Left-leaning groups, including one led by Eric Holder Jr., a former US attorney general, pledged to sue.

Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin sent her Democratic supporters an email calling the move "a craven partisan attack on democracy" and soliciting donations to her "Vote 'Em Out Fund."

The new laws will curb the authority of Evers in the rule-making process and give lawmakers, not the new governor, most appointments on an economic development board until next summer.

The measures also will limit early voting, allow legislators to intervene in some lawsuits and limit the power of Josh Kaul, the incoming attorney general.

In addition, the new laws prevent Kaul and Evers from withdrawing the state from a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and further codify policies passed by the Republicans, including a work requirement for people on Medicaid and a voter ID law.

The Republicans' push to extend their hold before Democrats take office in Wisconsin comes as part of a broader power struggle as divided government returns to Midwestern states where Republicans had complete control for years.

But it also risked energising Democrats before a 2020 presidential election in which both parties will battle for the Midwest, as well as shaping how people remember Walker, 51, who leaves the governor's job January 7.

On Friday, Walker played down the significance of the reforms.

"To me, that's the legacy: It's the fact that Wisconsin is working," Walker told reporters. "These bills don't change that legacy. And these bills don't fundamentally change the power of not just the next governor but any governor thereafter."

In neighbouring Michigan, outgoing Governor Rick Snyder signed laws to significantly scale back citizen-initiated measures to raise the state's minimum wage and require paid sick leave for workers, a manoeuvre that opponents blasted as shameful.

To prevent minimum wage and earned sick time initiatives from going to voters last month, GOP lawmakers approved them in September so they could be more easily altered after the election with simple majority votes rather than the three-fourths support that would have been needed if voters had passed the proposals.

The tactic - never done until now - was pushed by the business community as necessary to avoid jeopardising the economy. But it was criticised as an unconstitutional attack on voters' will at a time Republicans in Michigan are trying to dilute the powers of incoming elected Democrats.

The New York Times,  AP