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MADISON -State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo argued Tuesday there is nothing more Wisconsin lawmakers can do to address the coronavirus after passing legislation to help hospitals and the unemployed six months ago.

Beyond that, I think we have to remember that this is a virus. There is nothing that government can do, Sanfelipposaid in an interview with the WisconsinEye Public Affairs Network. You know, we cant wave a magic wand and make it go away.

Sanfelippo is a Republican from New Berlin and the chairman of the Assembly Health Committee.

In the same interview, Sanfelippo said he believed Democratic Gov. Tony Evers put the state's mask requirement in place illegally. But if it is overturned, Sanfelippo said he would support having lawmakers putone of their own in place an idea other Republicans have opposed.

Sanfelippos Democratic challenger, Jessica Katzenmeyer, said as the chairman of the Assembly Health Committee, Sanfelippo should be doing more to respond to the pandemic.

"Rep. Sanfelippo and his partys inaction is prolonging this crisis and making it harder for us to bounce back," she said in a statement.

The Republican-controlled Legislature in April passed the wide-ranging coronavirus legislation, which allowed the state to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal help, suspended a one-week waiting period to claim unemployment benefits, protected businesses from litigation and gave insurance protections for those infected with COVID-19.

Lawmakers have not passed any legislation in the six months since then.

We have to realize that there isnt a lot we can do as politicians, Sanfelippo told WisconsinEye. But we need to sit back, let the medical community figure this out, give them the resources they need to do it and let them do it."

Later in the day, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he would be willing to consider future legislation if data shows there is more the state can do. He said Democrats are unfairly trying to portray Republicans as uncaring when it comes to the coronavirus.

Republican lawmakers have gone to court to try to undo major parts of Evers coronavirus response plan. In May, the state Supreme Court sided with Republican legislators and ended the administrations stay-at-home order.

More recently, GOP legislators filed a legal brief to end the states mask mandate, but that effort has been unsuccessful so far.

Sanfelippo told WisconsinEye that he views masks asnot a big deal but believed Evers had violated the law by putting the mask requirement in place without getting the sign-off of the Legislature.

The governor seems to think that hes the only branch of government, Sanfelippo said.

A judge sided with Evers on the issue last week, but the case is expected to be appealed.

If the matter were left to lawmakers, Sanfelippo said they would put a mask requirement in place. It's not clear that would happen, given that GOP Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine has said the Senate will vote down the mask requirement after the Nov. 3 election if the courts havent revoked it by then.

Im confident we would have passed some type of mask order ourselves, whether it was statewide or a little more targeted could be up for discussion, Sanfelippo told WisconsinEye.

ContactPatrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Followhim on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.

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Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, who heads a health panel, contends there is nothing more the government can do to fight COVID-19 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Democratic Party tried to associate Republican Sen. Susan Collins with a polarizing president with campaign signs that said Trump/Collins.

The Republican Party responded by with its own signs declaring, Vote Sara Gideon/DEFUND THE POLICE!

Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, confirms the GOP paid for the signs. There was clearly no intent to hide it, Savage told NewsCenterMaine. Every time weve been asked, weve said that theyre ours.

Savage said the party wanted to highlight Gideons connections to liberal groups that support defunding police.

Gideon said she doesnt support defunding police.

I just want to be clear, I do not want to defund the police. I do want to make changes that ensure that people of color do not continue to be brutalized or killed, Gideon previously said during a debate.

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Maine Republican Party behind signs linking Gideon to defund police movement - Press Herald

In the face of a whirlwind presidential campaign and massive fundraising numbers coming out of marquee U.S. Senate contests, its easy to overlook whats happening in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives. That might be because Democrats look like strong bets to hold onto power there. In fact, FiveThirtyEights forecast is most confident about the House, as the Deluxe version of our model gives Democrats a 95 in 100 shot at retaining control of the House, better than Joe Bidens 88 in 100 chance of winning the presidency or the Democrats 74 in 100 chance of capturing the Senate.

However, even if Democrats do hold onto the House, that doesnt mean theyll retain every seat they control. In fact, there are a number of seats they might lose, including that of Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the most vulnerable House incumbent seeking reelection in 2020. The Deluxe version of our House forecast only gives him about a 1 in 4 shot of winning in Minnesotas 7th Congressional District against Republican Michelle Fischbach.

Petersons chances come down partly to the makeup of his rural district in western Minnesota. The 7th Congressional District is 26 points more Republican than the country as a whole, according to FiveThirtyEights partisan lean metric, making it the most GOP-leaning House seat held by a Democrat. Seeking his 16th term in office, Peterson has won past elections as a Democrat thanks to his moderate views, his anti-abortion stance and his focus on agricultural issues. And as the chair of the House Agriculture Committee, hes been very attentive to farming interests, especially the sugar beet industry, which is important to his constituency. Still, the rightward shift in his district in the last decade or so narrowed his margin of victory to about 4 points in 2018.

But beyond the seats increasingly deep red hue, Peterson is up against his most daunting challenger in years. Fischbach served as the states lieutenant governor and, before that, as president of the Minnesota Senate. And unlike recent Peterson opponents, Fischbach has nearly matched his fundraising. On top of that, Republican groups have spent $5 million on her behalf, while Peterson has received a little less than $4 million in outside support. Its no wonder then that the expert handicappers at The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabatos Crystal Ball all rate this race as a toss-up, which factors into the Deluxe version of our forecast.

However, despite Petersons trying circumstances, the good news for Democrats is that his vulnerability makes him a rare bird in 2020. Of the most endangered Democratic-held House seats, Democrats are clear underdogs in just Petersons district. In fact, as the table below shows, Democrats are slightly favored in most competitive seats they are defending (races where they have less than a 3 in 4 shot of winning). Just two other Democratic incumbents face toss-up races: Rep. Kendra Horn in Oklahomas 5th Congressional District and Rep. TJ Cox in Californias 21st Congressional District.

Democratic-held seats that Democrats have less than a 75 in 100 shot of winning in the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEights House forecast, as of 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 19

Horns race is particularly close, as the district is still heavily red (13 points more Republican than the country as a whole) and she won in 2018 by just 1 point. Meanwhile, Cox is defending more Democratic-leaning turf, but hes faced scrutiny over owing back taxes and is running against former Republican Rep. David Valadao, whom Cox edged out by a slim margin in 2018 (less than 1 point). And in Californias top-two primary system back in March, Cox trailed Valadao by 11 points, which could be a poor harbinger for the freshman incumbent.

These three seats, plus the others where Democrats are marginally favored, could be especially vulnerable if things go better for Trump than currently expected. Nevertheless, Democrats are helped out by the fact that they have incumbents running in all but one of these seats, and 12 are freshmen incumbents who have raised huge sums of money.

By comparison, Republicans find themselves defending far more vulnerable seats than Democrats despite controlling fewer seats overall. This is mostly thanks to redistricting, retirements and the Democratic-leaning electoral environment. As the table below shows, GOP candidates are underdogs in three Republican-held seats, roughly 50-50 in nine others and have less than a 3 in 4 shot of winning in 13 more.

Republican-held seats that Republicans have less than a 75 in 100 shot of winning in the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEights House forecast, as of 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 19

Two North Carolina seats are almost surefire Democratic pickups due to court-ordered redistricting, while retiring Rep. Will Hurds seat in Texass 23rd Congressional District is leaning toward the Democrats, too. Retirements and primary losses have left five of the nine GOP toss-up seats open, which helps Democrats even if the incumbency advantage isnt what it once was. Lastly, the 13 seats that lean toward Republicans are all seats that could conceivably flip toward Democrats if 2020 is another blue wave election.

Put it all together and you can see why the Democrats chances of holding onto the House look pretty good, even if they do have the most endangered incumbent up in 2020.

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The Most Vulnerable Incumbent In The House Is A Democrat, But Republicans Are Defending More Competitive Seats - FiveThirtyEight

But, WILL's carrying water for Republican legislators on the mask issue isn't over. Esenberg made it known that his lawyers would appeal. And, why not? WILL has the money to keep this going as long as it wants. So GOP leaders like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who has several of his colleagues facing tough elections on Nov. 3, may be saved after all.

The brainchild of Esenberg, a Harvard Law School grad and a former Marquette Law School faculty member, WILL has had decent success using the courts to champion conservative causes. It hasn't hurt, though, that Wisconsin's state Supreme Court is populated with justices who have close connections to the nonprofit firm. Many of its board members and employees have been longtime GOP contributors and have championed conservative candidates for the high court.

But, it hasn't succeeded in removing a Republican-championed attempt to purge the state's voter registration rolls of 130,000 who it maintained had moved since the last election, an action that critics believe is aimed at probable Democratic votes. The Supreme Court has heard arguments, but whether it will rule so close to an election is questionable but not out of the picture.

WILL does more than file lawsuits, although that does keep it quite busy. It also promotes Republican favorites like school choice and Scott Walker's Act 10, and opposes expanding Medicaid and campaign finance laws. Its researchers regularly release "studies" that claim that kids in voucher schools fare much better than public school students and that expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act will cost state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. A UW-Madison health official called the study "incredibly sloppy and dishonest."

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Plain Talk: WILL props up Wisconsin's Republican legislators as they rig the playing field - Madison.com

Were proud of the legislation we passed, and any connection to whatever this is exists only in the overactive minds of conspiracy traffickers, Mr. Azzopardi said.

The infusion of cash from Mr. Lauder who is also a longtime supporter of conservative causes (he gave $100,000 to two Trump re-election committees and another $100,000 to the Republican National Committee in August 2019) will help Republicans, who are facing a gap in campaign funds. The latest campaign finance report showed the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee with a little under $1 million on hand; the Democrats campaign committee had nearly three times that.

Republicans acknowledge playing defense on some of their open seats, but are running hard on several issues like last years bail reform laws, which were opposed by many law enforcement officials that coincide with both Mr. Trumps calls for law and order and the warnings from Mr. Lauders political action committee.

If youre not safe, if you dont feel your community is safe, if you dont feel your leaders have a handle on public safety, and are supporting the men and women who go out and defend us and protect us, then everything else doesnt matter as much, said State Senator Robert G. Ortt, the Republican minority leader. You cant get to those next things if you cant protect people.

Among the Democrats being targeted by Mr. Lauders PAC are three first-term incumbents in moderate districts on Long Island, including in Suffolk County, which Mr. Trump won in 2016. Chief among them is Senator Monica R. Martinez, who was among a wave of younger progressives elected in 2018, when Democrats won eight Republican-held seats in the Senate and seized the majority.

One attack ad against Ms. Martinez, paid for by Mr. Lauders group, shows a person cocking a gun, and other gritty sounds and imagery, including sirens. New Yorks crime wave is no accident, a narrator says. Monica Martinez voted for it. It mentions her vote for bail reform and ends with a blunt pitch: Monica Martinez: More Crime.

Similar ads target two other Senate Democrats on Long Island Kevin Thomas and Jim Gaughran as well as Senator Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn. Two Democratic candidates Jim Barber and John Mannion running for seats vacated by Republicans are also facing negative ads paid for by Mr. Lauder.

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Can This Billionaire Save N.Y.s Senate Republicans? - The New York Times