News: Clark Co - Sen. Thomas Harnisch, attempted recall

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson
Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Harnisch, Volovsek

---Source: Marshfield News-Herald (7 December 1981)

NEILLSVILLE -- The attempt to recall Sen, Thomas Harnisch, D-Neillsville, will start again in January.

A group in Harnisch's 31 Senate District has been attempting to recall the senator since early fall, but failed to call for a special election.

The Committee to Recall Sen, Harnisch, meanwhile, will continue to pursue a suit filed in Clark County Circuit Court to overturn a State Elections Board decision to eliminate entire sheets of signatures if one name on the sheet is from outside the 31st Senate District, according to David Volovsek, Committee co-chairman.

The suit was filed last week after the State Supreme Court decided not to take original jurisdiction over the matter, which would give the petitioners the needed 11,862 signatures if the Election Board is overruled.

About 50 petitioners decided Sunday night to start the new recall drive, Volovsek said.

"We're heading into another recall petition drive right after the first of the year," he said.

Volovsek said the petitioners were waiting until January to start the drive "so we won't bother people over Christmas."

The petitioners will attempt to obtain the needed signatures during a 60-day period. If the first counted signatures are made in early January, it would be after February before a special election could be held.

Harnisch's term expires in 1982, but that will not stop the petition drive, according to Volovsek.

"If a special election is held a month before the regular election, that's fine with us," Volovsek said.

The recall committee still is upset with Harnisch's stand on land use legislation, he said.

"People are downright disappointed in it," Volovsek stated "They're going to try to shove it down our throats no matter what we do."

Volovsek called Harnisch-supported legislation, such as bill reorganizing the board of Soil and Water Conservation and the Farmland Preservation Act "bureaucratic land grabs."

The new petition drive will give the recall committee another option if the recall committee's suit fails or it is delayed, according to Volovsek.

"If they want to stall it, fine," he said.

Petitioner will be seeking about 15,000 signatures in the new recall drive, Volovsek added, s figure he feels is possible because of Harnisch's comments calling the recall committee a group of radicals and his continued stance on land legislation.

"A lot of people who didn't want to sign before want to now," he said.

"the way Harnisch is calling us names and pursuing those (land use) bills, he's cutting his own throat," Volovsek said.

Volovsek added that the 15,000 is possible this time besause the petitioners have experience from the first attempt. There also will not be as many signatures thrown out by the elections board, he said.

"Last time, we didn't know enough about petitions," he said. "But we've had some real good education in the past couple months."

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News: Clark Co. - Sen. Thomas Harnisch recall stalled

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson

Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Harnisch, LaFollette, Delp, Neibler

---Source: Marshfield News-Herald 10 December 1981)

MADISON -- The state Election Board decided Wednesday to take no action on a complaint by a committee seeking the recall of Se. Thomas Harnisch, D-Neillsville.

On a 6-1 vote, the committee agreed to make information regarding the allegations available to Attorney General Bronson LaFollette or any attorneys in Harnish's 31st Senate district.

The panel made its decision after hearing from James Delp, Tomah, who vowed there would be another recall effort, and Harnisch, who blasted committee leaders for alleged false statements in their drive for signatures. The drive fell short when the election board recently declared hundreds of recall petition signatures invalid.

Harnisch contended that recall members, who claim his water and spoil conversation proposals would deny them their property rights were directed by political extremists.

Delp said more than 13,000 signatures were obtained and challenged Harnisch to "show us one who is a member of the Posse Commitatus," a self-styled law and order group.

"The recall committee does not have a candidate( for Harnisch's seat) to date." Delp said. "We don't know anybody who wants the job."

"But we're going to have another recall," he said. "It will be second to none."

Harnisch complained that the committee deliberately distorted the facts in its flyers denouncing his efforts to get soil and water conservation legislation passed.

The allegations included: Se. Harnisch wants bureaucrats to ruin the farms. He wants them to no longer need warrants or reason before conducting searches. He wants (committees) to be able to take farmers' land. He wants to prevent farmers from having a say over the sale or price of their crops.

Harnisch said the committee continued to circulate flyers long after it was pointed out they contained erroneous information.

Maximum penalties under the election law violations are three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Delp said the recall committee was "a group of people who have had enough government. We believe the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) wants to take over rural America.

John Neibler of Menominee Falls, a board member, said the panel should guard against candidates using it for political purposes.

The board"is made into a tool for candidates during a campaign," he said. "Once it's over, you hardly ever hear anything about charges."

"If a crime has been committed, the prosecuting authorities have all the authority they need" to take the matter to court, he said.

Harnisch said the primary responsibility to see that elections are clean is the board's. "Are we going to allow people to make false statements" in campaigns? he asked. "I could care less as to the criminal prosecution of these people. My responsibility is to the 5,000 constituents" who received the flyers, he said.

"Recall leaders knew the material was false," he said. "They deliberately, willfully and intentionally misrepresented the facts relative to me and my legislative effort. My constituents witnessed for the first time a calculated, deliberate action by a small political group to defame an elected public official."

He said a written retraction and apology to his constituents and his family would benefit all concerned.

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News: Clark Co. - Sen. Thomas Harnish, Petitioners won't be charged (1981)

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson

Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Harnisch, La Follette, Meyers

---Source: Marshfield News-Herald (11 December 1981)

MADISON - No criminal charges will be filed against petitioner seeking the recall of Sen. Thomas Harnisch, D-Neillsville, according to state Attorney General Bronson La Follette.

An investigation into allegations by Harnisch and five state legislators that improper methods were used by petitioners to obtain signatures "has not produced sufficient evidence to file criminal charges," La Follette said.

The investigation was requested by five assembly democrats who claimed petition circulators did not circulate the petitions themselves, the petition's intent was misrepresented, signatures had been forged and dates on the petitions had been changed.

"It's all there," Harnisch said of the allegations he and his supporters made. "It was a just a matter of whether it should be prosecuted."

All the allegations were found true through the investigation, conducted by the state Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation, Harnisch said.

No charges will be filed however, because notaries public said they had not placed circulators under oath when notarizing the petitions, according to the justice department.

"it's clear they had the evidence, but the fact was that the notaries hadn't put them (circulators) under oath," Harnisch agreed. "The report said irregularities were documented, but you can't prosecute people when they aren't under oath."

Members of the Committee to recall Sen. Harnisch did "a lot of dumb things" while circulating petitions, according to Frank Meyers, head of the division of criminal investigation, but it's "hard to prove that the petition circulators and notaries intentionally violated the law."

One of the Harnisch allegations was that the petitioners circulated a four -page document containing falsehoods about legislation he supports.

"They know they were false," he said. "They admitted that. They went out and distributed thousands and thousands of those four-page flyers that were false."\

Harnisch said there may be one catch to the lack of prosecution.

An affidavit has the same effect as an oath, he said. Since there was no prosecution because of the lack of an oath, the petitions would have to be ruled invalid, he added.

Petitioners turned petitions with about 13,000 signatures into the state Elections Board with 11,862 signatures needed to start special elections proceedings. Enough signatures were rejected by the Elections Board to kill the drive, but petitioners have taken one issue to circuit court.

Proceedings were filed earlier this month in Clark County Circuit Court to overturn an Elections Board decision to eliminate entire sheets of signatures if one name on the sheets was from outside Harnisch's 31st Senate District.

Harnisch said the petitioners' statement concerning the oaths could eliminate that petition attempt.

The circuit court proceeding also may be an opportunity for Harnisch, the senator said.

"As of yet, nobody has been placed under oath," he said.

Recall committee leaders said they would start another petition drive in January, while court proceedings on the fall petition continue.

Harnisch has been the target of the recall petitioners who oppose his stands on legislation concerning land use.

The recall issue is not dead, Harnish said. But the investigation proved that he was correct in his allegations against the petitioners, he added.

"To use an old quote, they got out on a technicality," Harnisch saoid.