GOP proposes Senate spectator rules

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Fed up with protesters dogging them at every turn, Senate Republicans moved Monday to regain control of their chamber, proposing new rules that would ban repeat demonstrators and require silence during committee hearings.

Under the proposal, anyone who violates rules of decorum in the Senate chamber, parlor, offices or hearing rooms could be removed for 24 hours. Third-time offenders could be barred from any Senate space for the remainder of the two-year legislative session.

No one in the Senate gallery would be allowed to display any object, including signs, or use any electronic devices. Current Senate rules specifically prohibit signs, cellphones, pagers, laptops, cameras and audio recorders, but Republicans wanted to make sure they covered the entire gamut of electronic equipment, such as iPads, said Tom Evenson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.

Anyone who observes a Senate committee meeting would have to be seated and remain silent as well as follow the Senate gallery's prohibition on displays.

The Senate is expected to vote on the rules Tuesday ahead of Gov. Scott Walker's State of the State address. Republicans control the chamber 18-15, making passage almost certain.

Republicans who run the Assembly adopted similar rules for spectators in that chamber's gallery last week. Those regulations also allow chamber security or police to remove disruptive spectators from the gallery for 24 hours and third-time offenders for the rest of the session. The rules don't extend to Assembly committee meetings, though.

Senate Democrats said they're concerned the changes could reduce public access to government proceedings.

Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, warned in a letter to the rest of the body most spectators don't know the Senate's policies on decorum.

"I hope that the ideals of transparency, deliberation, and full representation overcome these proposed rules," Taylor said. "I encourage you to work for changes and vote against such rules."

Evenson countered that the Senate's requirements are listed in readily available public documents. He insisted the rules won't reduce transparency and are necessary to protect everyone, lawmakers and observers alike.

"These improvements are needed to bring safety and a reasonable level of order and decorum to the Senate," Evenson said. "Our goal is to ensure safety and security for the observing public, senators and staff."

Republicans are still tender after one of the ugliest legislative sessions in state history. Walker, a Republican, began the 2011-12 session by introducing a measure that stripped most public workers of nearly all their union rights. The proposal enraged Democrats and their allies and prompted massive protests at the state Capitol that lasted for weeks. Minority Democrats in the Senate fled the state in a futile attempt prevent a vote in that house.

Republicans eventually passed the plan, but the episode created a politically toxic atmosphere in the Capitol. A hard-core group of agitators took to disrupting committees and floor sessions, heckling GOP lawmakers and draping banners over gallery railings. Police repeatedly removed the same demonstrators, dragging them away as they screamed about their civil rights.

A group of demonstrators still gathers daily in the Capitol rotunda to sing anti-Walker chants.

Things could heat up quickly this session, too. Assembly Republicans have promised their first bill will overhaul the state's mining regulations. Republicans' efforts to push the measure through last year ignited a bitter fight with environmentalists and the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.