Following a tongue lashing regarding their initial impropriety, a three-judge panel told Republican legislators they could have a do-over on their heinous redistricting maps. Deferring to the legislature should have made the activist-judge-hating GOP happy, right?
Of course not. A lawyer representing the state, “cited a 1910 case decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court that he said means that the Legislature can only enact a redistricting plan once every 10 years. Since the recent plan was enacted last summer, the Legislature can’t redo it.”
Without reading the case (I’m not a lawyer, but I am a partisan hack) I can assure the reader this state’s Republicans have no interest in precedent.
Under normal circumstances, legislative districts are drawn following local government redistricting, for good reason. Two separate legislative districts within one city ward makes balloting excessively difficult. Redistricting ’11 was a hasty process, designed to protect Republican incumbents before a potential shift in the balance of power following Senate recall elections.
Also unprecedented is the process Republicans used to formulate the maps. Hiding behind lawyer-client privilege and confidentiality agreements, Republicans specifically ignored public input to gerrymander political power for the next decade. This has never happened.
Ultimately, the outcome will likely be a court drawn map. Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald is making some sort of passive-aggressive statement on his legislative website (careful, those eyes are piercing) with two maps of his district available, specifically noting a federal court is responsible for the current boundaries.
We all know the victor gets the spoils. Take a look at Illinois or New York congressional districts. But hiding behind lawyers and a newly found sense of “precedent” is a complete sham, not unlike the last year of state government under Walker and Co.
