Days after Robin Vos extended Wisconsin's election review, Michael Gableman stands with the Assembly speaker's critics in the GOP

MADISON – Michael Gableman got a reprieve a few days ago, when Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced the former state Supreme Court justice could continue his taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 election that was supposed to end in April.

On Saturday, Gableman responded by appearing on a stage with some of the Republican speaker’s most vocal critics on the right, including Vos’ primary opponent.

Gableman appeared at a rally on the state Capitol steps immediately after Vos’ opponent, Adam Steen, called Vos a traitor.

At the beginning of Steen’s speech, someone in the crowd yelled that Vos was a RINO, or Republican in name only.

"'RINO' is a nice word," Steen responded. "I prefer the word 'treasonous traitor.'"

Taking the microphone after Steen, Gableman did not mention Steen's attack on Vos, but noted Steen had said any change had to go through the Legislature.

“Really the change, and what we want to see, is very, very simple and direct and common sense, and that’s why it’s going to take positive, persistent passion each day — each day — for all of us to show up and do what's necessary to support the people who see it our way," Gableman said.

Gableman, who spoke as rain fell, called for the state to slim down its voter rolls and make them available online for free. A copy of the voter rolls now costs $12,500.

The event featured a who’s who of Vos’ conservative critics who have maintained he has not done enough to review Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in Wisconsin. (Vos' many critics on the left say just the opposite — that he has spent too much time and money on studying an election that recounts and courts have found was properly conducted.)

The event was emceed by Joe Giganti, a host at Green Bay's WTAQ-AM who has repeatedly called for Vos' ouster and who on Saturday said the speaker's name is "a three-letter cuss word."

Also speaking were Rep. Tim Ramthun, a Campbellsport Republican running for governor who has squabbled with Vos; Jefferson Davis, a former Menomonee Falls village president and frequent Vos critic; and Rep. Janel Brandtjen, the Menomonee Falls Republican who leads the Assembly Elections Committee.

Giganti introduced Brandtjen as a "bane in the existence of Robin Vos."

Ramthun and Davis have led an effort seeking to decertify the 2020 election. Gableman has called for seriously considering doing so, but Vos has rejected the idea, noting legal scholars have said it’s impossible.

Vos and his spokeswoman, Angela Joyce, did not respond Saturday to questions about Gableman's appearance at the event. 

Vos hired Gableman last summer and gave him a budget of $676,000. Gableman was initially supposed to complete his work by the end of October, but Vos has given him a series of contract extensions.

Under a contract extension signed in March, Gableman’s work was to wrap up at the end of April.

On Tuesday, Vos announced Gableman would continue his work as litigation over his election review plays out. Taxpayers have been paying Gableman $11,000 a month. Vos said Gableman had agreed to take less in the future, but Vos didn't specify what he would be paid. 

In his speech Saturday, Gableman criticized the state for keeping the names of dead people and people who have moved out of state on the voter rolls. Those voters are marked as inactive but kept in the voter database so officials can see which elections they participated in. 

Gableman said those voters should be removed from the list, rather than marked as inactive. 

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.