GOP Lawmakers Witness Chase, Arrest
An Assembly Republican cookout on the Capitol lawn was interrupted by a police chase and arrest yesterday afternoon.
Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, had set up a grill at that entrance and was cooking hamburgers for the legislators during a break from their budget caucus.
As the legislators munched on hamburgers just before 5:30 p.m., Madison police officers were pursuing a man who had carjacked a vehicle and led police on a chase up E. Washington Ave. to the Wisconsin Avenue driveway of the Capitol building.
The man drove onto the walkway around the Capitol to avoid his pursuers, passing mere feet from the 50 or 60 legislators and staffers who had gathered for the bar-b-que. Police told the legislators to take cover.
"We were lucky," said Rep. Terry Musser, R-Black River Falls. "(The suspect) evidently didn't want manslaughter or vehicular homicide charges, too."
The suspect stopped the car near the legislators, and raised his hands in the vehicle to surrender to authorities as the legislators looked on just a few feet away, according to Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain.
"Montgomery does know how to throw a party," Musser quipped.
The man is also suspected in a credit union robbery on E. Commercial Avenue at 5:18 p.m. yesterday, but authorities have been unable to definitively link the two incidents.
You can see a brief police report here.
See more on the story here.
Meanwhile, Assembly Republicans are back in closed session today, trying to hammer out agreement on their 2007-09 budget proposal after meeting until after 10 last night. The Assembly is expected to take to the floor July 10.
John Murray, spokesman for Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said the caucus has made "a lot of progress on a number of bigger packages," and the speaker's intent is for the caucus to reach a consensus on the full budget by the end of the day.
