In a highly disputed event, Assembly Republicans announced a victory in their attempt to override Gov. Jim Doyle's veto that cut Medicaid-reimbursement funding. Democrats, however, and are calling the veto override a failure, saying the opposition fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto.

The Assembly voted 64-32 to override the veto, which Republicans claim was enough to overturn Doyle. But State Rep. Pedro Colón, D-Milwaukee, who would have been the deciding vote to uphold the veto, said he was not able to vote on the matter, even though he was in the Assembly parlor when the vote took place.

"I was talking to a Republican legislator and the next thing I knew, somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'They just closed the roll, and you didn't vote,'" Colón said.

Colón said that usually if an Assembly member is not immediately in the chambers, the Speaker of the Assembly will call out the member's name to get the person's attention.

"That will prompt a legislator to run to the floor in order to vote," Colón said. "That was never done."

Colón said it is not unusual for legislators to be in the parlor, which is just outside the chambers where the Assembly convenes, or elsewhere in the building during discussion and voting. Though the Republicans claim they were successful in the override, Colón said they were not.

"They need 65 members of the members present [to have the two-thirds], but they only had 64 members," Colón said. "Even with cheating, they didn't do it."

Bob Delaporte, communications director for State Rep. John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said his party disagrees about the status of the override.

"Of course it was successful," Delaporte said. "We got two-thirds of the vote."

Once he realized he had missed the vote, Colón said he tried to persuade the Assembly to let him vote, though the request was turned down.

"They could have fixed it, but they didn't want to fix it because they thought they overrode the governor's veto," Colón said. "The rules of the Assembly require anybody who is present to vote," adding "present" means somewhere in the Capitol building.

State Rep. Stephen Freese, R-Dodgeville, the Assembly Speaker Pro-Tempore who presided over the vote, said Colón should have known the vote was approaching.

"The veto override had been debated for some time," Freese said. "I announced that we had the final two speakers and indicated we'd be going to the vote."

Freese said though Colón blames Republican scheming for the outcome of the vote, it is Colón's own fault, and added it is not his job to make sure every Assembly member votes.

"He screwed up," Freese said. "He wasn't in the chamber."

Despite the vote, Doyle spokesperson Ethnie Groves said the governor is confident the veto override will not pass on the State Senate floor. Doyle's veto removed $15.2 million in funding for nursing homes, pharmacists and hospitals from the state budget.

"The governor feels the veto will ultimately be upheld," Groves said. "Even if this goes to the Senate, they will uphold the veto."

Despite the controversy, Delaporte said because the speaker closed the roll on the veto override before anyone noticed Colón hadn't voted, the bill was sent immediately to the Senate, which is likely to decide on the matter next week. The issue of the override is now out of the Assembly's hands, he added.

"[Voting] is his job," Delaporte said. "He was elected by the people in his district to vote. Asking him to do his job is not that big of a deal."