Attempt to Pass Flawed Redistricting Legislation to Maintain Extreme Partisan Advantage in State Senate Today
Note: This is a variation of the statement issued by the Fair Maps Coalition of Wisconsin of which CC/WI is a member.
The urgent need for an end to partisan gerrymandering and to implement fair and representative state legislative voter maps in Wisconsin was never made more obvious and evident than what occurred in the Capitol late yesterday (Monday afternoon) at 4 PM.
Without any advance notification or warning, State Senate Republicans scheduled an extremely partisan, deeply flawed measure to change the way in which redistricting is undertaken in Wisconsin. No Democratic legislator was contacted or informed of the action to suddenly bring to the floor of the State Senate the Assembly Bill 415. No consultation with any of the fair maps public interest groups including Common Cause Wisconsin was conducted and no discussion with the Governor or with any member of the public at large occurred.
If State Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) was at all serious about supporting nonpartisan redistricting reform in Wisconsin, he and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) would sit down with Gov. Tony Evers, Assembly and State Senate Democrats and invite public input and negotiate for an agreement for fair and representative voting maps. None of that happened at all during 2023 and now, in 2024.
The fact that this legislative action was scheduled with less than a 24-hour notice and on the same day of the Governor's State of the State Address, reinforces that fact that the majority of Republican Legislators have not and are not acting in good faith. Not with the Governor, the Judiciary, and, most importantly, with the people they were elected and purport to represent.
The State Supreme Court, in their December 22nd decision, set out specific criteria for remedial maps that would meet state constitutional and federal voting rights requirements. The legislation and action by the Republican majority today seeks to circumvent that majority decision.
The unannounced and surprise action to bring this hyper partisan and fatally flawed redistricting measure to a vote in the State Senate today is a crass and misguided repudiation of the authority of the State Supreme Court. It is a desperate attempt by the Republican legislative majority to maintain their unrepresentative political power that has been sustained through 13 years of rigged, unfair and unconstitutional state legislative voting maps.
Any voting maps passed by the Legislature that do not meet the Court’s enunciated and constitutional criteria should be rejected by the Legislature--and, if passed--vetoed by the Governor. The State Supreme Court must continue to proceed to put into place remedial state legislative voting maps that are constitutional and best serve all of the citizens of Wisconsin.
Please contact your State Senator immediately today and urge them to vote against this desperate, 11th hour attempt to subvert the Wisconsin Supreme Court and to further undermine fair, representative democracy in Wisconsin!
Please take action now to help preserve the fight for fair voting maps in Wisconsin.
Forward!
Jay Heck
608/512-9363 (cell)
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
www.commoncausewisconsin.org
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