Outgoing state Sen. Duey Stroebel is encouraging his Senate GOP colleagues to be skeptical of working with Terrence Wall in the upcoming legislative session.
The developer told WisPolitics Stroebel, R-Saukville, is being “vindictive” after he sent the lawmaker a text message stating he was happy to have contributed to the lawmaker’s defeat. Wall called Stroebel a “one-man political party onto himself” who sought to block legislation that was overwhelmingly popular with other lawmakers because of his personal preferences.
Stroebel’s office hand delivered letters to Senate GOP members last week with the warning, and a source shared a copy with WisPolitics. It features an image of a text message that Stroebel wrote he received from Wall the day after the Nov. 5 election.
The message reads, “Maybe next time you’ll support the team and other team members and support legislation that is good for Wisconsin! I’m proud to have contributed to your defeat.”
Stroebel’s letter didn’t detail any areas that Wall, who dropped his 2010 GOP primary bid after the party endorsed Ron Johnson, believed the lawmaker hadn’t supported “the team.” But the two have been at odds in recent years on various tax incremental financing proposals. Those allow a municipality to finance infrastructure improvements as part of a development. The increased property tax revenue from those areas then pay back the infrastructure costs. Once that’s completed, the increased tax revenue is then shared with all taxing entities in a district, such as schools.
Wall testified this session in support of AB 96/SB 103, which sought to allow a developer-financed tax incremental district. The Assembly signed off on the bill in June 2023, but it didn’t clear the Senate after it was sent to the committee Stroebel chaired this session and he took no action on it.
Stroebel wrote to his GOP colleagues that lawmakers’ primary purpose is to support “the people of Wisconsin and the well-being of our state, not ‘the team,’” adding what “one person claims is ‘good for Wisconsin’ may actually be a means to unduly enrich that person at the expense of others.”
“For someone who claims to be a friend of the caucus, Terrence Wall has made it clear that he is ‘proud to have contributed to [my] defeat,’ which will in turn make it harder for you all to hold the majority in the future,” Stroebel wrote. “I would encourage you all to keep this individual’s character in mind and that it be met with skepticism in the upcoming legislative session.”
Campaign finance reports show Wall, a Middleton-based developer, didn’t donate to Dem attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin in her successful challenge to Stroebel this year. The state’s database listed a $1,000 donation from Wall to Stroebel in October. But the developer said that is incorrect, and he withheld support from Stroebel over the lawmaker’s refusal to support legislation that Wall argued would help address the state’s housing crunch.
The state database shows Wall made 56 donations between Jan. 1 and mid-October to GOP candidates and groups totaling $123,475.
“He’s trying to be vindictive,” Wall said, adding he’s not worried GOP senators will heed Stroebel’s call. “That’s not what you should be doing as an elected official. That proves my point that he’s trying to play kingmaker, that he doesn’t believe in democracy, that things should be based on merit, but whether you kissed his ring enough times.”
Stroebel was one of two GOP incumbents who lost this fall. Dems picked up two other open seats, and the Republican majority will shrink to 18-15 in January, compared to 22-11 this session.
There are four seats considered competitive that will be on the ballot in the 2026 cycle, including the district now represented by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Eau Claire. Dems would have to win three of them to flip the chamber in two years.