Senator Brad Pffaf co-sponsors legalization bill

Back in September, 2021 my article entitled Senate Bill 545 Adult Use Legislation Co-Sponsorship Analysis made note that for the first time in the history of Wisconsin legislation, a majority of the Democratic Senate has signed onto the bill as either an author or co-sponsor.

This was largely due to Senator Minority Leader Janet Bewley and her blunt blunder, bringing the remaining Democrats to bring a new face to the co-sponsorship table with Senator Jon Erpenbach coming aboard.

The Senate Democratic Caucus is comprised of 12 members (Republicans hold 21 seats). The original co-sponsorship analysis also exposed the remaining hold outs that did not touch the legalization legislation, including Senator Pfaff.

Who Else?

Who are the Democratic hold outs, no shows or non-supporters. We have Minority Senate Leader Bewley high on that list. Her right hand Assistant Senate Minority Ringhand comes in a close second.

Incumbent Senator Carpenter is still MIA.

Senator Wirch is vocal about medical marijuana and decriminalization and he is trying, we will say that.

Newly elected Senator Pfaff was not supportive on the campaign trail, stuck to his opinion and was a no show as an original co-sponsor back in 2021. It should be noted that Pfaff was the only newly elected democrat in 2020 that has not co-sponsored this legislation. That kind of made us mad.

Speaking of Kind

Only a month later, in October 2021 as Congressman Ron Kind (D) retires, who jumps into the primary race right away asking for your votes? Yep, Senator Pfaff. That made us a little more fired up, so we began a campaign to get Pfaff to co-sponsor legalization! Guess what, it worked!

On January 18th, Senator Brad Pfaff (D) added himself as a co-sponsor to Senate Bill 545.

Important Notes

Also important to note is that all 9 newly elected Democrat Assembly Representatives in the 2020 election stepped up the the plate and co-sponsored adult use marijuana legalization legislation and they are: Reps Hong, S. Rodriguez, Baldeh, Snodgrass, Shelton, Moore Omokunde, Drake, Ortiz-Velez and Andraca.

Technically now with Senator Pfaff joining the legalization team, we can proudly say that all Democrats newly elected to their seat in 2020 authored or co-sponsored the adult recreational use / medical marijuana combo bill. Way to go first term Democrats!

Now what is missing?

What is missing from this picture? Republicans! Of the 21 in the Senate and the 61 in the Assembly, not one of them has supported this legislation by co-sponsoring, nor have they offered legislation of their own for consideration.

As always, use the form below to express support to your law makers for this important piece of legislation.