CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The debate over Wisconsin’s political maps is over.
The Republican-controlled state legislature passed voting maps that were drawn line-by-line, block-by-block by a Democrat governor. On Monday Tony Evers signed his own maps, bringing the long fiasco to an end.
With the Governor’s signature, but sides revealed what they are most afraid of. Republicans showed that they are terrified of the new liberal majority on the state supreme court. They made two political canculations. First, as bad as the Governor’s maps are, the maps the court would have drawn would have been worse. And second, this preserves some legislative control over the drawing of future maps. Setting the precedent that all a governor of the other party needs to do is manufacture a stalemate could take map-drawing authority away from the legislature.
But Governor Evers also tipped his hand. He’s afraid of the U.S. Supreme Court. You could almost imagine the liberal wing of the Democrat party pleading with the governor not to sign his own maps. “Hey! We spent a lot of money to get Janet Protasiewicz onto the court. Let her do the work.” But the Governor knows that the current Wisconsin maps were reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court before the 2020 elections. The maps had not changed from then until now, and the high court ruled that they were constitutional. If changes to the maps reached the high court again, was there anything that might have changed the Supremes rulings from then to now? The governor could have been stuck with a GOP legislature for the rest of his term. And more than any lefty politician in the state, the Governor has liberal dreams that are unrealized so far.
What makes this an interesting story is that we really don’t now which side is the winner. About 50-percent of all Wisconsin voters will be in at least one new district. And yet, even by jiggering the maps so Republicans have to run against Republicans, there are still many more Republican lawmakers than Democrats. And the power of incumbency is often decisive on Election Day. Even under the new maps, Republicans may still find themselves in the majority in the legislature. We’ll find out in 9 months.
Chris Conley
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