For Release: Thursday - August 30, 2018
We cannot rely on the courts alone to end partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin
CC/WI will keep a running list of who supports the "Iowa Plan"
On June 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court "punted" on making a decision about whether or not to affirm a federal court three-judge panel's November, 2016 ruling that Wisconsin's radically, hyper-partisan 2011 gerrymandering of state legislative districts was unconstitutional.
This past Monday, another federal court panel of judges again struck down North Carolina's 2011 congressional district partisan gerrymandering, injecting new life into our Wisconsin case that the Supreme Court had decided to take a pass on. But, when that could happen and in what form is unknown at this time.
What has become abundantly clear is that we cannot just rely on the courts alone to end hyper-partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin. We need to enact real reform into law to solve this problem once and for all.
During the 2017-2018 Legislative Session, non-partisan redistricting reform was the leading political reform initiative in the media and among citizens throughout Wisconsin. CC/WI helped unite pro-reform legislators and citizens behind a single measure – Assembly Bill 44/Senate Bill 13 – that is modeled after Iowa's highly successful, 38-year-old redistricting process that takes the partisan politics out of redistricting and delegates the boundary-drawing to a non-partisan state entity that does not utilize partisan political considerations in their task.
This issue has received the unprecedented endorsement of 19 Wisconsin daily newspaper editorial boards and thousands of citizens expressed their support for ending gerrymandering in letters to editors, communications to legislators and by attending one of numerous "reform forums" CC/WI and other organizations organized over 2017-2018 in every part of Wisconsin.
While the legislative leadership continues to oppose this reform and refused to hold even a public hearing during the past legislative session, redistricting reform will be very much an issue during the current election season.
We want to make it simple and easy for Wisconsin voters to see which state legislative and statewide candidates support the non-partisan redistricting reform embodied in the "Iowa Plan" by providing an updated list of those candidates on our website.
Any statewide or state legislative candidate (or their authorized proxy) who supports the "Iowa Plan" and would like to see their name listed on our site should contact CC/WI by phone at (608) 256-2686 (leave a message if no answer), by email or by letter: CC/WI, P.O. Box 2597, Madison, WI 53701-2597.
Citizens can urge candidates to support non-partisan redistricting reform and request that they get their names on this list. Candidates must be pro-active to have their names appear on this site! Even incumbent legislators running for re-election who co-sponsored AB 44/SB113 during the last legislative session must contact us to be on the list.
We will update the list constantly and will have a tab in the sidebar of our website for anyone to check to see who is on it and therefore in support of the Iowa Plan.
There is more that you can do to advance non-partisan redistricting reform in Wisconsin in the next few months. First, you can download and print the postcard sized information sheet with questions to ask state legislative and statewide candidates at candidate forums and to distribute to your friends and family to do the same.
Challenging candidates in person or through the media to support redistricting reform is very powerful and effective.
Second, if you haven't done so yet, please "sign" the online petition in support of the "Iowa Plan" for Wisconsin and urge friends and family to do so as well. We already have about 4,000 "signatures" and would love to have well over 5,000 to present to the new Wisconsin Legislature, after the election, in early 2019.
Let's make ending partisan gerrymandering a central focus during this election season and finally achieve the redistricting process Wisconsin voters of all political persuasions want and deserve.
On Wisconsin!
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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