Republican secretary of state hopeful wants lawmakers to hand the office control over elections, but she won't say how much authority she wants or whether her duties should include unilaterally certifying presidential winners in the key battleground state.

Wisconsin's secretary of state has no role in elections, but that could change if Republicans are able to flip the seat this year and pass a law that would empower the office with far more responsibilities.

Doug La Follette is adjusting to a new status in Wisconsin politics: relevance.

Wisconsin's longtime secretary of state, Democrat Doug La Follette, said Tuesday he is preparing to run for reelection to the office he was first elected to in 1974 and that he has held since 1983.

A Dane County judge has declined to issue a temporary injunction to halt state budget cuts affecting the office of Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette.

Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette tried to persuade a judge Friday to temporarily block provisions in the state budget that slash La Follette's budget by nearly 50 percent, arguing the cuts have crippled his office and he can't fulfill his duties.

Longtime Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette is suing Republican Gov. Scott Walker over budget cuts to his office.

By 
SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin state employees will start paying more for their health care and pension benefits in late August, state officials said Wednesday as a coalition of unions filed a new lawsuit against the GOP-supported plan that strips away collective bargaining rights from most public workers. The announcement came a day after the ...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette says he will publish the law taking away most collective bargaining rights from public workers on June 28. That means the law will take effect June 29. La Follette’s decision announced Wednesday comes after the state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a lower court judge should not have ...

Madison (AP) — Wisconsin's secretary of state has asked the state Supreme Court to drop an appeal made in his name that seeks to overturn a lower court judge's order barring the state's divisive new union rights law from taking effect.

By 
TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans face a new hurdle in their campaign to curb public sector unions’ power. So far Republicans have managed win after win — overcoming massive protests and outmaneuvering Democrats to push their plan through the Legislature, then finding a way to at least temporarily ...

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The showdown over Wisconsin’s explosive union bargaining law shifted from the Statehouse back to the courthouse on Tuesday, but it remained unclear when or even whether the measure would take effect. Republican lawmakers pushed through passage of the law earlier this month despite massive protests that drew up to 85,000 people ...

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge weighed arguments Tuesday about whether an order she issued intended to temporarily block the state’s divisive new collective bargaining law was still in place, or whether Republican leaders had again outmaneuvered their opponents by using a legal loophole to achieve their goals. During a hearing into one of ...

By 
SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans insist that the anti-union law that sparked weeks of protests at the state Capitol and that is being challenged in court takes effect Saturday because a state office decided to post it online. The head of the office that posted it and a court order temporarily blocking the law’s ...

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state appeals court declined to rule Thursday on whether to allow a law stripping public employee unions of nearly all their collective bargaining rights to take effect, saying the issue should be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It’s appropriate for the state’s highest court to take the case because ...

By 
CARRIE ANTLFINGER Associated Press Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) — With Wisconsin’s Supreme Court expected to take on a case that came out of Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to curb collective bargaining rights for public workers, a debate between a justice seeking re-election and a prosecutor challenging him for the seat quickly turned to impartiality Monday. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David ...

The ramifications of a proposed 10 percent budget cut plus increases to employee benefit contributions are starting to show at the state’s circuit courts.

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — School boards and local governments across Wisconsin are rushing to reach agreements with unions before a new law takes effect and erases their ability to collectively bargain over nearly all issues other than minimal salary increases. The law doesn’t go into effect until the day after Secretary of State Doug La ...

By 
SCOTT BAUER and 
TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge was considering Friday whether to block enactment of a law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from the vast majority of Wisconsin’s public workers. Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed the legislation Friday morning, but it does not take effect until the day after an official ...