Topic of the Week: the Radical Republican Redistricting plan

Yesterday Republicans in the state legislature revealed their plan to redraw the state’s 132 legislative seats just before a wave of recall elections this summer – a proposal that would push at least 11 pairs of lawmakers into the same districts. It’s worth noting Republicans pushed through their redistricting plan with no input from Democrats, having taken away the Democrats’ funding for lawyers to assist them with redistricting issues.

Republicans released their redistricting plan prior to local ward lines having been drawn, in direct contradiction to current (and past) state law, meaning Republicans will have to pass a separate piece of legislation allowing them to push through their redistricting plan before local governments have had a chance to draw their ward lines. What’s more, Republicans have signaled they intend on pushing through their redistricting plan in yet another “extraordinary” session of the legislature, leaving me to wonder how many “extraordinary” sessions Republicans have to hold before they stop being extraordinary and are just plain ordinary. It’s also worth noting that by calling yet another “extraordinary” session to push through redistricting, Republicans will be able to severely limit Democrats’ ability to debate or offer amendments to the redistricting plan, thus curtailing any input that dares deviate from the Republicans’ agenda.

In seeking to push through their redistricting plan without first waiting for localities to draw their ward lines, Republicans like Scott and Jeff Fitzgerald have shown that they don’t care about “local control,” despite their assertions that they do – they only care about clinging to their majorities and continuing to push through their radical right wing agenda.

Here’s a link to maps outlining the radical Republican redistricting plan.

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5 thoughts on “Topic of the Week: the Radical Republican Redistricting plan

  1. The sad thing about this is even with the redistricting – from the calculations? It doesn’t even change the game for them. the percentages have barely changed if not at all except those in the Milwaukee Suburbia which were made stronger or the beating heart of liberal paradise like Dane County which they decided to split into pieces making them ‘weaker’ – but barely by a few percentage points.

    So they may even be unintentionally making places stronger. This is what they did to Waukesha County in the first place. Especially since Dane County is growing at an amazingly fast rate compared to the rest of the state.

    This actually could be handing over the state to the Democrats but they’re not thinking about it because all they can think right now is “We sure got them by drawing them outside of their distircts!” They are blatantly are gerrymandering, the rest of the state is now taking note of this.

    This is just giving more information to use against the Republicans.

  2. West Allis gets royally screwed in this plan. But it is no surprise. Leah Vukmir lost the urban parts of the 5th District in her election race against Jim Sullivan. It was only the high voter percentages that she got from the portions of Waukesha County that gave her the small margin of victory. It is no accident that West Milwaukee (an urban, post-industrial suburb, increasingly Hispanic) was dropped from the 5th District and the district was expanded west almost to Pewaukee. What in earth does West Allis have in common with Elm Grove and Brookfield? West Allis has bakeries NOT cakeries; we have bowling centers NOT the Western Racquet Club; West Allis front porches are actually used for their intended purposes NOT as faux decoration on McMansions. We are an inner-rim suburb that is struggling to escape a rust belt model. I know those specific issues are known to the West Allis Mayor and the east end Alderpersons; I don’t think Sen. Vukmir has any appreciation or concept of those unique issues. Her ideology does not fit the type of reactive remedies and policies which are needed in West Allis.

    1. Agreed. It’s shameful, but what’s more, it’s not even subtle. I guess Scott Walker and the Fitz Twits have given up trying to be sneaky about how far to the right they’re trying to drag Wisconsin, despite the fact that Wisconsin isn’t nearly as conservative as they (Walker & Fitz Twits) seem to think it is.

  3. If I’m reading the maps right, aren’t Roys, Taylor and Pocan all in the same district now? At the very least draw the 48th district in enough to give Taylor one full term to represent it in.

    It’s petty and pathetic, like a lot of things from this crew in the Wisconsin GOP. But that’s alright, it’s just more fuel for the blowtorch we’re going bring to them.

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