Candidates Must Be Proactive to Inform CCWI and Voters of their Position on This Issue – Are the candidates in your area on this list?
In July, Common Cause in Wisconsin (CC/WI) e-mailed every registered Republican, Democratic and Independent candidate for the Wisconsin State Senate and Assembly, inviting them to proactively contact us to inform us of their support for nonpartisan redistricting reform and if they wished to have their names listed publicly on our website.
Following the e-mail message to candidates, CC/WI sent this release to inform the public of this initiative. In it, CC/WI invited citizens to contact state legislative candidates in their area to urge their support for ending partisan gerrymandering and to contact CC/WI to have their names listed publicly in support of nonpartisan redistricting reform and specifically this pledge:
I support passing legislation during the 2025 legislative session and enacting into law the requirement that Wisconsin adopt an independent nonpartisan redistricting process to ensure that no political party can create state legislative or congressional voting districts to favor their own political party nor be able to gerrymander Wisconsin’s voting maps in the future.
After the August Primary Election, CC/WI issued this follow-up release once again inviting state legislative candidates to inform us and the public of their support for non-partisan redistricting reform. Today’s release is the third and final invitation to candidates to express public support for the redistricting reform pledge and legislation in 2025 for Wisconsin.
As of today, CC/WI has been contacted by 13 Wisconsin state legislative candidates for the State Senate and 70 candidates for the Assembly. Here is the complete, up-to-date listing of those supportive candidates that have proactively contacted CC/WI to have their names listed.
As we have done during every state legislative election year since 2014, CC/WI wants to make it simple and easy for Wisconsin voters and media to be able to see which state legislative candidates support non-partisan redistricting reform by providing a continually updated list of those candidates on our website.
Any statewide or state legislative candidate (or their authorized proxy) who supports the nonpartisan redistricting pledge and would like to see their name listed on our site should contact CC/WI by phone at (608) 512-9363 (leave a message), or by email. Citizens can and should urge candidates to support non-partisan redistricting reform and request that they get their names on this list. The list will continue to be updated until Election Day, November 5th.
Candidates must be proactive to have their names appear on this site! Even incumbent legislators running for re-election who supported nonpartisan redistricting reform legislation during the last legislative session and previously must contact us to be on the list. Why? Because it demonstrates that they are paying attention and continue to support this reform issue. And, because it’s important for candidates for public office to take the initiative to inform voters about where they stand on important issues like ending partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin.
Redistricting reform in Wisconsin is critical and necessary if we are ever to return to having a functional, less politically polarized state legislature that is responsive to the citizens of this state rather than to political bosses interested primarily in holding onto power. There is no question that an overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites want and support non-partisan redistricting reform. Now, we will find out which legislative candidates of all political parties are willing to stand up and pledge support for it and for the voters of our state by November 5th and beyond.
Forward!
Jay Heck, Executive Director
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152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
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