Wisconsin lawmakers voted on Tuesday to adopt legislative maps drawn by the Democratic governor, Tony Evers – inching the state closer to undoing the extreme gerrymander that has ensured Republican control of the state for more than a decade.
The pair of votes in the Republican-dominated state assembly and state senate are a sign that the years-long battle over Wisconsin’s legislative maps may be finally drawing to a close, giving Democrats a chance to win control of the state legislature in upcoming elections for the first time since 2012.
The vote is the result of a December ruling from the Wisconsin supreme court that the current state assembly and senate maps are unconstitutional, ordering the state to adopt new legislative maps before the 2024 election – and setting a mid-March deadline. Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the governor and multiple third-party groups submitted revised maps to the court for consideration, and in a 1 February report, consultants hired by the court to review them said that the GOP-drawn maps maintained the partisan gerrymander and “do not deserve further consideration”.
The maps submitted by Democrats retained a Republican advantage, the consultants found, but to a much-reduced degree.
Democrats in both chambers overwhelmingly voted against the bill after a failed attempt send it back to committee for review, alleging that because the bill would not go into effect until fall 2024, it was designed to protect Republicans such as assembly speaker Robin Vos, who is currently facing a recall attempt.
“We should let the supreme court continue to do its job to put in place a fair map in just a couple weeks,” said Democratic senator Mark Spreitzer.
The maps still need to be signed by Evers to go into effect. Evers previously signaled he would sign the legislation if it came to his desk
A Marquette University researcher, John Johnson, found that Evers’ maps still give Republicans a slight edge at retaining their legislative majorities, but by a much narrower margin than the current maps.
By accepting Evers’ maps, Republicans avoid rolling the dice on a court-drawn map that could be less favorable to them.
“The court will likely pick one of the other three maps,” said the Republican senator Devin LeMahieu. “We’re going to end this sham litigation and pass the governor’s map.”
This fight was set in motion when liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz won an April 2023 state supreme court race, giving liberals a majority on the court for the first time in more than a decade. Protasiewicz had telegraphed her views of the Republican gerrymander during the election, calling the maps “rigged”.
Republican legislators spent months threatening to impeach her if she didn’t recuse herself from the case, but dropped the issue after consulting with former Wisconsin supreme court justices who recommended against pursuing impeachment.
Wisconsin’s current legislative maps, drawn by Republicans, are among the most gerrymandered in the country. The GOP in Wisconsin has strong majorities in both houses of the state legislature, holding nearly twice as many seats as Democrats in the assembly and senate even though statewide races are often decided by razor-thin margins. These new maps will erase much of that partisan advantage.
