In what sure looks like a big win for democracy, by golly, both houses of Wisconsin’s Republican-dominated Legislature voted Tuesday to approve legislative district boundaries proposed by Gov. Tony Evers (D), who plans to sign them right away. How did such a thing come to, um, pass? Simple: The Republicans worried that the state supreme court would impose maps that might undo even more of the gerrymandered GOP advantage in the Lege than Evers’s map did.
As you may recall, after voters gave Democrats the majority on the Wisconsin supreme court last year, the new majority in December struck down the outrageous GOP gerrymander that has been in place since 2010. Wisconsin is almost a perfect 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats in both voter registration and presidential voting, but you wouldn’t know that from the composition of the lopsided majorities Republicans engineered for themselves by creating GOP-friendly districts, with a current 22-10 supermajority in the Senate and a 64-35 majority in the Assembly.
That era should be over now, not that Republicans are at all happy about electoral maps that give both parties a fair chance in most districts. Ultimately, as the AP reports, it was a choice between passing the map Evers offered, with no changes, or finding out which of three proposed maps the newly liberal state supreme court would select, all of which Republicans hated even more.
Golly, the end of the gerrymander was just so unfair, as state Sen. Van Wanggard (R-Racine) sniffed:
“It was a matter of choosing to be stabbed, shot, poisoned or led to the guillotine. […] We chose to be stabbed, so we can live to fight another day.”
Such drama! Cue the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason “Ashokan Farewell” violins, if you must, sir.
Democrats, accustomed to 20 years of Republican dirty tricks, were mostly fine with the district boundaries Evers proposed, but didn’t trust the bill the Republicans built around them, particularly not the fact that the new maps only go into effect for the 2024 general elections (including the August primaries), but not for any special elections between now and then.
Dems also worried that the Republicans were simply trying to pull a fast one by voting for the maps while planning to sue in federal court to have the old gerrymander removed. Republicans insisted nothing could be farther from the truth and that they are so very tired of eating faces they will never eat another face again.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said,
“Once we pass the maps, more or less, the lawsuits stop. […] There’s no need for us to try to do an appeal to the [US Supreme Court] because the Legislature has adopted a map. It’s been signed by the governor.
“I think a lot of the things that we have for the potential to go to the US Supreme Court and win on no longer are viable. […] Which is why, if the governor signs the map, I am supremely confident that that is the map that we will run on in November. Whether I like it or not, that’s what we’re going to deal with.”
Say, was that a flamethrower he was holding behind his back? Or a chainsaw? Both? Nah, couldn’t be. Vos himself is facing a recall effort; if the petition drive is successful, the recall election would be held under the existing district boundaries.
This is the second time the Lege has voted on district maps proposed by Evers; in a January effort, Republicans passed a plan that redrew several district lines so GOP incumbents wouldn’t have to run against each other. Evers vetoed that one, calling it a gerrymander, and what a meanie.
As as result, 15 of the new districts will have Republican incumbents running against each other, two will have Democratic incumbents facing off, and four will include incumbents from both parties.
If the districts really do stay unfucked, we could be looking at something like the Michigan Miracle of 2022: Voters in 2018 passed an initiative requiring a nonpartisan redistricting committee, which — after Republicans exhausted their lawsuits — ended a Republican gerrymander that was nearly as bad as Wisconsin’s. In the first election with the new maps in place, Michigan elected its first Democratic trifecta in 40 years. The state immediately canceled “Right to Work” (it actually ended yesterday!), protected abortion, and generally made it into a woke socialist hellhole. It’s amazing.
So yeah, you can see why, when they have to fight fair, Republicans think honest elections are rigged.
Congratulations, Wisconsin! Welcome back to democracy!
[AP]
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NOT LETTING US CHEAT IS THE REAL CHEATING!!!
Note that this is proof that voting is the most important thing. People too cool to vote? Pay attention here, because if voting didn't matter Republicans wouldn't try this hard to restrict it. Voting wouldn't have been restricted in Jim Crow locales if it didn't matter.