“Manipulating Geographies”: Tectonic plates move in Wisconsin

Since 2011, Wisconsin, a pivotal state nationally, has been one of the most striking examples of the impact of “Cheating” At the local level. Thanks to partisan redistricting, Republicans controlled two-thirds of the seats in both chambers of the state legislature, even after elections in which Democrats won more votes in all counties. That era ended Monday when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced Chest New legislative maps will give his party the opportunity to obtain a majority in the Badger State Legislature next November, for the first time in more than a decade.

“Wisconsin is neither a red state nor a blue state — we are a purple state, and I believe our maps should reflect that basic fact,” Evers said at the ceremony. “Today is a victory not for me or any political party, but for our state and for the people of Wisconsin who have spent a decade demanding more and better from us as elected officials. »

This change arose with the election last April of Judge Janet Protasevich to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, an election that shifted the majority to the progressive camp on that court. Last December, this new majority, consisting of four progressive judges against three conservative judges, invalidated the electoral maps adopted by the Republican-majority parliament, and demanded new fair maps.

According to one analysis the Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe new maps show a roughly even split between Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning districts: 45 Democratic-leaning districts, 46 Republican-leaning districts, eight of which are likely to trend one way or another.

“This is a shift in the tectonic plates of Wisconsin politics that will have national implications because Wisconsin is the swing state in the nation,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “He will inject new energy into our politics in a way that I think will help pro-Democracy candidates, meaning Democrats in 2024, from the presidential campaign to the Senate campaign to the House races and everything in between.” »

Republican state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos tried to make up for this by saying that the maps enacted were “the most favorable to Republicans of all the Democratic maps considered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.” However, he accused Democrats of the same “cheating” they have condemned in the past.

(AP photo)