Wisconsin Government Accountability Board

The Board consisted of six members, all former state judges, who serve staggered, six-year terms. Board members were appointed by the Governor, and served part-time, receiving per diems for each meeting they attended. The Governor of Wisconsin nominated a judge to fill a vacancy from a roster of potential Board members previously selected by a panel of Wisconsin Court of Appeals judges; and nominees were confirmed by the Wisconsin State Senate.[1]

The GAB was created a reform measure after the Wisconsin "legislative caucus scandal" in 2001.[2][3] which led to criminal convictions of the state Assembly's highest-ranking Republican (Speaker Scott Jensen), the state Senate's highest-ranking Democrat (Majority Leader Chuck Chvala), and other officials.[4] The GAB was tasked with overseeing elections, ethics and lobbying in the state.[4] The 2007 Wisconsin Act 1, which passed the Wisconsin Legislature on a bipartisan vote in January 2007, merged the State Elections Board and State Ethics Board into the new GAB.[5]

The GAB had a nonpartisan structure unique among election boards in the United States, with GAB led by six former judges appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.[2][5] In contrast to the GAB's nonpartisan model, state election boards in other U.S. states were either partisan (ie., run by elected or appointed partisan officials) or bipartisan.[5] GAB members could not "hold another state or local public office (except as reserve judge), engage in partisan political activities, become a candidate for state or local elected office, make political contributions, or be a lobbyist or employed by a person who employs a lobbyist. They also have limitations on political activities and certain types of contributions both during and 12 months prior to a member's term."[5] The GAB's structure was praised by experts.[6] Law professor Daniel P. Tokaji, who studied the GAB, praised the agency's model, concluding in 2013 that "GAB has been successful in administering elections evenhandledly and .... serves as a worthy model for other states considering alternatives to partisan election administration at the state level."[7] The Board has the power to investigate independently, without the approval of the legislature.[3] The GAB oversaw a series of recall elections for the state senate in 2011 and for state senate and governor in 2012.[2]

The GAB was consistently criticized by Wisconsin Republicans, such as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott L. Fitzgerald, and the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity; these critics accused the GAB on unfairly investigating Republicans. Republicans were particularly angry over a GAB investigation into whether Republican Governor Scott Walker's campaign unlawfully coordinated with the Club for Growth and other "outside" groups during the 2012 recall election.[2][3][4][8][6] By contrast, Democrats and good-government groups such as the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Common Cause defended the GAB.[2][4][6] In December 2015, Walker signed a bill that dissolved the GAB,[6] effective on June 30, 2016,[2] and replaced it with a separate Wisconsin Elections Board and Wisconsin Ethics Commission.[3] The legislation dismantling the GAB passed along party lines, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no.[6] Wisconsin's revision to a "bipartisan" rather than "nonpartisan" model increased the power of the Republican-controlled legislature, and also increased deadlocks; while the GAB rarely deadlocked, the Elections Board frequently deadlocked among party lines.[3] The 2015 legislation also restored the practice of allowing state legislators to control funding for investigations into possible misconduct by state officials.[6]