State Senator Lena C. Taylor
As we move on from November elections, we can begin to look at the results and what they mean for the future of our state. While some suggested Wisconsin would be a battleground state in 2012 elections, a President Obama won easily.
Additionally, the incumbents running for the U.S. House of Representatives and almost all incumbents running for State legislature won re-election.
The U.S. Constitution requires that every 10 years a census to be taken of the population of our nation. Once all the information is in, the process of redistricting political districts occurs. In Wisconsin, the State Legislators have the responsibility of redrawing the maps at the end of each decade. The idea behind redistricting is straightforward: design a map that gives each district roughly equal populations, and is relatively compact and contiguous, in order to keep communities and similar groups together. This helps to ensure that the every voter is guaranteed an equal chance to be heard.
In 2010, when the time came to redraw Wisconsin’s district map, the Republicans held control over both Houses of the legislature. Their plan, which many called unconstitutional and an obvious act of gerrymandering, was signed into law by Governor Walker and put into place for the 2012 elections. The results were clear; incumbents held their districts easily, the smallest margin of victory was in Representative Paul Ryan’s district, where he won by nearly 12 points, despite the fact he was away campaigning with Mitt Romney for most of the year.
Many states have already taken steps to remove much of the partisan political fights that happen every 10 years around redistricting. In Iowa, the Legislative Services Agency (an independent and nonpartisan group) designs the map, which is then voted in an up or down vote for approval by the legislature.
The LSA doesn’t split political boundaries such as counties, so districts are neat and practical. California uses citizen volunteers that hold hearings to gather information about local communities to design logical districts. Voters in Florida approved laws that prohibited the legislature from drawing districts that would favor incumbents or a specific party.
Some steps have been taken in Wisconsin to address this issue. Two measures have been introduced with strong Democratic support in the legislature; Assembly Bill 198 which would have given the responsibility of redistricting to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau and the Government Accountability Board, and Senate Joint Resolution 68 which would amend the Wisconsin Constitution to give the power of redistricting to an independent group.
Thanks to our current redistricting process, voters are not choosing their representatives, but instead politicians are choosing their own constituents. In addition to discouraging moderate candidates to run for office and allowing for only extremely conservative or liberal candidates to be successful, voters are being forced to choose between a simple “D” or “R” rather than evaluating candidates based on meaningful debate of the issues most important to you.
Reforming our redistricting process is an essential step to strengthening our democracy. The resulting districts would be more competitive which would increase voter turnout, allow a wider range of candidates to run, increase accountability, and foster a more open and honest political environment.
Now is the best time to act, while we are well away from the 2020 census and the next round of redistricting.