skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Judge temporarily blocks effort to deport Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia student protests; Power of rural organizing reflected in SD carbon pipeline law; Safety at risk as budget cuts hit Indiana Dunes National Park; Barriers to tracking bird flu mount amid federal changes.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

House Democrats won't back the GOP budget bill. Ontario reacts to Trump trade moves by enacting energy export tariffs, and a new report finds mass deportations don t help the labor market.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Immigrant communities are getting advice from advocates as the reach of ICE expands, experts in rural America urge lawmakers to ramp up protections against elder abuse, and a multi-state arts projects seeks to close the urban-rural divide.

Watchdog: Haas Ouster Diminishes Confidence in Election Results

play audio
Play

Wednesday, March 14, 2018   

MADISON, Wis. – A government watchdog group says the ouster of Wisconsin Elections Administrator Michael Haas means Wisconsinites will have diminished confidence in the result of their elections.

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, says Haas, who resigned under heavy partisan political fire rather than face an extended legal battle, is the victim of the worst kind of political payback.

Heck says the Republicans who attacked Haas didn't take issue with anything he did as overseer of state elections. Heck says this move will likely affect the reliability of election results.

"If you are ousting the one person who had the confidence of both Republicans and Democrats to do a fair job and an impartial job in overseeing our elections, I think that just bodes very, very ill for public confidence," Heck states.

Republican leadership says they lost confidence in Haas' ability to act fairly in overseeing elections because of what they call his partisan actions when he worked for the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which was disbanded three years ago.

According to Heck, there's residual anger among Republicans from the Government Accountability Board's investigation into possible campaign law violations by Gov. Scott Walker's campaign during the recall election six years ago.

Heck says, "Vendetta is the perfect word to describe what's going on.”

And he adds, "They want to elevate this issue to somehow create a narrative that the Republicans were wronged for even being investigated for possible violation of campaign finance law, and it's quite clear that at the time, it was illegal to engage in campaign coordination."

Heck says it's not bad enough that Republicans forced a respected state official to resign, but now they intend to hold a series of hearings about the now defunct Government Accountability Board.

"To determine the criminality–- and I say that sarcastically – that may have occurred while the Government Accountability Board was investigating alleged crimes, mainly in the form of illegal campaign coordination during the recall elections of 2011 and 2012," he states.

At that time, the board was looking into possible coordination between Walker's campaign and the Wisconsin Club for Growth.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A solar project in Dayton was made possible through a solar-power purchase agreement with IGS Energy, approved by the Dayton City Commission last Wednesday after a four-year evaluation process, including a feasibility study to ensure sufficient power capacity. (Yeivaz/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Ohio is seeing a growing number of solar energy projects, including the first utility-scale installation in Dayton, which will help power a key water …


Environment

play sound

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.Broadcast version by Judith Ruiz-Branch for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service …

Environment

play sound

Researchers at Colorado State University have found the state's nearly 23 million acres of forests are currently releasing more carbon dioxide into th…


Polluted, acidic water leaving KD #1 Surface Mine on Lens Creek near Marmet. (Kanawha Forest Coalition)

Environment

play sound

Watchdog groups said the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection seems poised to allow coal company Keystone West Virginia to walk away f…

Social Issues

play sound

A Missouri children's advocate is urging the justice system to focus on healing for youths, noting trauma and broken relationships often drive their …

Conservation experts would like to see more farms use drip or sprinkler systems, which are more efficient than flooding for irrigation. (Deyan Georgiev/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

By Gabriella Sotelo for Sentient.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collab…

play sound

New research finds Black working women still face rampant discrimination in the Golden State. The California Black Women's Collective Empowerment …

Health and Wellness

play sound

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021