Evers’ redistricting commission taking shape
Retired judges to choose members, with at least one from each district
MADISON - A redistricting commission created by Gov. Tony Evers to draw new legislative maps next year is taking shape.
Evers on Thursday began accepting applications for members of the panel and announced three retired judges would pick them.
Nine people, including at least one from each of the state’s eight congressional districts, will serve on the commission by gathering public input and crafting new maps for the Legislature following the release of the 2020 U.S. Census.
“I believe, and I know Wisconsinites do, too, that the people should get to choose their elected officials, not the other way around,” Evers said in a statement. “The maps we have were drawn behind closed doors without public input, resulting in years of litigation.”
All states must draw new maps after this year’s census to account for changes in population. The maps can be drawn in ways that give one political party an edge in campaigns — all but guaranteeing one side a majority.
Republicans controlled all of state government in 2011 and drew maps that have greatly helped them in elections since then.
They drew their maps behind closed doors and required Republican lawmakers to sign nondisclosure agreements to get a look at maps of their districts before the public could see them.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, signaled in January that lawmakers would ignore the panel, saying the process is out of bounds of what lawmakers should use.
“He can form whatever fake, phony, partisan process he wants to create, but I have no doubt, in the end, we will do it the way we always have, which is to follow the constitution,” Vos said in January.
Former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen with the conservative legal firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty is proposing to change legal rules for lawsuits over the new maps, requiring challenges to be brought to the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The filing of a request to change state court rules by Jensen reflects the enormity of the political stakes.
And it tacitly recognizes that it is all but certain to be courts — not legislators — that have the final say on what legislative and congressional districts look like for the next decade.
Where the lines are drawn plays a major role in determining who controls the Legislature and has an upper hand in the state’s congressional delegation.
Republican lawmakers established maps in 2011 that handed them large majorities in the Statehouse and an advantage in five of the state’s eight congressional districts. Litigation over the current maps persisted from 2011 to 2019.
Evers proposed the idea of the commission in his first state, budget but Republicans who control the state Legislature removed it.
The Democratic governor created the panel anyway by executive order in 2019 and barred party officials, lawmakers and former lobbyists from joining the commission.
Applications will be accepted through July 31. Former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, former Outagamie Circuit Judge Joseph Troy and former state Appeals Judge Paul Higginbotham will oversee the application process.
The idea of a nonpartisan redistricting commission has widespread support among Wisconsin voters, according to Marquette University Law School polling.
If lawmakers use their usual process for drawing maps, Evers would have the ability to veto what they put together.
Republican leaders and Evers have been able to agree on little and a compromise over maps would be difficult to reach. That would leave it to the courts to decide what maps to put in place.
Lawsuits could commence once census data is available in April 2021 — well before lawmakers would have time to start drawing maps.
If Jensen’s proposal is adopted, the state Supreme Court would have to decide on the maps by April 2022, which would allow candidates to know the shapes of the districts before they begin gathering signatures to get on the ballot that fall.