A head of a government watchdog group says elections to fill two vacant legislative seats could have been held this week with the regular spring election if the governor had followed state law from the beginning. The senate and assembly seats have been vacant since mid December when governor Scott Walker appointed the Republican incumbents to his administration. State law requires the governor to fill those seats prior to May, but he refused, calling that a waste of taxpayer money with the seats up for election in the fall. Common Cause in Wisconsin director Jay Heck says he’s never seen this attempted before. After two court rulings ordered the governor to call special elections for the seats, the governor last week reluctantly scheduled primaries for both open seats May 15, followed by a general election June 12.
