Attorney General Schimel reflects on loss, lame-duck bills

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The ousted Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel says in his first post-election interview that his defeat to the Democrat Josh Kaul was “kind of a death by a thousand cuts.”

The interview with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee on Wednesday was also his first since the Republican-controlled Legislature passed bills earlier this month in a lame-duck session taking powers away from the attorney general’s office before Kaul takes over.

Schimel says he thinks the changes “might make a few things a little slower.”

Schimel said his defeat was the result in part of voters’ opinions on health care and protecting insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. He also cited referendums calling for the legalization of marijuana, which he said boosted Democratic turnout, and opposition to Gov. Scott Walker.

Schimel also says “we did lose votes I think because people are not happy with some of President Trump’s language that he uses in his communications.”