By Bill Savage
What will Knodl and Vos do now that Janel Brandtjen won’t be charged in the drummed-up case they manufactured? Certainly, Knodl won’t turn to running on his record, he can’t. As a matter of fact, he won’t even try to tell you that his record is honorable. That’s why they concocted this ridiculous scheme in the first place. Never-Trumper Liz Cheney will certainly be in Knodl’s corner again as Trump is the military-industrial complex’s worst enemy (and Trump has previously endorsed Brandtjen).
This is how Robin Vos works and his MO is easily detectable. The morning after the last day of session, the Ethics Commission (who Robin Vos appoints members to) “recommends” charges against Brandtjen who is no doubt Vos’s nemesis, and within hours Knodl announces that he will not run for re-election to the Senate (against Duey Stroebel) but instead run against Brandtjen. The problem is that not only does the state have NO CASE against Brandtjen, Knodl has NO CASE to be “re-elected.”
NOTE: We will leave the discussion of why Knodl is so desperate to avoid going back to private life and just retire after 16 years in the legislature that he would be willing to go from the upper house to the lower house, for discussions over coffee.
In the meantime, let’s take a look at a brief comparison between Brandtjen and Knodl:
Let’s go through these one by one.
Pro-Life – Janel Brandtjen is a Pro–Life Wisconsin legislator of the year. Knodl favors abortion up till birth. He is a lead author of AB975 that as amended allows exceptions right up until birth. See the details in my Savagespeaks Substack here.
Election Integrity – is there any doubt here? Brandtjen has fought fearlessly against the swamp for election integrity and has taken the bullets from Vos and company for daring to expose the fraud. Knodl paved the way for the awful Monday Count Bill that would allow Milwaukee to open and process absentee ballots on Monday. See the Savagespeaks Substack here. Knodl also authored a bill that would allow drop-boxes. See the bill here. See the Legislative Council memo here.
Fiscal Responsibility – Dan Knodl who was elected in 2008 (took office Jan 2009) when the budget was $59,998,313,100. Knodl voted yes on every budget since! The current budget is just under $100 billion. Janel Brandtjen was elected in 2014 (took office Jan 2015) when the budget was $70,380,619,600 and voted no on two budgets that she felt gave away too much money and/or did not have enough accountability in place to serve the people of Wisconsin well. See my Savagespeaks Substack on the matter here.
School Choice – Dan Knodl authored a bill that would have placed choice schools under the thumb of DPI. Only someone who does not have the best interests of our schools at heart would think that is a good idea. Once Brandtjen read the bill she went to work to immediately defeat the bill (which she did). Read the bill here.
2nd Amendment – In the special session March 2018, Dan Knodl (then majority caucus chair) and Speaker Robin Vos changed the language of a school bullying bill and made it a gun control bill. Like everything else, I bring the facts… See the bill here, be sure to click on the substitute amendment here! See how a bill that that passed the committee process about school safety turned into a gun control measure by Knodl and company. Of course they wanted a voice vote, but Brandtjen, Jacque and Allen made their objections known. Below is from the Assembly Journal.
The question was: Assembly Bill 1031 having been read three times, shall the bill be passed?
Motion carried. Representatives Jacque, Allen, and Brandtjen asked unanimous consent to be recorded as voting “No” on the previous question. Granted.
Guess who’s name isn’t on the list of objectors, that’s right! Dan Knodl’s!
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) - Brandtjen has been instrumental in defeating RCV. Knodl received money from the RCV lobby. Not only did Knodl receive money (thousands) but he received very little BEFORE he held the hearing that would pave the way to the bill’s passage, but thousands after he held the hearing. We really need to tell Dan Knodl that our election process is not for sale.