House Districts’ Maps Protect Incumbents

If you can get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin, you can stay there for a long time. At least 13 current and former House members have spent at least 20 years – a political lifetime – in that house of Congress.

The lock that incumbents have on U.S. House seats was underscored on June 1, when no Democrat filed nomination papers to run against two Republican incumbents — in the 8th  and 6th districts. These numbers suggest why:

-Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher got 64% of the vote in the Green Bay-centered Eighth Congressional District in 2020, even though his Democratic opponent was another elected official, state Rep. Amanda Stuck.

-Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman got 59% of the vote in the Sixth Congressional District in 2020 against a former Democratic state senator, Jessica King. The Sixth District includes Columbia County in central Wisconsin, part of the Fox Valley and Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties along Lake Michigan.

-According to the website Open Secrets, Gallagher’s campaign spent $2.8 million or seven times more than Stuck’s campaign, which spent $399, 916. Grothman’s campaign outspent King’s by an 8-to-1 margin, $1.7 million to $245,788.

Imagine you are a Democrat who would like to run against Gallagher or Grothman. You meet with regional, state and even national party leaders about running, and you ask how much campaign cash, staffers, polls, focus groups and consultants you can count on from Democratic organizations and friendly third-party groups.

Here’s what you are told: Thanks for wanting to run, but you’re on your own. Start building a team of family members, friends and volunteers and get ready to work hard. Build a list of every community event between now and Nov. 8, and show up at them all. Take every free-media interview offered. If begging for campaign cash bothers you, don’t run. It’s a great experience, especially if you want to run for something else in the future.

Oh, and, don’t plan on seeing any big-name Washington Democratic officials in your district, or cashing any checks from Washington Democratic groups.

Why? Because Republicans drew “safe” — translation, non-competitive — 8th and 6th House districts to protect incumbents like Gallagher and Grothman.

More importantly, the two top priorities for state and national Democratic Party officials will vacuum up all resources (cash, get-out-the-vote drives and consultants) in your region for the goal of defeating Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and re-electing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

That’s especially true this year, when national polls show Democrats could lose big in the Nov. 8 off-year election.

Republicans running in Wisconsin’s “safe” Democratic U.S. House districts face comparable uphill climbs. Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore, who has represented the Milwaukee-based Fourth District since 2005, got 74% of the vote against a Republican opponent in 2020. And, Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan got 69% of the vote in the Madison-based Third District in 2020.

Milwaukee County has had some of the longest-tenured Democratic U.S. House members in Wisconsin’s history: Clement Zablocki served for 34 years (1949-’83); Henry Reuss, 28 years (1955-’83), Gerald Kleczka, 21 years (1984-2005), and James B. Moody (1983-’93) and Tom Barrett (1993-2003), who just resigned as mayor to become ambassador to Luxembourg, both served 10 years.

But the Wisconsin record for U.S. House tenure – 42 years – is shared by legislators from each party. Democrat Dave Obey represented northwest Wisconsin from 1969 until 2011, and Republican James Sensenbrenner represented a suburban Milwaukee-area district from 1979 until leaving office in January 2021.

Others who served 30 or more years in the U.S. House from Wisconsin:

-Republican Tom Petri’s 36 years (1979-2015) in the district now represented by Grothman.

-Democrat Robert Kastenmeier’s 32 years (1959-’91) in the district now represented by Pocan.

-Republican Alvin O’Konski’s 30 years (1943-’73) in the region now part of Republican Tom Tiffany’s Seventh District.

Two districts – the 1st and 8th – have seen the most turnover after being represented by long-term incumbents. Southeast Wisconsin’s First Congressional District, which includes Rock County, was represented by Democrat Les Aspin for 22 years (1971-’93). It was then represented by Democrat Peter Barca, Republicans Mark Neumann, Paul Ryan for 20 years (1999-2019) and Bryan Steil, who was elected in 2018.

Republican Toby Roth represented the Eighth Congressional District for 18 years (1979-’97). The district then had two Democrats (Jay Johnson, 1997-’99) and Steve Kagen, 2007-’11) and two Republicans (Reid Ribble, 2007-’11, and Gallagher, since 2017).

Southwest Wisconsin’s Third U.S. House District is the most competitive this year, since 26-year Democrat Ron Kind is retiring. Kind spent $4.4 million to narrowly defeat Republican Derrick Van Orden in 2020. Van Orden and four Democrats are running this year.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com