December 15, 2020

Working for you!

Election Impropriety Warrants Decertification/Delay

On Friday, the Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections held a public hearing to conduct a review of the 2020 General Election. The committee heard from election officials and citizens who participated in the election process.

The testimony provided to the legislature raised significant concerns about the reliability of elections in our state. I am appalled by big city polling places staffed by poorly trained election officials who bullied, intimidated, and obstructed election observers. Wisconsin Election Commission bureaucrats broke state law by not following proper procedures. The impropriety exercised in this election was demonstrated as so widespread, that I feel the election as a whole violated Wisconsin law.

My oath requires that I uphold the laws of our state and nation. We received clear and credible evidence today that the presidential electors were improperly certified by the Wisconsin Elections Commission and governor. As a member of the Wisconsin Legislature, I believe it’s appropriate to exercise our constitutional authority to decertify the slate of presidential electors or delay their convening until a full audit can be completed.

Based on the evidence and testimony provided today, I will also work with my colleagues to ensure our election laws cannot be warped and abused so easily in the future.

Yesterday morning, my colleagues and I also co-signed a letter to Governor Evers, the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Vice President Pence detailing why Wisconsin's presidential electors should be contested by Congress.

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends and constituents!

Audit Finds DWD Caused 11 Week Delays for Unemployment Insurance

Yesterday, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) released its review of the Department of Workforce Development’s (DWD’s) processing of certain Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims. The audit found DWD caused claimants to wait unnecessary months for their money by failing to resolve claims even when DWD had the information to do so or failed to request the necessary information.
As of October 10, the audit found fewer than 3 out of 4 individuals have received the benefits they filed for since March 15.

The governor’s declaration of a public health emergency in March caused a significant uptick in unemployment claims; however, he waited until May to utilize the flexibility and resources allocated to him by the legislator to increase unemployment processing staff.

LAB reviewed the case files of 268 individuals who filed initial claims for regular UI benefits from March 15, 2020, through April 11, 2020, but who had not been paid as of June 20, 2020. Based on its review, LAB found DWD was responsible for 11.0 of the 13.0 weeks (84.6 percent) that it took, on average, to resolve the initial claims of the 250 individuals.

This out and out negligence caused the governor to fire his own DWD secretary in September, but I’m disappointed that I still have constituents calling my office due to the runaround they are getting from DWD. People throughout Wisconsin are losing their homes, their cars, and their ability to put food on the table because of this administration’s carelessness and that is just not acceptable to me.

Upcoming Events

Check out upcoming events near us by visiting the Wisconsin Tourism website, https://appletondowntown.org/upcoming-events/, or https://www.foxcities.org/events/ and if you run into me while you’re out and about be sure to stop and say hi!

"Like" Representative Murphy's Facebook Page

I use Facebook to update constituents more frequently on my work in Madison and the 56th Assembly District. I look forward to using this as another way to connect with constituents and encourage you to follow it and watch for regular updates.