Wisconsin No Longer Has Electoral Competition
Only 10 of 99 Assembly races are even remotely competitive. What’s happened?
There are 99 seats in the Wisconsin Assembly. After the June 1 filings, more than one-third of all Wisconsinites will have no choice whatsoever when they vote for their state representative in November. Seventeen Republican and 17 Democratic candidates — 34 total — face no opponent at all. And in another six Assembly elections, incumbents or candidates of one major political party will face an opponent of a third party only. In the Senate, seven of the 16 contests this year will have only one candidate running for election or re-election this fall. No choice for the voters in those districts.
In addition, only 10 of the 99 Assembly districts in Wisconsin can be considered even remotely competitive between Republicans and Democrats and only two of the 16 Senate districts that have elections in 2016 fall in the competitive category.
How did our state, once described as the nation’s foremost laboratory for democracy, become, instead, one of the nation’s most prominent examples of how elections are rigged? The 2011 redistricting process here is considered to be one the most extreme examples of hyperpartisan gerrymandering in American history and the worst ever, in Wisconsin. It was secretive, expensive to taxpayers and reduced by more than 100% the number of state legislative districts where voters have a genuine choice in general elections. That process also may have been unconstitutional, and a three-judge federal court panel may decide very soon to send a case to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the 2011 Wisconsin gerrymander.
In Wisconsin, elected representatives choose who their constituents will be through gerrymandering. In a healthy democracy, constituents are supposed to choose their elected representatives. It doesn’t have to be this way during the upcoming redistricting process in 2021. In Iowa, a non-partisan state agency redraws legislative and congressional district lines every 10 years following the decennial census, not partisan politicians. The results have been astonishing.
In Iowa, elections are more competitive, the Legislature is more responsive to its citizens, confidence in elections and state government is higher and citizens have real choices at the ballot box. We could have and need that in Wisconsin. Demand that candidates for the Wisconsin Legislature support fair voter maps. Like Iowa has. The very life of democracy depends on it.
Jay Heck is the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin.
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No mention of the Milwaukee County board doing the exact same action, why are liberals not bothered when Democrats hold power and do the exact same thing. It is only an issue when Republicans attempt to keep power.
Is it OK to be bothered by either party doing it? And the fact is Jason, by and large, nationwide, it is Republicans doing this. http://www.npr.org/2016/06/15/482150951/understanding-congressional-gerrymandering-its-moneyball-applied-to-politics
Vincent, so when Tom Barrett thought Bob Donovan was being too conservative for Milwaukee and happened to Gerrymander his voting district in an attempt to get rid of him, well that is okay right?
Can you read Jason? What is my first sentence in the post above? I can rephrase if you find it confusing.
Iowa model wouldn’t make Wisconsin non-gerrymandered. It would produce a republican gerrymander.
The Iowa model only works in Iowa, and only by chance. To get something that’s not gerrymandered you have to explicitly optimize for partisan symmetry. Iowa model doesn’t do that. Hence it only produces non-gerrrymandered maps in some states – namely, iowa.
Democrats rarely ever do it. Just looking at u.s. congress, pro- repub gerrymanders outnumber pro-dem by like 20 to1.