Dem Mayor Under Fire Following Shocking Report of Zuckerberg-Funded Election Meddling
Republican Wisconsin lawmakers called Tuesday for Green Bay’s Democratic mayor to resign following a report that he ceded authority to run the election to a paid consultant with ties to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Eric Genrich did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the calls for him to resign.
His office denied all claims of wrongdoing raised in the story that appeared on the conservative Wisconsin Spotlight website.
City attorneys reviewed all of the claims and determined they were “completely without merit,” a statement from Genrich’s office said.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice referred any questions about election impropriety to law enforcement or the state’s election commission.
Calls for the mayor’s resignation and investigations came from state Sen. Kathy Bernier, chair of the Senate’s elections committee, as well as state Sens. Roger Roth of Appleton and Alberta Darling of Whitefish Bay.
“The public has a right to know to what extent Democrat operatives and mayoral staff, among others, interfered with the job of clerks in administering elections,” Bernier wrote to Attorney General Josh Kaul and Gov. Tony Evers.
Evers did not immediately respond to questions about whether he would launch an investigation.
The latest story triggering calls for an investigation appeared on a website controlled by Empower Wisconsin, a group whose president is former Republican state Rep. Adam Jarchow and whose director is Eric O’Keefe, a longtime Republican operative on the board of Wisconsin Club for Growth.
The story cites emails and other documents obtained under Wisconsin’s public records law to allege that Genrich and his staff essentially handed over operation of the election to partisan Democrats funded by a grant from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life.
That group awarded more than $6 million to five Wisconsin cities to help with the November election, including $1.6 million to Green Bay.
The nonprofit’s $250 million in grants awarded nationwide were funded by Zuckerberg and his wife, philanthropist Priscilla Chan.
Conservatives sued to stop the funding in Wisconsin, but lost in federal court.
The Spotlight Wisconsin story alleges that Genrich and his staff ceded too much authority during the election, including handing over the keys to the city’s central ballot counting location, to consultant Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, who was hired by the city to assist with the election.
He works for the National Vote at Home Institute, a group that advocates for voting by mail.
Spitzer-Rubenstein, who has worked on Democratic campaigns in the past, did not return a message left seeking comment.
The election was administered exclusively by city staff and no ballots were ever in the care or custody of consultants, the mayor’s office said.
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by fewer than 21,000 votes.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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