GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – As Governor Tony Evers is officially sworn-in today, one local expert shares his thoughts on how this change will shape the state.
The time from winning November’s election until officially being sworn-in hasn’t been long, but it may have seemed like an eternity for the Democrat Evers, who already had to endure a lame-duck session orchestrated by Republican leaders.
Aaron Weinschenk, chair of political science at UW-Green Bay, says this butting-of-heads narrative probably won’t go away anytime soon.
“I think sort of the lame-duck legislation foreshadows some of the pushback he’s going to encounter,” he explains.
This might be tough to avoid, according to Weinschenk, purely based on the fundamental differences in thinking between Evers and state conservative leaders.
“He’s going to encounter, I think, a lot of pushback, especially if he proposes solutions that they disagree with ideologically,” he says.
And while many fear a gridlocked state system where nothing gets done, Weinschenk thinks this is more common than not and represents checks and balances.
“There is sort of preference for divided government,” he says. “We could have kept all of the chambers controlled by the same party, but Wisconsinites decided not to do that.”
When predicting what issues the new governor might attack first, he thinks it may be constructive to develop guesses based from recent rhetoric.
“He talked a lot about transportation, infrastructure,” says Weinschenk. “I think doing some of the criminal justice issues.”
And while Evers has been met with some criticism regarding a lack of geographical diversity in his cabinet selections, Weinschenk says that isn’t necessarily fair.
“The Governor was elected for a reason,” he explains. “To pursue certain issues and so he’s going to pick people who he thinks can help advance those issues.”
Weinschenk believes decisions like that are part of the reason why Evers was elected in the first place.
“That’s getting sort of down to the micromanagement of things,” he says. “You want the Governor to have some discretion.”
It was announced on Friday that outgoing State Senator Caleb Frostman, from Door County, will be workforce development secretary.
He is the only cabinet appointee from Northeast Wisconsin.
