The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 14, 2023
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
With Court Cases and Elections Looming, the Wisconsin Assembly Scrambles to Keep its Gerrymandered Voting Districts
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate have a 66% veto-proof supermajority. Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly are two votes short of a supermajority. Yet the Governor of Wisconsin is a Democrat. How is that possible? Gerrymandering. And the majority of Wisconsin’s legislators want to keep it that way.
But storm clouds are gathering over what the Princeton Gerrymandering Project calls “some of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in the United States.”
Power in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which accepted the legislature’s gerrymandered maps in 2022, shifted August 1st when liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz was seated. Protasiewicz spoke openly about Wisconsin’s gerrymandering during the election, prompting Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to threaten impeachment unless she recuses herself from gerrymandering cases. A case contesting the state’s legislative district maps was filed the day Protasiewicz took office, but impeachment would require a two-thirds vote of both houses, and it’s unlikely in the Assembly.
So September 12th, Speaker Vos proposed a theoretically nonpartisan state bureau for creating redistricting maps, based on a system in Iowa, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The catch? The Wisconsin Assembly must approve the maps, and if there’s a deadlock, the Assembly would draw the maps after all. Governor Tony Evers has already condemned the plan.
We have links to local reporting, the new proposal, and groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Associated Press – GOP lawmaker wins Wis. Senate seat, creating supermajority
Wisconsin Examiner – Special election moves Republicans closer to Assembly supermajority
PBS Wisconsin/Wisconsin Watch – Wisconsin’s Assembly maps are more skewed than ever — what happens in 2023?
Princeton Gerrymandering Project – Wisconsin
PBS Wisconsin/AP – Lawsuit asks new liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to toss Republican-drawn legislative district maps
PBS Wisconsin/ AP – Redistricting plaintiffs object to Republican attempt to boot Protasiewicz from cases
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Vos backs turning turning over drawing of election maps to nonpartisan agency in bid to bypass lawsuits
Groups Taking Action:
Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, Common Cause WI, Represent.Us WI, Fair Elections Project
Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!
Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org
Want ADM sent to your email? Sign up here!
#Democracy #DemocracyNews #FairMaps #StopGerrymandering #WisconsinPolitics