The Man Behind Wisconsin’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Effort

The GOP-led State Assembly has authorized nearly $680,000 to a former state Supreme Court justice to ‘investigate’ the integrity of the 2020 election.

By
47

Our Founding Fathers likely didn’t envision a strip mall in the suburbs of Milwaukee as the place where American elections are determined, but here we are. Between a liposuction clinic and an office housing a couples therapist, former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman toils away in a co-working space, trying to find irregularities in the 2020 presidential election—an election in which he once accused unelected bureaucrats of trying to “steal our vote.”

Last November, Donald Trump lost Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes, and ever since, Trump loyalists have been trying to manufacture evidence the result was somehow illegitimate. The Republican-led State Assembly has authorized nearly $680,000 for Gableman, who recently attended a symposium held by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in which it was alleged that China had stolen the election, to “investigate” the integrity of the vote.

Of course, the effort to discredit the close presidential contest in Wisconsin—the same election in which every member of the Assembly who authorized the investigation was elected, incidentally—is an outgrowth of the comically bungled Arizona “audit,” which actually found Joe Biden had won the state by more votes than originally tallied.

But these charades are necessary in state after state to keep the former president from turning his ire to Republican politicians he determines are insufficiently defending him.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
47
By
Comments (47)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “ (As the Journal-Sentinel reported, Gableman has also been consulting with Shiva Ayyadurai, a former U.S. Senate candidate and conspiracy theorist who claimed Massachusetts had secretly destroyed a million votes for Trump and whose election theories have been taken from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.)”

    Haha. Wait what? I read all of those books. Don’t remember much about US elections…

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Bill Nelson

    “… which actually found Joe Biden had won the state by more votes than originally tallied.”
    Only Maricopa County. And what is being done in Wisconsin is not an audit, merely an analysis.

    Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Justin Stapley

    What's tragic is that most Americans were simply voting to get Trump out of office and not to give Democrats unmatched power across the country. The Republican Party seems determined to ride the burning ship of Trumpism all the way down, instead of cutting their losses and moving on. I mean, do Republicans in Wisconsin really think they can hold on to the Assembly after engaging in these kinds of antics?

    Collapse
  4. Bill O'Donnell

    Can you imagine the frivolity in the Kremlin? "Vlad, Vlad, come here and look at this. Now we even have the Republican Whip spouting this nonsense and, in Wisconsin, we have a senile, former Supreme Court Justice channeling Rudy Giulianni. Your brilliant plan is working! More Vodka for everyone!"

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Mudskipper

      You know, I thought this guy was senile too. And then I looked him up. He's 55 years old.

      Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Devin H

    “Every one of Gableman’s moves since he took the reins of this “stop the steal” effort has been pure slapstick. He recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he doesn’t have ‘any understanding how elections work.’”

    This is absolutely wild. A former elected state official! I don’t know whether to be more depressed for Wisconsin that they wasted over half a million dollars on this farce or more relieved that this moron will in no way come close to achieving his desired outcome.

    Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Frank Lee

    Too bad the Trump campaign did not work with his plants inside the justice department using a campaign-funded fake dossier to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Biden campaign. Man oh man would we have some juicy reports of criminal activity that we could use to witch hunt Joe Biden into hiding in his basement again. But the reports would likely tell us about the Democrat collusion with China to steal an election.

    A related question... how can anyone who is good feel good about themselves being positively excited about a pandemic providing them political opportunity? Answer: these people are not good.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Devin H

      Feel free at any time to point out the evidence for election fraud. The Faithful have been waiting almost a year now, it’d truly be cruel to keep them running on hope for too much longer.

      Collapse
    2. DJ

      You’re one of the crazies this article is talking about.

      Collapse
    3. Avatar photo
      JohnF

      Unfortunately, the people in Trump's campaign were too busy trying to overturn an election.
      FISA Warrants are small potatoes.

      Collapse
  7. Leo Grinberg

    The better question is--why does the Republican base want to believe so badly that the election was stolen? Why not just admin that Trump is a lousy candidate? If anything, that thought should be very comforting, because it means that nominating a decent candidate would bring victory in 2024, considering how close even Trump was able to come.

    Collapse
    1. Taylor

      Especially when you consider there are some fair to decent presidential contenders waiting in the wings. I’m not a big fan, but Nikki Hayley would likely have a field day in the general against Biden. Instead, we’re heading to a 2024 repeat of 2020 only with much closer stakes given the Biden administrations current trajectory.

      Collapse
    2. David D

      Doubling down is easier than admitting you were wrong. Four years in and countless lies and disturbing actions doubled down on later, it's not surprising where the Republican base has ended up.

      Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    Pat Riot

    This is the #1 legislative agenda for the Republican party nationwide for 2021. Think about that for a minute. Absolutely no *sitting* president has ever had that kind of power over a political party in the USA, let alone a former one.

    The purpose of this show the GOP is putting on is to undermine our election system so that forthcoming elections can be torn to shreds if they lose.

    Yesterday Steve Scalise, the GOP Minority Whip and perhaps the third-ranked Republican in the country reaffirmed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

    This is not a case of "certain Republican whackos" doing whacky things, this is a coordinated attack on our Constitutional order but one of our major political parties. All over the USA where Republicans have majorities, this is their priority. Steve Scalise has signaled to the party that if Republicans gain the majority in the House, they will join the fight to avenge Trump's loss.

    We have two choices in this country: the Democrats or the insurrection party.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Bill Nelson

      “ This is the #1 legislative agenda for the Republican party nationwide for 2021. ”
      No. In AZ it was a sideshow only for the Senate which did little after authorizing the audit. Most state legislatures meet relatively infrequently.

      Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      John A Johnson

      And it is truly upsetting. When some fairly prominent (even if "ex-_) Republicans are arguing the only way to end this nonsense is to elect Democrats, it is really bad.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Pat Riot

        This simple hard reality of the situation is that political parties are in the business of winning elections and that's it. As long as Republicans are winning or close enough to it, they will not change one iota.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          John A Johnson

          Recognizing that Trump lost the election and cost seats in both Houses needs to be recognized; the GOP did to win elections in a meaningful definition of the term in 2020 -- but by arguing about the "steal," that becomes obfuscated

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            Bill Nelson

            Republicans picked up seats in the house in 2020.

            Collapse
          2. Avatar photo
            Pat Riot

            Trump tells his rally goers that Arizona audit proves his case. Those people are absolutely unreachable-and yet the GOP cannot win without them.

            Collapse
  9. StoneInstruments

    Wisconsinites may want to think harder about who they put on their Supreme Court. this is just embarrassing.

    Collapse
  10. Tw

    I don't see the harm. Everyone was going crazy in AZ and in the end it undermined Trump's efforts. Transparency is good.

    In Wisconsin's case, I believe there was a case heard by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in November or December 2020 where 3 of the 7 justices voted for the plaintiff suggesting there were significant laws broken in the administration of the election.

    IMO it doesn't hurt if the legislature, which has legal authority over elections, looks at this in detailed fashion and determines for themselves if they see anything funny which ought to change how they do future elections.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      wj

      It's not transparency - its all part of grift to keep the rabble roused - to nurture their sense of grievance, cynicism and anger. Wounds must stay fresh and festering, for Trump to be their salve. Can't have them getting on with a normal existence - that might allow them to move on. When they move on, dollars stop flowing in, and there are too few left who can be inspired to violence on their leader's command.

      Collapse
    2. Taylor

      I highly value transparency, and normally your point would be spot on. In this case, however, what we’re witnessing are attempts to build and validate a religious mythology on the back of a political party. Once enough individuals cross over to fully embrace that mythology, there is no amount of transparency that will ever break the spell. It’s self-fulfilling prophecy all the way down.

      The left (via the Democrats) are attempting their own version of this, but they’re apparently not as good at is as QPublicans are. They still might succeed too, which is why it’s SO vital that institutions like The Dispatch exist - to provide a guiding light for the same among us.

      Collapse
    3. Avatar photo
      John A Johnson

      I live in Arizona; the loonies do not accept the result

      Collapse
    4. StoneInstruments

      this isn't transparency. it's obsessive and impudent schlock. and very very sad.

      Collapse
Load More