Green Bay mayor wants penalties, Republican lawmaker wants answers in election probe

The latest turn in Wisconsin’s 2020 election investigation is focusing on Green Bay.

The city’s mayor, Eric Genrich, asked a Waukesha County judge to punish former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman for what he says are Gableman’s “false statements.”

"To ask this Court to initiate a process that could result in the confinement of the mayor of a Wisconsin city by the sheriff in a distant county without providing this Court with any of the material facts it would need to analyze such a request is an extraordinary attempt to mislead the Court and invites sanction," Genrich’s request states.

He wants the judge to order Gableman to take-out a full-page ad in the state’s three largest newspapers – the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Green Bay Press-Gazette and the Wisconsin State Journal – and admit he was wrong.

Gableman has said Genrich has repeatedly refused to cooperate with his investigation into Green Bay’s role with the so-called Zuckerbucks, and how outside activists ended up with so much access to Green Bay’s voting operation.

Gableman is not the only one who wants those answers.

State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, who is running her own election investigation in the State Assembly, on Thursday said Genrich has a responsibility to tell voters the truth.

“Mayor Genrich has been given multiple opportunities to come before the committee and explain why an outside operative from New York City was allowed to interfere with an election process that is reserved for duly appointed officials,” Brandtjen said. “The people of Wisconsin deserve answers, not stonewalling and gaslighting from their elected leaders.”

This could be the final month for Gableman’s investigation.

A handful of court decisions about just how much power Gableman has are due in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has asked Gableman to wrap up his probe by the end of the month.

Vos said he wants recommendations for legislation to shore up voting processes by February, and wants to see votes on those plans by the end of the spring session.