Milwaukee redistricting to increase minority representation

Every ten years politicians perform the kabuki dance of legislative redistricting. The public rarely participates, since watching the redistricting process is about as interesting as watching paint dry. But it can have real consequences  – by changing the current and future makeup of our representative government in relation to the population trends occurring in the community.

This time around the focus of the Milwaukee City Council is the near south and southwest sides, currently represented by Aldermen Bob Donovan and Jim Witkowiak. Think Mitchell Street, National Ave, Walker’s Point, the Mitchell Park Domes and the Jackson Park neighborhoods. You know the area.

I remember when this part of Milwaukee was populated by people of Polish and German descent. But over the last 30 years, much of the area has been repopulated by Hispanics, Latinos, African-Americans and Asians. This cultural transfusion has changed the look of the neighborhoods and introduced people across the region to new music, foods and traditions.

The change has been so drastic over ten years that Witkowiak’s 12th district is now 71 percent Hispanic. There is only one of 18 voting wards represented by Witkowiak where the Hispanic population is in the minority.

To see population and ethnic dispersion maps of the 12th district, click here.

Donovan’s 8th district is more diverse, with 63 percent of the residents identifying themselves as Hispanics, 24 percent as white and the remainder divided between African-American and Asian. Almost all of the white residents of this district live in three voting wards surrounding Jackson Park and St. Luke’s Hospital. The remaining 15 wards are 60 percent or more Hispanic.

To see population and ethnic dispersion maps of the 8th district, click here.

Overall, the Hispanic population of Milwaukee has grown by 44 percent between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, concentrated in the 8th and 12th districts. Milwaukee’s Hispanic population is 17.3 percent of the total residents and growing.

These census numbers have led some members of the city council to develop redistricting maps that would alter current lines of the 8th and 12th districts to create “super-Hispanic” districts. There is also a move to create a “district of influence” with a smaller majority of Hispanics by removing the airport from Ald. Tony Zielinski’s district.

Ald. Ashanti Hamilton, the chair of the Judiciary and Legislation Committee, has made it a goal to give Hispanics their due. He is closer to that goal, since his map – Plan A – was approved at the committee level and will be presented to the full council on July 6.

No one has come right out and said they are doing this to ensure the election of more Hispanic representatives to the board (there is currently one Hispanic representative, Ald. Robert Puente, who represents a majority African-American district on the north side), but the desire for a louder Hispanic voice in city government is clear.

Juan Carlos Ruiz, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Latino Redistricting Committee, told the city’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee on Monday that his community is seeking fair representation.

“Latinos will play a role in the upcoming elections,” he said. “This is the first step to empower the community, so that it can have a voice.”

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 doesn’t require governments to draw district lines that are favorable to minority candidates if the district has minorities as less than half the population. But, the act does require communities to create districts that prevents the dilution of the group’s votes. That can be achieved by creating “super-districts” or “districts of influence.”

Ruiz’s organization is not completely sold on Hamilton’s map and has drawn up its own redistricting map to present to the full common council on July 6.

“We need two ‘super-majority’ districts, in the 8th and 12th, to ensure representation to the Latino community,” he said.

Ruiz added that the effort to provide more choice to the Hispanic population of Milwaukee is not a reflection on the representation Witkowiak has provided to the 12th district. He acknowledged the fact that Witkowiak lost to Angel Sanchez in 2000, but took the seat away in 2004. He said Sanchez, even though he is of Hispanic heritage, did not do the job the constituents wanted and they returned Witkowiak back to the council.

“This is about choice, not about race,” Ruiz said.

Donovan sees the move to take away his Jackson Park wards and make his district more Hispanic as a personal attack and payback for positions he has taken in his over11 years on the council. Donovan is a life-long resident of Jackson Park  and he often recalls spending time in the park playgrounds as a child in his floor speeches at City Hall.

He is so emphatic that the Jackson Park neighborhood remain in his district that he has drawn up his own map and will present it to the full council on the 6th.

But Donovan’s support was thin when the Judiciary Committee adopted the Plan A with only Ken Franzen, the president of the Jackson Park Neighborhood Association, coming to the alderman’s defense.

“We like Bob being our alderman,” he said, adding that those who are against Donovan are “special interests.”

Plan A and other redistricting plans will be discussed by the full Milwaukee City Council on July 6 at 9 a.m. in the council chamber at City Hall.