Aiexpress – Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new legislative district maps into law on Monday, which he proposed and the Republicans who control the Legislature approved in order to avoid having the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court create the lines.
Democrats welcomed the signing as a significant political victory in the swing state, where the Legislature has been solidly under Republican control for more than a decade, despite Democrats winning 14 of the previous 17 statewide elections.
“When I promised I wanted fair maps—nnot maps that are better for one party over another, including my own—II damn well meant it,” Evers said before signing the maps into law at the state Capitol. “Wisconsin is not a red or blue state; we are a purple state, and I believe our maps should reflect this simple fact.
Democrats are almost guaranteed to gain seats in the state Assembly and Senate under the revised maps, which will be in effect for the November election. Republicans have been functioning under maps drawn by them since 2011, which have been considered among the most gerrymandered in the country.
Democrats attempted unsuccessfully for more than a decade to overturn the Republican-drawn maps. However, Democrats could not find a winning combination until August, when leftist Justice Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the state Supreme Court.
They filed a lawsuit the day after Protasiewicz appeared in court. Republicans claimed that Protasiewicz should not hear the lawsuit because she stated during her campaign that the GOP-drawn maps were “rigged” and “unfair.” However, she did not recuse herself.
Protasiewicz provided the critical fourth vote in a December verdict that deemed the present maps unlawful because not all of the districts were contiguous, implying that some sections were geographically separated from the remainder of the district. The court stated that if the Legislature failed to pass maps that Evers would sign, it would draw the borders.
The court accepted maps submitted by the governor, Democratic and Republican lawmakers, as well as three other parties to the redistricting action. The court recruited consultants who decided that the plans presented by the Legislature and a conservative legal firm were “partisan gerrymanders,” leaving the court with four Democratic-drawn maps to pick from.
The Legislature passed the Evers maps on Tuesday, meeting the state elections commission’s mid-March deadline for new maps to be in place. While cautious Democrats voted against the governor’s plans, several party officials applauded Evers for approving the revised maps on Monday.
“Wisconsin will no longer be among the most gerrymandered states in the nation,” Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer said in a statement. Neubauer, who voted against the maps, stated that “this is the beginning of a new era in Wisconsin—where the will of the people will once again be the law of the land.”
Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein stated in a statement that the revised maps are “a huge win for the people of Wisconsin” despite voting against them.
According to Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler, the new maps will have a “reverse coattails” impact, benefiting Democrats in this year’s statewide presidential and U.S. Senate campaigns by making more legislative seats competitive.
Republicans stated that they had no better options. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos stated on Monday that Evers “signed the most Republican-leaning maps out of all the Democrat-gerrymandered maps being considered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
“This fall, Republicans will prove that we can win on any map because we have better policy ideas for the State of Wisconsin,” he stated.
Other Republicans were even more outspoken following the bill’s passage last week.
“Republicans were not stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard stated. “It was a matter of choosing whether to be stabbed, shot, poisoned, or brought to the guillotine. We opted to be stabbed so that we could fight another day.
Democrats also expressed concern that the maps would not go into force immediately if the bill passed. This presents a legal question for any special or recall elections held before November, considering that the state Supreme Court has already declared that the existing maps are illegal.
Evers made it clear on Monday that “these maps will take effect immediately after publication and will be in place for the fall elections.” He also urged the state Supreme Court to confirm that the maps will be in place for any special elections held prior to the November election.
Under the new maps, 15 Assembly incumbents would be forced to run against another incumbent, with six similar pairings in the Senate. Only one of the Assembly seat combinations would match a Democratic incumbent against another. In the Senate, the lone Democratic pairing contains an incumbent who has already decided not to run in the fall.
More than a dozen states are still litigating over the U.S. House and state legislative districts established after the 2020 census.
Democrats have also urged the Wisconsin Supreme Court to consider a challenge to the state’s congressional district lines. The lawsuit contends that the court’s decision to mandate new state legislative maps opens the door to challenging the congressional map. Republicans control six of the state’s eight congressional seats.
