A state senator raised concerns to his colleagues Wednesday after he discovered legislative pages played an inappropriate card game during work time that sought to root out a “secret Hitler.”
Both full-time and part-time page staff participated in the game “Secret Hitler,” a politically-themed hidden identity card game, while being paid to work, according to State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater.
In the game, a larger force of “liberals” takes on a smaller group of “fascists.” One player, the secret Hitler, works to infiltrate the liberals with the help of the fascists. In 2017, a new expansion of the card game featuring President Donald Trump and four administration members as fascists was released.
“We don’t know which version was being played, but both seem inappropriate,” Nass said. “I would respectfully submit there appears to be a serious lack of leadership and judgment amongst the senior members of the Page Staff.”
Mike Mikalsen, a spokesman for Nass, indicated the Senate Chief Clerk confiscated the game and Nass’ office asked for an investigation from the legislative human resources office.
While the Senate Sergeant at Arms only staffs six full-time legislative pages, it also employs 15 to 20 part-time pages, many of whom are recent graduates and fulfill a myriad of duties for Senators.
Ted Blazel, the Senate Sergeant at Arms, admitted he knew about the game, but stated he did not know about the specifics.
“Typically, when there is downtime they’re allowed to do their homework and so I didn’t push back,” Blazel said. “Nobody has ever raised an issue in all my years here. I’m frankly a little surprised the concerns were raised.”
Despite Nass’ protest, other lawmakers agreed with Blazel and thought the complaint appeared to be an overreaction.
“Would he write [an email about the game] if they were playing Monopoly?” asked State Sen. Luther Olson, R-Ripon. “I don’t know.”
State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, chimed in stating “senators should not be micromanaging page staff who aren’t employed by any one Senate office,” according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Larson added he does not support any game that praises Hitler or Nazis.
A spokeswoman from the legislative human resources office declined to comment on whether the office would investigate Nass’ complaint.
Mikalsen noted staffing changes may be necessary due to alleged free time legislative pages experience on the job.
“If there is literally the need to allow them to play games, then we have too many people on the staff,” Mikalsen said.