THE WEEK IN THE CAPITAL
Rubin, Morris H.
The Week In The Capitol [BY MORRIS a RUBIN] THE Republican drive to dump Gov. Heil is gaining momentum each day. Republican strategists have cooked up a neat little plan under which they will...
...J. Ward Rector last week announced he would appeal to the state supreme court Friday morning, May 10 from a decision of Circuit Judge A. C. Hoppmann refusing to quash an action brought by 14 state employes for reinstatement to the department of taxation...
...He was routed by Sol Levitan, and for the next two years Henry did some tall figuring with the election returns...
...Atty A. J. Biebcrstein, Madison, represented 14 of these employes who mainlined they had been laid off in violion of civil service rules regard!i seniority...
...As the Republican candidate for governor, he could tell the people that he had nothing to do with the horrible messes of the past two years...
...For instance, the big rebates handed telephone utilities and wealthy individuals, running into millions of dollars were approved by Republican and Democratic legislators long before the legislation reached Gov...
...As a great wit once said of man who jumped around from one ce of the fence to the other: "Vou < in't nail a custard pie to the wall...
...But a lot of Repub-car.s aren't so sure about his party [filiation...
...People know that all the vicious legislation passed had the approval of the Republicans and old guard Democrats in both houses of the legislature...
...The governor's dander is up...
...Rector represented Elmer Barlow, tax commissioner, who recently reorganized the taxation department end laid off about 65 employes...
...Two things, however, stand in the way of successful operaiion of this slick scheme...
...In 1936, for instance, when he thought Roosevelt leadership would help him roll up a big vote for state treasurer—even though he was bitterly opposed to the New Deal—Henry ran as a Democrat...
...Some more scratching on paper convinced Henry he could not win as the Democratic candidate, so he magnaminously with-' rew In favor of Hc-il...
...The same is true of the Republican raid on farm legislation, on ability-to-pay taxes, on the state service, and on old age pensions...
...The other is the voting public...
...The case has been put at the end of the day's calendar...
...Now, with another election on the ay, Henry is a rull-fledged Republi-tn out to beat the man for whom he ithdrew in 1938...
...Robert K. Henry, the Jefferson banker who swings from one party to another with the ease oi a trapeze artist, would then become the fair-haired boy...
...And then there's the voting public...
...Rector moved to quash the appeal . . the employes but Hoppmann over-mlcd Ret tor and the deputy attorney i:rneral is appealing this rtii i mil to i he high court...
...He knows a lot of Republican colleagues and newspapers are out to get him, and he's determined to fight the thing through...
...Lately he has become worried and fretful...
...He doesn't ooze the confidence in himself that he used to...
...Henry is praying feverishly that the Republican lightning will strike lym this year...
...Supreme Court Will Get Tax Employe Case Deputy Atty...
...The Jefferson banker announced a week ago that he will definitely run for governor on the Republican ticket if he gets the endorsement of the Republican convention at Green Bay May 31...
...Republican strategists have cooked up a neat little plan under which they will wrap all the Republican sins of the past two years in a big bun-die, tie it around Heil's neck, and then toss him to the sharks...
...Rector said the supreme court would hear arguments probably before noon next Friday...
...and as a result may take fewer things for granted and work harder for the Republican nomination...
...Heil for his approval...
...In 1938, Henry decided to run for governor with his feet in both buckets...
...Henry always used to run on the Democratic ticket, and it wasn't until he concluded that there were more votes to be had in the Republican column that he switched allegiance...
...He won the Democratic nomination but lost the Republican to Heil...
...The biggest problem that the Henry -upporters face is convincing the Republican rank and file that the Jefferson banker is a Republican...
...One is Gov...
...He ran in the primary as both a Republican and a Democrat...
...I; isn't likely that the rank and file will fall for the palaver that all the skullduggery of the past year or two can be blamed on Heil...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 19
