Most Popular Murphy’s Law Columns

2020 was the year of the pandemic, which revealed just how radically conservative Wisconsin’s Republican leaders are. No state’s Republican congressional delegation was as opposed to federal pandemic relief bill passed in March as Wisconsin’s. Texas? Just six of its 23 House Republicans voted no. Tennessee? Four of its seven Republicans opposed the bill. South Carolina? Close but no cigar: four of its five Republicans said nay.  

Across America, not one representative of deep-red states like Mississippi, Alabama, Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Utah and North Dakota voted against the bill, showing just how popular this legislation was, as a Murphy’s Law column (the fifth most popular of the year) reported. Yet in purple Wisconsin, which voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and in 2018 elected a full slate of Democratic state officials, including Governor and Attorney General, the majority of its House representatives voted no.

Meanwhile, Republican state legislators, led by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, have refused since April to convene the Legislature to take action to help a state reeling from the plague of COVID-19, as another column, the fourth most popular of the year, noted. No state with full-time legislators met less frequently during this period, as another column noted. On average they met 18 times more frequently than in Wisconsin. Meanwhile Vos and Fitzgerald did everything they could to restrict any actions by Gov. Tony Evers and the state Department of Health to combat the pandemic.

The actions of the two Republican leaders have hurt the state in another way: they’ve cost the state’s taxpayers more than $1.5 billion, mostly by refusing federal funding for Medicaid and handing out tax breaks that did not create any of the promised jobs, as the second most popular column explained.

Meanwhile, some favorite subjects of Urban Milwaukee readers continued to make the news: the ever-more-egregious failure of Foxconn, the ever-more-distant sunset date for the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium subsidy, and the ever-more-ethically-challenged career of David Clarke. Bad news can linger on and on.

10. State’s Liberal Talk Radio Chain Growing

9. Robin Vos To Face Opponent After All

8. Lena Taylor’s Aide Suspended by WNOV

7. Foxconn Squeezes Evers

6. Why Foxconn Won’t Leave Wisconsin

5. Wisconsin Now the Reddest State?

4. Why Vos, Fitzgerald Refused to Lead

3. David Clarke a Key Part of Bannon Scam

2. Vos, Fitzgerald Cost Taxpayers Billions

1. Brewers Franchise Spirals In Value