about coming back to the Senate.
Follow developments in the WisPolitics.com Budget Blog: http://budget.wispolitics.com.
– WisPolitics.com
