‘Robin Vos and Devin LeMahieu teaming up with RINOS Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, two of the biggest Trump Haters in Washington, against Janel Brandtjen should tell you all you need to know about this race.’
-Sheriff David Clarke
Everyone knows about the recent retirement of longtime Republican State Senator, Alberta Darling. I thank her for her many years of service and wish her well in her retirement.
This left an opening that could affect the Republican Super Majority in the Senate. The timing of Darling’s retirement puts this special election on the Spring election ballot. This created a unique situation where there is also a very high-profile State Supreme Court race on the ballot.
Liberals have been eying the narrow majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a long time as a means to bypass the Republican-controlled legislature by gaining a Liberal majority on the state Supreme Court. This means Liberals are motivated and will turn out in droves.
This is why we need the right Senate candidate to get voters to come out to the polls and help to counteract this Liberal surge. Unfortunately, there also seems to be something more sinister at play within Republican ranks. Let me just say, Machiavelli is alive and well within Republican leadership circles regarding this race. More on that later.
It’s no secret that Republican leaders in the State Senate have been effectively rendered impotent. We all know about the incessant lack of action on important matters like using Senate oversight power to get rid of Evers appointees like Andrea Palm and John Tate. During this time, feckless leaders like Devin LeMahieu have experienced little challenge to this lack of leadership. The Senate clearly needs to rekindle that fire they seemed to have lost long ago.
When Darling announced her retirement, several people announced their intentions to run, but now the ballot is finalized, and there are three candidates. Van Mobley, Thiensville Village President, and State Assembly Representatives Dan Knodl and Janel Brandtjen.
Let me start by saying I know all three candidates and they are all decent Conservative Republicans, but one rises above the pack as someone with a track record of accomplishment and action. This person also possesses that much-needed fire and the trait of having the intestinal fortitude to take on our own Republican Leadership when needed, as well as the Democrats.
Of course, am referring to State Representative Janel Brandtjen. She has what the State Senate so desperately needs and so much more. She has been a tireless champion of everything from Election Integrity to School Choice and everything in between.
Enter Machiavelli. Because some feel the ‘ends justify the means,’ we are also seeing a coordinated effort to keep Janel Brandtjen from the Senate at all costs. This effort is being led by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader, Devin LeMahieu. Why would they go after someone with such an impeccable conservative track record? Well, she refuses to be a ‘complacent’ minion.
When Robin Vos was forced to finally take action on the 2020 election, he tapped her to investigate, but he did not expect her to actually do what the people were asking for. Much to his chagrin, Brandtjen not only investigated, but she was incredibly thorough. Unfortunately, Vos blocked her every step of the way. Why? What was he afraid of her finding? Is Vos somehow complicit in all of this? Who knows? But, you would think so with all the hyperbole going on out there.
Brandtjen had the audacity to do her job and work tirelessly to get to the bottom of what actually happened in the 2020 election. She was our champion for exposing everything from Absentee ‘anomalies’ to the depths of the ‘Zukerbucks’ payouts that were invested in heavily Democrat areas, proving that it was easy to cheat the absentee ballot process. She was literally one of the only ones actually investigating.
Robin Vos did next to nothing regarding election integrity in 2020. In fact, many subpoenas still go completely unanswered and unenforced. But not to be outdone, Robin Vos finally took his ‘revenge’ and replaced Brandtjen on her committee with a compliant, ‘yes man.’ Vos was determined to exact his revenge on her because she supported Vos’ primary opponent last year. Talk about Vos acting childish. Of course, he was too much of a coward to kick her off sooner, because he feared it would cost him re-election in his primary. The vote was so close, it just might have, but that’s another story.
This also makes one wonder if this was a major factor to Vos keeping Zuckerbucks Referendum off the April ballot in an effort to keep Brandtjen from having a win. One never knows how petty he can be.
As for the State Senate, the last thing Devin LeMahieu would want is someone who would challenge his authority in the Senate. He is pulling out all stops to keep Janel Brandtjen from the Upper chamber in the State Legislature, and it’s scary to see what lengths he is going through. He is part of an organization that is significantly funding efforts against Brandtjen, even though LeMahieu is being publicly ‘neutral,’ yeah right!
An organization called the Republican State Leadership Committee Inc. has so far spent $83,036 on mail and another $70,000 on TV production and placement supporting Brandtjen’s opponent Dan Knodl. Devin LeMahieu is on their executive committee. Wait! What?
So, why would a ‘conservative’ organization that Devin LeMahieu is part of be aggressively targeting Brandtjen? An organization that brags on its website about having spent ‘tens of millions to elect more than 700 women to state offices’ and ‘Paving the path forward for free and fair elections.’
Why would they be spending over $150 Thousand to defeat one of the most accomplished women in the Legislature and the state’s biggest champion for Election Integrity? That’s right, $150 Thousand to defeat a housewife from Menomonee Falls. Sadly, a former Governor Candidate is eerily quiet on the Republican Party Leadership attacking a fellow Republican woman. Sigh!
But it’s not just them, there are also some strange bedfellows out there. The DC-based Americans Keeping Country First reported spending $55,100 for online ads opposed to Brandtjen. Americans Keeping Country First was created to defend members of Congress who voted to impeach former President Trump after Jan. 6, 2021. The narrator in the spot calls Brandtjen inept, ineffective, and unqualified before declaring her an embarrassment.
Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Devin LeMehieu, and Robin Vos? Strange bedfellows indeed.
Getting replaced on her committee by Robin Vos and being targeted by feckless ‘never-Trump’ Republican Super Pacs , is actually a badge of honor. That alone should be reason enough for supporting her.
I’m not here to debate the merits of whether Trump should run in 2024 or not, but nobody can deny he did some great things as President. Sadly, this self-destructive path the never-Trumpers are paving to purge all things Trump from the party are playing a dangerous game of handing power to the Democrats. Therein, likely, lies the main issue.
Janel Brandtjen’s tireless work uncovering all the nefarious actions the Democrats and never-Trumpers did in 2020, and likely 2022, is exactly why Republican Party leaders are trying to silence her. Janel Brandtjen has a mind of her own and consistently proves that she will stand up to party leadership, even when those ‘leaders’ act like spoiled, entitled, children.
But there is so much more to Janel Brandtjen.
Of course, the ‘haters’ would like to keep the focus on the Vos political hit machine hyperbole about calling Brandtjen an ‘election denying conspiracy theorist,’ instead of talking about Janel Brandtjen’s incredibly successful eight years in the assembly.
She is incredibly popular in her Assembly District, and there is a reason she’s so popular. She has a rock-solid voting record and record of fighting for what we believe in, and has been doing it for eight years now. It’s a sad shame that Robin Vos and his minions are working so hard to destroy Janel’s legacy of fighting for things like education, fighting against wasteful Madison Spending, and fighting for election integrity.
In 2015, she was one of the few Republicans who helped kill AB1, a bill where Robin Vos would have given the state Department of Public Instruction in credible power and control of all Choice schools in Wisconsin. Janel Brandtjen is one of the reasons it did NOT become law. Who supported it? One of her opponents in the primary. Yes, there were 32 other Republicans who also supported it, but you decide if DPI having power over Choice Schools was a good idea.
Brandtjen also voted against Governor Scott Walker’s final bloated budget and against the first Evers budget where Robin Vos gave away Millions in public school funding without even a flinch. More proof that she has the needs of Wisconsin taxpayers and parents as a priority. Don’t you wish the leadership did?
Don’t get me wrong, not every Republican bill was a bad bill, there were also many success stories and Janel Brandtjen improved and supported them. Her COnservative track record is FLAWLESS. Even if you disagree with her work on election integrity, Janel Brandtjen has an eight-year track record of championing many Conservative causes.
Let’s not forget, Brandtjen spearheaded the effort to get rid of former Milwaukee police Chief Flynn’s misguided ‘no chase’ policy. This not only ended the policy but also ended Flynn’s career in Milwaukee. That was a good thing.
Janel Brandtjen authored the Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights, legislation to end sexual assault kit backlogs and combat human trafficking, and sponsored numerous other bills, including enforcing gun prohibitions for dangerous felons, truth-in-sentencing for violent crimes, and mandatory revocation hearings for repeat serious offenders.
ALL THESE BILLS were put on hold because Robin Vos chose to act like a spoiled child. I could go on and on, but I am trying to keep this from becoming a small novel.
Merely voting ‘YES’ on every Republican bill is NOT leadership, it’s being a mind-numbed drone. We have to recognize there are many issues with our Legislative leaders, they seem to be caving on some very important issues. The Senate needs someone to hold their feet to the fire. Janel Brandtjen is that person.
There is something to be said that this group of feckless leaders is investing more money and working harder to defeat, Republican Janel Brandtjen in a primary than they did to defeat Tony Evers last November. Perhaps this part of the ‘goal’ to purge the party of Trump being orchestrated by the Elitist Madison Establishment? More on that in another article.
In the end, it’s up to the voters in the 8th Senate District to make that decision. Right now, Robin Vos, Devin LeMahieu and a merry band of never-Trumpers are telling you in the 8th District that THEY will make the decision of who you will be able to vote for, not you.
The fact is, WE DO NOT HAVE AN ARISTOCRACY, the self-proclaimed ‘elites’ do not get to decide who you get to vote for. They tried this during the Governor’s primary and failed, DO NOT GIVE THEM THAT POWER NOW!
