Ballot Box. MWC file photo.
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – If the rolling of eyes made a sound, you would have heard it from the state’s uber-liberal Supreme Court.
Earlier this year they appointed two panels of local judges to review lawsuits claiming Wisconsin’s congressional maps are unfair. And both panels of judges – full of hand-picked liberals – dismissed the lawsuits. They ruled, correctly, that the only requirements in the state constitution, are that voting districts be contiguous and that they have roughly the same number of people in them. So, case dismissed.
But on Friday the state supreme court ruled that it would take up a slightly different case with a slightly different argument. The new case argues that the maps overwhelmingly favor incumbents over challengers; that current office holders, republicans and democrats, are overwhelmingly likely to be re-elected under the current maps.
The problem is that such a premise is unknowable. Suppose, hypothetically, a democrat incumbent from the Milwaukee area is caught up in a fundraising scandal and is likely to face criminal charges. Or a Republican congressman is caught having an affair with an intern. I would suggest both are overwhelmingly likely to lose their reelection bid, no matter how their district was drawn. And remember, each incumbent, at one point in their political career, was not an incumbent. They had to win the seat they currently hold.
Here are the inconvenient facts about Wisconsin’s congressional maps: they were approved by the state legislature. They were signed into law by the governor. They were also reviewed – twice – by the U.S. Supreme Court. And each time the court ruled that the maps are legal.
Yet the liberals on the state supreme court are busy trying to secure for themselves a power that the state constitution doesn’t give them. They want to draw the maps. This new lawsuit is the vehicle. The law will not get in the way of these ambitious judges.
Chris Conley
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