Update: Police look for boycotting Democrats

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MADISON -- Law enforcement officers are searching for Democratic senators boycotting a Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair plan, according to an online story posted this afternoon by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The officers are looking for the lawmakers in an attempt to bring them to the floor to allow Republicans to move forward with action on the bill.

One Democratic senator said he believed at least most of the members of his caucus are in another state. But some were reportedly in their Capital offices listening to constituents.

In a press conference just off the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said Democrats were "not showing up for work" and police were searching for them to bring them to the floor.

Democrats are boycotting the Senate action on the bill in efforts to block a quorum and keep the measure from passing. Because 20 senators of the 33-member house are needed to be present to pass a fiscal bill, the body's 19 Republicans will not be enough to pass the budget repair bill without at least one Democrat present.

Speculation in the Capitol pointed to Illinois as the state where Democrats had headed, reported the Journal Sentinel.

The Senate convened at 11:30 a.m. with 17 Republicans but no Democrats present.

Senate President Mike Ellis of Neenah ordered a “call of the house” in which officers are supposed to look for the absent members. But GOP Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was not sure how much authority officers have in compelling the lawmakers to show up.

Fitzgerald said the last time such a thing happened was in the 1990’s.

“That’s not democracy – that’s not what this chamber is about,” he said.

Janesville Democrat Tim Cullen confirmed earlier that the 14 Democrats would stay away so the Republican majority could not pass the budget repair bill and its limits on public union negotiating power.

Senate rules require 20 members to be present to vote on fiscal bills. There are only 19 Republicans.

As the Senate was called to order before noon, demonstrators in the gallery shouted “Freedom, democracy, unions.”

The Capitol is jammed with people today, and it’s been hard for even lawmakers to get around. The crowd is part of the thousands of union workers and their supporters who’ve been at the Capitol all week to protest Walker’s proposals to limit the bargaining power of most public unions to salaries and to make them pay more for their pensions and health insurance.

Senate Republican Glenn Grothman of West Bend says his GOP colleagues are holding firm in support of Walker’s measure – even though they know they could be the subjects of recall efforts down the line. Grothman told Milwaukee radio talk show host Charlie Sykes on WTMJ that he fully expects national unions to pump in money to defeat GOP lawmakers. Grothman said union leaders who make six-figure salaries will see their revenues plunge, if lawmakers pass a provision that would not require employees to pay union dues in order to work places with representation. And he told Sykes, quote, “We have to decide whether this is the United States of America, or if this is Greece” – which has had economic unrest.

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