GOP plans to work with Evers on maps
MADISON - Republican lawmakers are all but ruling out the possibility of trying to draw new election maps without seeking the approval of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and an aide to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Monday they had not discussed trying to leave Evers out of the process. They made the comments shortly after a conservative lawyer said he’d heard discussion of attempting to do that.
“That approach has never been discussed by Republican leadership, within the GOP caucus or with outside counsel,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “This is nothing more than rumor-mongering by Democrat activists in an attempt to fire up their base ahead of the 2020 elections.”
Debate over redistricting is ramping up as Democrats and Republicans prepare to draw new congressional and legislative maps after the 2020 census. All states have to develop new maps to account for population changes and the ones they draw will help determine which party has an upper hand in elections.
Republicans controlled all of Wisconsin’s state government when the last maps were drawn in 2011. They established districts that helped them hang onto big majorities in the Legislature.
But the control of state government will likely be split in 2021, with Republicans holding the Legislature and Evers sitting in the governor’s office.
Evers has called for drawing maps in a nonpartisan way and threatened to veto ones that favor Republicans.
The liberal Wisconsin Examiner reported Monday that Democrats are worried Republicans would take a new approach and argue maps have to be approved by lawmakers only — and not the governor.
The website quoted Rick Esenberg, the president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, as saying he’d “heard about” such a plan but wasn’t involved in it.
In response, Fitzgerald and Vos spokeswoman Kit Beyer said GOP leaders were not considering such a plan, which would have the maps go before the Legislature as a resolution instead of as a bill.
“A redistricting resolution is not being discussed,” Beyer said by email.
Beyer and an aide to Fitzgerald did not answer whether the leaders would categorically rule out the possibility of trying to approve maps without getting Evers’ approval.
The state Supreme Court in 1964 ruled that election maps require the approval of both the governor and the Legislature.
Despite that precedent, Democrats fear Republicans could try to approve new maps without getting Evers’ sign-off. Under that scenario, Republicans would have to count on conservatives who now control the Supreme Court siding with them.
Whatever happens, it appears likely the maps will wind up the subject of litigation, as they have for decades. Republicans and Evers seem unlikely to agree on new maps and if they can’t find a compromise it will be up to courts to determine what maps to use.
The U.S. Supreme Court in July ruled federal courts can’t throw out maps because they favor one party, no matter how politically lopsided they are. That’s prompted critics to argue that states controlled by one party will make it as difficult as possible for their opponents to ever get a grip on power.
But when state officials can’t agree on what maps to use, judges will have to decide the issue.