For Release: Tuesday - January 31, 2017
What's Next?
Last Friday's unprecedented and decisive federal court order directed the Wisconsin Legislature to redraw and pass into law new State Assembly (and State Senate) district boundary maps before November 1, 2017 – because the same three-judge panel stuck down as unconstitutional, the hyper-partisan, secretive and costly 2011 state legislative maps last November. As a result, ending partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin is now and will be a front and center issue for all Wisconsinites for the remainder of this year and probably next year as well.
This issue affects everything else that is done (or not done) in state government, so every citizen has a stake in the outcome of the struggle ahead.
The three-court panel chose not to redraw Wisconsin's state legislative district lines, as Democrats had hoped, but that was hardly a surprise. Courts have generally given great deference to the Legislature in redistricting matters. But the unprecedented judgment that the 2011 redistricting process in Wisconsin – reported to be the most hyper-partisan, secretive GOP gerrymander in the nation in 2011 and one of the five most unfair in the history of the United States – was unconstitutional because it was so excessively partisan means that the Court has directed the Legislature to pre-approve the new maps this year, before it can become law. That is a dramatic departure from the past.
Citizens can and must play a vital role in the weeks and months ahead. We must contact our legislators and demand that redrawing of the maps this year take place in the public eye, with public participation, input and scrutiny. No more secret meetings in high-priced partisan law offices where taxpayer dollars are used to draw secret, hyper-partisan state legislative voter maps.
Secondly, we must demand that the Legislature quickly hold public hearings and then consider and bring to a vote Senate Bill 13 – bipartisan legislation introduced on January 26th in the Legislature by State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay). This legislation, introduced for the third consecutive legislative session, is modeled after the Iowa redistricting process which was adopted by and enacted into law in 1980 by a Republican Governor (Robert Ray) and a Republican-controlled Iowa State Senate and House. Why? Because the Governor and the Legislature came to the realization that a non-partisan system, in which a professional state agency should draw the maps (carefully following strict, specific criteria) and not partisan legislators, would have the support and confidence of the citizens of Iowa. In Wisconsin currently, public interest and concern is ignored in favor of narrow, selfish, partisan considerations.
It is imperative that all of us contact both our State Senator and our State Representative and demand that they co-sponsor and support Senate Bill 13. Thus far, the legislation has the support of 13 State Senators – all Democrats, and 33 State Representatives – including Republican Todd Novak of Dodgeville. We need to pressure Republicans to break rank with their leaders and do the right thing for voters. If you are not sure who your state legislators are, go here. Please share with us any response you may receive. Also, please let us know if you have contacted your State Senator and State Representative and they do not respond. We will make that information public as well (without disclosing your name, of course).
And finally, if you have not done so already, please sign our on-line petition in support of the Iowa-model legislation. We are nearing 3,000 signatures and want to add to that total in the weeks ahead.
We have a genuine opportunity to vastly improve Wisconsin elections in the weeks and months ahead. We must take advantage of it!
On Wisconsin!
For more on the court decision and the need to enact Senate Bill 13, please read this excellent article and very recent editorial from the Wisconsin State Journal.
To see what CC/WI has been saying recently in the press about this issue go here and here.
CONTACT:
Jay Heck
608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 W. Johnson St., Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
608/256-2686
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www.CommonCauseWisconsin.org
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