Vos says recall group doesn’t have enough signatures

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) challenged the validity of thousands of signatures gathered by a group of supporters of former President Donald Trump who are attempting to recall him. 

Vos, who has called the people involved in the recall “whack jobs and morons,” officially filed a challenge with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) on Thursday. If the challenge is successful, the recall organizers have nowhere near the required number of signatures to force a recall election this summer. 

The group is targeting Vos for a recall because of his perceived failure to support their conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. Even though Vos launched  former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s widely derided review of the 2020 election, the recall groups have objected to his ending that review, as well as his failure to bring resolutions attempting to “decertify” the 2020 election results and his refusal to impeach WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe. 

WEC officials had previously said a cursory review of the signatures showed many of the gathered signatures weren’t valid, yet the commission delayed action on the matter because of questions about which district lines should apply to the recall as new legislative maps are set to go into effect this fall. 

A segment of Republicans has become increasingly hostile to Vos in recent years because of the election-related complaints. In 2022, a primary challenge against him nearly succeeded. 

Last month, the ethics commission recommended criminal charges against Adam Steen, Vos’ opponent in that primary; state Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls); a PAC associated with Trump and others over campaign finance violations in that race. The commission alleged that the campaign worked with county Republican parties to funnel donations to Steen’s campaign as a way to avoid contribution limits. 

On Friday, the ethics commission released a memo stating that the district attorneys of Chippewa, Florence and Langlade counties had declined to bring charges against the figures involved in the campaign finance scheme because of conflicts of interest with the local parties. The charges can now be referred to district attorneys in contiguous counties.