I only ask this question, because just last fall Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R – 63) said that he lead a Republican majority in the state legislature, not because of gerrymandering, but because of the high quality of candidates that the party has presented across the state. Now if that were true then, it would certainly be true this coming fall as well. Right?
But of course it’s because of gerrymandering…and that’s the reason he’s wholeheartedly against redistricting and doing everything that his position allows to at least delay it if not prevent it. And of course his opponents see it as gerrymandering, hence the lawsuits and current WI Supreme Court ruling to develop new legislative maps.
But lets just set the gerrymandering issue aside. Wisconsin law requires that assembly districts and the resulting senate districts be contiguous. [Senate districts are made up of three assembly districts] And to satisfy my seventh grade English teacher who demanded definitions in our term papers for new or unusual words, here is what Merriam-Webster has to say:
So all portions of a contiguous assembly district should be in actual contact with all other portions. If you look at a Wisconsin Assembly District map, it is apparent that there are any number of districts that have islands embedded in them that actual belong to a neighboring district. And I am very certain that Speaker Vos is aware of this since there is a prime example immediately outside his own district. As shown here:
That little purple key shaped item that I have circled belongs to AD # 66. But it is floating inside of AD #62, that brown/green area…and that pink area is AD #63, Robin Vos’ home district.
So you would expect the party of law and order to bring Wisconsin’s Assembly map into compliance with state law, wouldn’t you? Well, except in the era of Trump or if it puts someone’s speaker-ship at risk, I guess.
Apparently there have been seven new maps submitted to date…we’ll see which one the court blesses very soon.
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