Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker reluctantly issued an executive order Thursday scheduling special elections to fill two vacant legislative seats, as Senate Republicans abandoned their efforts to block the contests amid Democratic criticism that the GOP is afraid of losing more seats. The seats have been vacant since December, when Walker appointed the Republican incumbents to his administration. State law requires Walker to call special elections to fill legislative vacancies that occur prior to May in regular election years such as this one but he had refused to do so, calling the special elections a waste of taxpayer money with the seats up for election in the fall. Executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Erin Grunze says its great for representative democracy. “Now the voters in Assembly District 42 and Senate District 1 will have representation and that’s the way its designed to be,” Grunze told WFDL news. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he was dropping efforts to move a bill forward that would prohibit special elections after the spring election in a regular election year.
