CCWI Redistricting Reform - Ending Gerrymandering in WI Webinar with Sen. Jeff Smith and Rep. Deb Andraca - August 17th

Wednesday – July 28, 2021

Register Now to Participate with Legislators, Experts and Your Questions

In 2011, Wisconsin state legislative and congressional districts fell victim to one of the most partisan gerrymanders of any state in the nation. Legislative leaders, in a locked law office across the street from the Capitol, supervised the drawing of new legislative districts and made them as unfair and as partisan as was possible and accomplished this completely in secret, with no public input or inspection, in order to lock up partisan control of the Wisconsin Legislature, by rigging the outcome of elections, for a decade. They succeeded beyond even their own wildest dreams and expectations. And Wisconsin is still reeling as a result.

Now, ten years later, the redistricting process is underway again -- as the U.S. Constitution directs must occur every decade to adjust for population changes and shifts in every state legislative and congressional district in the nation. The population of every district must be adjusted and equalized to reflect those changes.

Can we in Wisconsin adopt a redistricting process that is non-partisan, fair and puts voters before politicians? And what does the redistricting process, now underway, look like?

We cordially invite you to be with us on Tuesday evening, August 17th from 6:00 to 7:30 PM to explore the answers to these questions.

Our special guests and speakers include the two chief legislative sponsors of redistricting reform legislation Senate Bill 389/Assembly Bill 395, which is based on our neighboring state of Iowa's non-partisan redistricting process which has been successful and in place since 1980. They are State Senator Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire) who was elected in 2018 but who also served in the Wisconsin Assembly from 2007 to 2011, and State Representative Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay), who was elected in 2020.

Also speaking will be Melody Barnes, an attorney and legal expert with Law Forward who will brief us on redistricting in the courts and former State Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber of Appleton who will talk about the critical importance of activism at the local level. I will moderate the discussion.

You, the voters and citizens of Wisconsin, will have an opportunity to ask questions.

Join this statewide CC/WI webinar that features leading state legislative reform leaders, policy and legal experts and you -- for what we hope will be a lively 90 minutes of interesting discussion and your questions. Go here to register, which you must do in order to participate in the webinar on August 17th.

Also, if you have not already done so, consider assisting the effort to draw your own voting map of your local community to submit to the Governor's non-partisan Peoples Maps Commission. These maps could then be used as alternatives to the partisan voting maps Republicans in the Legislature have vowed to draw -- and are using your taxpayer money to defend. Here is how you can participate in this important effort. The deadline for submitting a voter map to the Peoples Maps Commission is Friday, July 30th, so act now!

CC/WI looks forward to having you be with us on the evening of August 17th. This is our first attempt to conduct a statewide webinar of this scope and if it "works" we look forward to trying it again in the future. Your participation would be welcome and appreciated.

On Wisconsin!

--------------------------

Contact: 

Jay Heck

608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)

Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
www.commoncausewisconsin.org