Hitt said he let Spindell know that he supported the idea. “Anybody who thinks Bob Spindell takes ‘marching orders’ hasn’t met Bob,” Hitt added.
“I believe most of the discussions I’ve had with Bob have been over the Elections Commission,” Jefferson said in a July deposition. Fitzgerald did not respond to requests for comment.
Spindell said his presence on the commission adds balance. “I think that it’s my job to watch out and protect the interests of the Republican Party, because I’m appointed by an elected official of the Republican Party,” said Spindell, who is a senior vice president in Milwaukee for a national merger and acquisitions firm.
“Before I got on the commission, both the GAB and the Wisconsin Elections Commission were thought of terribly by the Republican Party,” he said. “I think I’ve changed that.”
Like Spindell, Democratic commissioner Jacobs does not shy away from the partisan nature of her appointment, saying it makes the commission more transparent. Her “mantra,” she said, is that “every eligible voter who wants to vote should be able to cast their vote, have it counted.”
She added, “We know where people stand on certain issues and the like, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it being partisan.”
Commissioner Thomsen, a Milwaukee attorney, said he, too, sometimes consults the legislator who appointed him, Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, a Democrat from Oshkosh, on issues before the commission.
