Empower Wisconsin | Aug. 22, 2022

MADISON — State Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) calls Gov. Tony Evers the “absentee” governor. It’s an apt descriptor for the state’s ghoster-in-chief, and two high-profile cases of Evers’ leadership absenteeism last week drive the point home.

First, Evers got caught with his felon out.

The governor, feeling election-year pressure, reversed course on his recent appointment of a convicted felon — who just happens to be awaiting trial on new felony charges — to the Governor’s Justice Commission.

Aundray Evans, 24, of Milwaukee, was a member of the 19-member commission. He was charged in September 2019 with five criminal counts including armed robbery, motor vehicle theft, possession of a firearm by a felon, cocaine possession and obstructing an officer. He goes on trial in October.

After questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the appointment, the governor’s office said Monday that the appointment was withdrawn.

Evans has a long and violent criminal record. His record of re-offending is clear, and most certainly would have been vetted by a less lazy administration.

And the Absentee Governor took a lot of heat last week for the state’s licensing crisis.

His dysfunctional Department of Safety and Professional Services was sharply criticized by lawmakers who want to know why untold numbers of Wisconsin’s licensed professionals have been forced to wait months for their credentials to be processed, in particular professionals on the front lines of Wisconsin’s health and mental health care crises.

“For the last year, constituents looking to keep or fill jobs in an already tight labor market were ignored by the DSPS,” State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said after sending a letter to the agency demanding answers. “They wait on hold for hours and end up getting dumped to voice mail. Often their checks were cashed months before they received an answer on why their license was still on hold. This is unacceptable.”

The problem is so bad that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and AP finally reported on it.

Just like the debacle at the Department of Workforce Development, when Evers had little contact with his incompetent secretary as tens of thousands of out-of-work Wisconsinites waited months for their unemployment checks, the governor is nowhere to be found in the license crisis.

He truly is the “Absentee Governor.”

And he’s Empower Wisconsin’s Tool of the Week.