Texas Reps Fleeing State Similar to 2011 Wisconsin Dem Exodus

Act 10 protest. Photo by Richard Hurd. (CC BY 2.0)

One story may help illustrate how crazy Wisconsin politics were in the winter of 2011.

A Democratic state senator who left the Capitol in February to avoid voting on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s bill to gut collective bargaining by public employees couldn’t believe the report he heard: Senate Democrats had “kidnapped” one of their own, Julie Lassa, who was pregnant, and forced her to leave Madison.

Instead, “Julie was my driver,” as they headed south to rendezvous with the other 12 Democrats in Rockford, Ill., then-Sen. Dave Hansen, of Green Bay, recalled last week. “That was crazy.”

Hansen was asked about Senate Democrats’ three-week break from the Capitol in 2011 after Texas House Democrats left Austin to block a vote on Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to create five new Republican-dominated U.S. House districts, which could let Republicans keep control of the U.S. House after 2026 elections.

“Good for Texas House Democrats,” said Hansen, assistant Senate Democratic leader in 2011. “I support them completely.

“What [Texas] Republicans are doing is going to backfire,” Hansen predicted, because other states dominated by Democrats — California, Illinois and New York — may redraw districts to increase the number of Democrats in their U.S. House delegations.

Hansen said he has “absolutely no regrets” about the request by then-Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller that the 14 Democrats, outnumbered by 19 Republicans, leave Madison to stir public outrage at the Act 10 bill Walker wanted quickly passed.

“It was the right thing to do,” Hansen said. He had one hour to gather some clothes and personal items and leave before the Senate was scheduled to debate Act 10.

Despite protests that drew up to an estimated 100,000 opponents to the Capitol and its grounds, Act 10 was passed by Republican legislators at the request of Walker, who saw it as a historic way to begin the first of his two terms as governor.

Provisions of Act 10 are pending — 14 years later — before this term of the state Supreme Court. It required most public employees to pay more for health care and pensions, said unions could only negotiate cost-of-living raises, and made it harder to win and retain union representation.

Walker and other Republicans have said Act 10 saved Wisconsin billions of dollars in property taxes. In 2020, the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum reported that it saved state and local governments $5 billion between 2011 and 2017 in pension costs.

Hansen said Act 10, and news reports about the fleeing Senate Democrats, made Walker a “hero” among conservatives nationally.

But he remembers the tens of thousands who cheered the 14 Democrats when they returned to the Capitol in March. On that day, “We were the freakin’ heroes.”

Hansen recalled other details of his party’s Capitol exit.

*After Senate Republican leaders tried to stop paying the salaries of Democrats, Hansen said he had to wait weeks to get paid. (Another Democrat, Jon Erpenbach, gave his chief of staff power of attorney so Erpenbach’s paychecks could be cashed.)

*So many Senate Democrats temporarily relocated to the Illinois home of a sister of then-Sen. Kathleen Vinehout that the sister’s neighbors began to question why all those cars were there. One explanation: They were all going to a concert, or to a summer festival, Hansen said.

*Hansen’s wife, Jane, had to bring him clothes, since the Democrats stayed in Illinois longer than they expected. Unlike some members of his caucus, Hansen “never went back to Wisconsin” until they all returned.

*Hansen got a death threat for leaving the Capitol, but the Green Bay resident who made it was mentally unstable and was not prosecuted. It was also suggested that Hansen wear a bulletproof vest.

*Two veteran Democratic senators — Robert Jauch and Tim Cullen — tried to negotiate an end to the walkout with Republicans, but weren’t successful.

Two major players in the Senate drama — Cullen and former Senate President Mike Ellis, a Republican — have died. Having worked with former Gov. Tommy Thompson, Ellis and Cullen “were tight,” Hansen noted.

None of the 18 Republicans who voted for Act 10 are still in the Senate; then-Sen. Dale Schultz was the only Republican to vote against it. Three Senate Democrats who left the state — Tim Carpenter, Chris Larson and Bob Wirch — are still in the Senate.

The Act 10 drama and the Democrats’ exodus was “unbelievable,” said Hansen, whose 20 years in the Senate ended with his 2020 retirement.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.