Senate Dems stage walkout, in 'secure' location outside Capitol

In a last-ditch effort to stop the passage of Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill, Senate Democrats staged a walkout Thursday, failing to show up for a vote on the measure and bringing the process to a grinding halt.

Several news outlets reported that the senators actually left the state prior to the vote, presumably in an attempt to avoid a forced return to the Capitol and a doomed fight against the bill.

Calls to senators were not returned Thursday, but Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, D-Monona, gave an interview on CNN, saying they were in "a secure location outside the Capitol."

Miller said the senators, who are not all in the same location, would return to the Capitol when the governor decides to stop his efforts to end the collective bargaining for state and local employees and sits down at the negotiating table with union leaders.

Legislative assistants answering the phones at the offices of Sens. Miller, Jon Erpenbach of Middleton and Fred Risser of Madison all insisted they knew nothing about the walkout.

Mike Browne, spokesman for Miller, the Senate minority leader, would only say that he did not have any information on the location of Miller or the other senators and did not know when they would be back.

Read More Here