Tim Michels: Gov. Tony Evers Forced Parole Commission Chairman to Resign, Fearing Political Backlash for Releasing Criminals

Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels said Gov. Tony Evers (D) forced a parole commission chairman to resign after fearing political backlash would become an indictment on his soft-on-crime agenda.

“We have now seen official state documents that indicate the governor and his staff were concerned that their parole spree was receiving media attention and they’ve gone to great lengths to keep information from the public,” Michels said in a statement on Monday. “When the heat was turned up, they forced one Parole Commission Chairman to resign, and now they are slow-walking responses to open records requests.”

A transcript made public by Sen. Van H. Wanggaard (R-WI) found that Evers asked Parole Commission Chairman John Tate II to resign out of political backlash over the potential release of Douglas Balsewicz, a notorious “wife killer.”

“I was asked to resign in anticipation of the upcoming legislature going in to [sic] a special session and litigating parole cases…or litigating parole cases in the public sphere and at the end of that process rejecting my confirmation,” Tate said according to a transcript of the hearing.

Michels, who hopes to replace Evers in the governor’s office and end the Wisconsin administration’s soft-on-crime agenda, said that Evers understands that his parole agenda is unpopular with Wisconsinites.

“The parole spree, the secrecy, all of this is wrong,” Michels added. “Tony Evers releases murderers and rapists yet withholds public information because he feared if the truth of his parole spree gets out, the good people of Wisconsin would be outraged.”

Wisconsin Right Now reported that Evers’ Parole Commission released at least 884 convicted criminals, which includes more than 270 murderers and attempted murderers, and more than 44 child rapists.

The outlet noted that these cases, which span from 2019 to 2021, include some of the “most brutal killers in Wisconsin history and some of the most high-profile.”