Did voting maps limit Democrats’ inroads into Legislature?

Gerrymandering lawsuit points to election results

MADISON - Democrats were elected in four statewide races Tuesday — defeating the state’s most formidable Republican incumbent — and yet they appear to have picked up just one seat in the Legislature.

The results of the 2018 midterm elections in Wisconsin are evidence of the power of drawing legislative boundaries, critics of the maps say: Republicans expanded their majority in the state Senate by one seat and kept a massive 63-36 seat advantage in the Assembly, pending a possible recount in one race won by a Democrat.

“We’ve now seen four election cycles in which the result of what the voters wanted is not reflected in the seat allocation in the Legislature,” said Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair Elections Project, which is assisting with a lawsuit seeking to overturn the legislative maps. “The voters have gone back and forth electing Republicans and Democrats but the Legislature hasn’t been moving because the maps are rigged.”

But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) says the maps are drawn to ensure the Legislature represents the majority of the state and not just the populous Madison and Milwaukee. He said Democrats won on Tuesday in statewide races because the two largest voting blocs are in liberal cities of more than 300,000 people.

“If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority — we would have all five constitutional officers and we would probably have many more seats in the Legislature,” Vos said. “As much as they complain about gerrymandering and all things that I think are made up issues for their failed agenda, I think we won a fair and square election. We got more votes than Gov. (Tony) Evers did.”

Evers won by nearly 31,000 votes, and almost 50,000 more votes were cast in the liberal stronghold of Dane County during the Nov. 6 election com-

pared to 2014.

During the election, just one incumbent lost his seat — and that was Democrat Sen. Caleb Frostman of Sturgeon Bay, who had won a special election in June. The Assembly Democrats picked up just one seat — but it was a major flip.

According to preliminary results after Milwaukee County reported new voting totals Thursday, Robyn Vining of Wauwatosa narrowly defeated Matt Adamcyzk, a Republican, in a traditionally Republican district once held by Gov. Scott Walker. Adamcyzk, the state treasurer, did not seek re-election to that office, opting to run for the Assembly instead.

Tuesday’s election could become part of the suit over those maps, which were drawn after Republicans took control of state government in 2011.

Chheda said he expects the results of the 2016 and 2018 races will be part of the challenge, which the plaintiffs are trying to revive for the 2019 Supreme Court term.

The revised case — pending before a panel of three federal judges — will come as Assembly leaders have hired private law firm to try to intervene in the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed against state election officials and the judges haven’t ruled whether they will let the Assembly join it.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled Democrats suing over the maps didn’t have legal standing to bring their challenge to Wisconsin’s GOP-friendly legislative map and sidestepped the big constitutional questions the case raised about partisan gerrymandering.

The opinion leaves in place the current legislative lines, a political victory for Wisconsin Republicans, but Democrats were able to renew their lawsuit before the three-judge panel.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson, who leads the panel, has said a trial would likely be held in April. That could get the case back to the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as the fall of 2019.

Chheda said the results of 2016 and 2018 races “reinforce the case that these maps are unconstitutional and serve to disenfranchise broad swaths of the electorate.”

He said regardless of what happens with the lawsuit, Evers’ election means the 2022 maps will be “much fairer” because Republicans will have to gain approval from Evers or a federal court will draw the boundaries. States have to draw new maps every 10 years based on data from the U.S. Census. The next maps will be drawn in 2021 and be in place for the 2022 election.