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NEW WISCONSIN MAPS MAY END GOP GERRYMANDERING  
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Megan O’Matz
February 16, 2024
ProPublica
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_ Under legal pressure to address Wisconsin’s “Swiss cheese”
and oddly shaped districts, the Legislature approved redrawn maps that
promise to create a new dynamic in a state known for its pivotal role
in national politics. _

Wisconsin state Capitol building,

 

Wisconsin’s dinosaur-shaped legislative district could soon be
history.

The curiously drawn district and other oddities associated with the
state’s extreme gerrymandering would be erased in new voting maps
passed this week by the Wisconsin Legislature.

A state Supreme Court decision finally forced Wisconsin Republicans to
cede an advantage they enjoyed for more than a decade with maps that
made the state one of the nation’s foremost examples of
gerrymandering.

A state Supreme Court decision finally forced Wisconsin Republicans to
cede an advantage they enjoyed for more than a decade with maps that
made the state one of the nation’s foremost examples of
gerrymandering.

The Senate and Assembly voted to adopt voting maps drawn by the office
of Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. Evers said a week ago that he would
sign his redistricting plan into law if passed unchanged by the
Legislature, and proponents of fairer maps have encouraged him to do
sThe surprising legislative development promises to end a six-month
battle in front of the state’s now left-leaning high court, which
ruled the GOP maps unconstitutional shortly before Christmas.

The new design resolves many of the irregularities in the current
electoral maps, chief among them the “Swiss cheese” appearance
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stranded some constituents in segments detached from the rest of their
districts.

One of the more obvious examples of partisan artifice was in the
northwest corner of the state, in the 73rd Assembly District
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where the GOP had strategically added Republican areas and subtracted
Democratic ones in a plan enacted in 2022. Residents joked the
contours came to resemble a Tyrannosaurus rex.

The maneuver was successful. That year, a Republican won the seat,
which had been held by Democrats for 50 years. The new map completely
redraws that district and others.

“The legislature will be up for grabs,” Republican Assembly
Speaker Robin Vos said from the floor on Tuesday, the day the vote was
taken.

In an unusually magnanimous gesture, Vos said, “Pains me to say it,
but Gov. Evers gets a huge win today.”

Even under the governor’s maps, the GOP is still expected to retain
majorities in both chambers, though the party’s advantage would
likely be slimmer than the absolute authority it now commands,
particularly in the Senate. Currently, the GOP has a supermajority in
the Senate and a near supermajority in the Assembly.

Vos acknowledged in a news conference that running under Evers’ map
is “going to be more challenging, there’s no doubt about that.”
But, he said, “I still think we can win because we have a better
message.”

Prior to the legislative action, justices had been set to select new
district maps from a group of proposals, including the one from Evers.
Indications were the decision would not be favorable to the GOP.

Rather than take their chances, Republicans decided to approve the
governor’s maps, which are considered to be “friendlier” to the
GOP than the others when measuring partisan bias and incumbent
matchups.

A Marquette University analysis determined that if the 2022 election
had taken place under Evers’ maps, it’s likely that Democrats
would have won an additional 11 seats in the Assembly and five in the
Senate, neither enough to flip control.

Nine Senate Democrats voted against Evers’ plan, signaling concerns
that the GOP’s approval was a strategic ploy to be followed by a
challenge in federal court from a Republican ally. “I am voting no
because I do not trust what you guys are up to,” said Sen. Chris
Larson, a Milwaukee Democrat.

Read more: WISCONSIN’S LEGISLATIVE MAPS ARE BIZARRE, BUT ARE THEY
ILLEGAL?
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But Vos downplayed the likelihood of more court action, telling
reporters Tuesday that he preferred to get on with the business of
campaigning and talking about ideas with voters. “I think that is a
better answer than drawn-out court battles and going through millions
of dollars of taxpayer expense when there’s really no need to do
so,” he said.

The Assembly passed the governor’s maps without debate. Only one
Democrat voted yes.

Democrats were unhappy with a provision in the bill that would stall
the implementation of the new maps until November — a move seen to
benefit Vos, who is facing a recall effort from constituents on the
far right. Democrats also indicated a desire to let the state Supreme
Court case play out.

It was only six months ago that a new justice, Janet Protasiewicz,
took office, tilting the court decidedly to the left. During her
campaign, which she won in a landslide, she made it clear she would
welcome the chance to review the constitutionality of the maps, flatly
describing them as “rigged.”

A day after her swearing-in ceremony, a maps case landed on the
court’s doorstep, brought by 19 Democratic voters. For months after
Protasiewicz’s election, Vos threatened to impeach her if she did
not recuse herself from the case, claiming her remarks on the campaign
trail made her biased. He later abandoned that tactic.

On Dec. 22, the high court overturned the current maps and ordered the
parties to propose new ones. The vote on the decision was 4-3, with
Protasiewicz siding with the majority.

The court hired two academic consultants to analyze the proposals and
issue a report evaluating the plans for their conformity to standard
districting requirements, including compactness and equal population
distribution.

The consultants found that plans offered by GOP lawmakers and by a
conservative policy group constituted “partisan gerrymanders” and
should not be considered.

The four remaining proposals greenlit by the consultants were
submitted by the plaintiffs, Evers’ office, a group of Democratic
senators, and a team of mathematicians and data scientists. The
consultants — from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the
University of California, Irvine — determined that those four plans
were “similar on most criteria.”

Good-government groups applauded the possibility of a legislative
agreement, largely because it brings about stability and a measure of
political certainty until the next redistricting process, after the
2030 census. Besides, said Jay Heck, executive director of Common
Cause Wisconsin, “The governor’s maps are pretty darn good.”

One of the key problems with the current maps, the court concluded,
was that the districts had noncontiguous shapes.

The state’s constitution stipulates that Assembly members must be
elected from districts consisting of “contiguous territory.”
Likewise, Senate districts, which are each made up of three Assembly
districts, must consist of “convenient contiguous territory.”

Fifty-five of the state’s 99 Assembly districts and 21 of 33 Senate
districts contained “disconnected pieces of territory,” according
to the petition presented to the Supreme Court.

“A map can’t be fair if it doesn’t meet the requirements of the
constitution,” said Debbie Patel, founder of North Shore Fair Maps,
a group of suburban Milwaukee residents who have been fighting for
statewide maps that are not skewed in favor of either party.

The random islands or irregular blobs in the current maps are largely
due to the annexation of land over time by cities and villages,
resulting in disjointed municipal boundaries.

The Evers maps and the others under consideration fix that problem.

The 88th Assembly District, for example, which currently includes
eastern portions of Green Bay, has a couple of islands and a hole that
would be eliminated under Evers’ plan.

The district’s current occupant, Republican Rep. John Macco, voted
yes Tuesday, even though his home would no longer be within the
district’s boundaries. “They literally carved me out by 581 feet.
Intentionally,” he said.

He expects to have to sell his house and move to compete again there.
“I’ll do whatever I have to do to represent the people of the 88th
District,” he said in an interview.

In northwest Wisconsin, Democrats hope they can reclaim the 73rd
District under a new map. All four maps under court consideration
relegate the “T. rex” to fossil status.

Under Evers’ iteration, the district would no longer stretch more
than 100 miles south from the Minnesota border city of Superior.
Instead, it would be more homogeneous, encompassing much of Douglas
County, and reach farther east, embracing more of the coastal
communities along Lake Superior.

The current map, first, shows the 73rd “T. rex” Assembly District,
while the new map, second, shows the district’s lines under the
governor’s plan. District 73 is in yellow. Credit:Maps by
ProPublica using Dave's Redistricting/Social Good Fund

“Historically, you’ll see from voting records, it’s always been
blue up here right along the lake,” said Laura Gapske, a Democrat
who narrowly lost in 2022 to the district’s current representative,
Republican Angie Sapik. Gapske handily carried Douglas County, with
58% of the vote. She’s now running for the Superior School Board.

Sapik, who wrote social media posts cheering on the Jan. 6
insurrectionists, has announced her reelection bid. She declined to
speak to ProPublica but complained on Facebook in early February that
the proposed maps “would make this district upwards of 65% Dem to
35% Republican. Does that sound like a ‘Fair Map’ to you?”

One area where the four maps differed was in how they handled
redistricting for territories aligned with Wisconsin’s federally
recognized Native American tribes.

The current GOP map divides four of 10 reservations into multiple
Assembly districts, “disrespecting Tribal communities of
interest,” according to a brief filed by the Midwest Alliance of
Sovereign Tribes and the Lac du Flambeau tribe in Wisconsin. Lawyers
for the tribes have argued that dividing tribal members among
different districts dilutes their voting power.

The Lac du Flambeau tribe and the Midwest Alliance did not favor the
governor’s plan, supporting instead a proposal put forward by the
group of mathematicians, in which each tribe would have had its own
Assembly voting district.

In its brief, the alliance called the mathematicians’ proposal
“hands down, the best map for all of Wisconsin, including
Wisconsin’s Indian people and communities.”

A spokesperson for Evers told ProPublica in an email that “the
governor’s maps do unite tribal communities in several respects
while still complying with constitutionally required criteria to
minimize splitting community and county lines.”

The Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, while celebrating the prospect of
new maps, is vowing to continue to push for a nonpartisan body, rather
than politicians, to handle future redistricting plans.

“The coalition isn’t done,” said Debra Cronmiller, executive
director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, which is part of
the coalition. “We still need a legislative fix. We need an
independent commission. We need, likely, a constitutional amendment
that would codify that. So our work is not done.”

_Megan O’Matz [[link removed]] is a
reporter at ProPublica, where she covers issues out of Wisconsin._

_ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces
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* Wisconsin
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* voter supression
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* Gerrymandering
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* voting rights
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