Why Redistricting is the Most Important Legislative Issue for the

WHY REDISTRICTING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT LEGISLATIVE ISSUE FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS? WE NEED TO BEWARE OF POSSIBLE UNCONSTITUTIONAL POWER PLAYS

By Louis Fortis

Just 10 years ago, Wisconsin was viewed nationally as a forward looking state alongside Massachusetts, Minnesota, Connecticut and California. People now ask why we often find ourselves listed with Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky?

How can Wisconsin Republican legislators who control both our Assembly and Senate feel they can arrogantly ignore the interests of their constituents in a democracy? Or how can the Republican leadership in both houses of our state legislature callously watch Wisconsinites die from COVID-19 as they fight against the science-based policies Governor Evers tried to institute to save lives? And why has Wisconsin become such an angry and aggressively divided state when not that long ago, we could disagree with our neighbors without despising them. Much of this stems from the gerrymandered 2011 redistricting map drafted by unethical elected officials, who only cared about gaining and maintaining power, rather than trying to improve the health, wellbeing, and economic opportunities of the average working person.

HOW DO THE REPUBLICAN’S GERRYMANDERED DISTRICTS CORRUPT EVERYTHING?

It’s all about corrupt redistricting called Gerrymandering. Unfortunately, Wisconsin became the nation’s leader in this corrupt redistricting 10 years ago when the Republican majorities in both the State Assembly and Senate spent over $3.5 million of our tax dollars to pay lawyers to draw and later to defend legislative political boundaries. These gerrymandered district lines give Wisconsin the dubious honor of having the most corrupt and most gerrymandered legislative district lines in the entire country. Our legislative districts are so extreme and corrupt that a Federal three-judge panel (two of the three judges were Republican presidential appointees), ruled that Wisconsin’s legislative district lines were “unconstitutional,” but the Republican leadership managed to keep them from ever being redrawn. Governor Scott Walker enthusiastically signed the redistricting bill since it supported his “divide and conquer” strategy he often bragged about. Extreme gerrymandered districts create many problems, including a polarized legislature, because elected officials only to need to worry about winning a primary. The gerrymandered maps ensure that the Republican nominee will win the general election. The centrist legislators, who often lead the compromises, were defeated or retired in the subsequent election cycles, leaving only the extreme rightwing candidates in the majority party with a safe majority. As a result, the Republican candidates quickly learned that they only have to appeal to a few groups: extreme rightwing voters, now known as the Trump base; extreme rightwing special interest groups and their check writers; and the lunatic conspiracy crowd to prevent being challenged and taken out from the right. Satisfying those groups makes you virtually undefeatable. The survivors quickly learned to play by these rules and unfortunately some actually believe all the lies. Very simply, if they can avoid a primary from the right, they are totally assured re-election and they can ignore the needs and the desires of the rest of their constituents.

SPLIT GOVERNMENT CAN HELP INSURE MORE FAIR AND COMPETITIVE DISTRICTS.

Over a 10-year period, there can be major demographic changes in some areas and very few in others. Areas that either lost population or, more realistically, didn’t grow in population as fast as the rest of the state, could see some major changes in their legislative boundaries in order to comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The most critical ruling was the “One Person One Vote” standard from the 1964 decision in Reynolds v. Sims. The Court ruled that legislative districts must be roughly the same size in population making every citizen’s vote equal. Another important