This time, Republicans say ‘fair maps’

While Democrats go for the kill!

We’ll see just how sincere are the good gummint goo goos over at the WI State Journal and Common Cause. They’ve been yapping for a nonpartisan or bipartisan board of citizens to draw legislative maps in what they consider the most gerrymandered state north of Rockford. 

Strange bedfellows!

Now the Republican Speaker of the State Assembly agrees! Sure, there’s a gun to his head and Robin Vos may have put it there, himself. (Can’t someone help that poor man?!) Or, more likely, the voters when they elected Janet (spell it with me) Protaseiwicz last April to tip the state supreme court to a 4 to 3 liberal majority. Days later, Democrats were ready with their lawsuits. Strange how that works!

The newest justice has already ruled that Wisconsin’s legislative districts are more crooked than the Yellow Brick Road. That was during the campaign. We elect supreme court judges in Wisconsin, which is just crazy. Governors should appoint them with legislative approval. If you really want non-partisan. We also elect local judges but when was the last contested race among Dane County’s 17 circuit court judges? We don’t remember either.

Tony Evers isn’t having any of that kumbaya, Now that the shoe is on the other foot.

“Now, with the possibility that fair maps and nonpartisan redistricting may be coming to Wisconsin whether they like it or not, Republicans are making a last-ditch effort to retain legislative control by having someone Legislature-picked and Legislature-approved draw Wisconsin’s maps. That is bogus.

— Tony Evers, Democrat(ic) governor of Wisconsin

A deathbed conversion?

So Robin Vos has come to Jesus on redistricting. But not after putting his fingers into Our Savior’s wounds. And doing a CCAP criminal background check. Vos fears that the Protasiewicz court will reverse engineer the map of Wisconsin to tilt the field toward Democrats. You can call Vos opportunistic. You can call him hypocritical, but you can also call him a realist. What do his Republicans advocate?

Assembly Bill 415 would create a redistricting advisory commission of four appointees, one chosen by each Democratic and Republican legislative leader in the Assembly and Senate. Those appointees would select a fifth person as chair. The nonpartisan (it truly is!) Legislative Reference Bureau would do the real work. Their product goes to the Legislature for straight up or down vote, subject to the governor’s veto. 

We can win with fair maps, Republicans say. Adopt the Iowa Model or impeach Janet Protaseiwicz. Your choice, Gov. Evers.

The Vos proposal is a carbon copy of Iowa’s process, which the State Journal has been touting more incessantly than those Camp Lejeune drinking water lawsuits. The Madison newspaper uses the Associated Press yardstick on gerrymandering, which shows Wisconsin with 9 more Republican Assembly seats than warranted. (Don’t ask.) Iowa’s sainted system still produced an excess of 5.1 Republican seats, according to the same AP measure. As the Wise Man once said, Go figger!

Which means Vos and his Republicans buy their newfound virtue cheap. (At least, the price is right.) They can do the arithmetic. Subtract 9 Republicans from their current 64-35 majority and what do you get (besides another day older and deeper in debt)? A solid 55-44 Republican majority. 

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Tony Evers calls Phooey on the Vos capitulation because the governor sees an opportunity to flip the legislature toward his Democrats. Platinum Subscriber irony alert: The only adjudicated gerrymanderer-er is Tony Evers. The U.S. Supreme Court said so in March 2022 when it rejected his proposed map as “a 21st Century racial gerrymander.”

Will the WI State Journal dare support
a Republican proposal?

We know The Capital Times will not.