Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Let me commence this week’s column by saying that I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.
However, with all the excitement and anticipation of last week’s festivities at hand, an important redistricting decision may have escaped your notice.
A panel of three federal judges ruled last Monday that the Wisconsin Legislature’s 2011 redrawing of State Assembly districts to favor Republicans was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, the first such ruling in three decades of pitched legal battles over the issue.
To put this into some legal and historical context, this was a highly unusual determination. Federal courts have struck down gerrymanders on racial grounds, but not on grounds that they unfairly give advantage to a political party — the more common form of gerrymandering. With the case, could now go directly to the Supreme Court, where its fate may rest with a single justice, Anthony M. Kennedy, who has expressed a willingness to strike down partisan gerrymanders but has yet to accept a rationale for it.
By way of background, the lawsuit was brought forward by 12 Democrats voters who felt the redistricting guaranteed Republicans wins in their district, thereby nullifying their votes. Ponder this scenario, in 2012, 1.4 million Democrats voted in State Assembly races compared to 1.2 million Republicans, yet the GOP came away with a staggering 60-39 majority.
And, per Attorney Gerry Hebert, the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center and considered a national expert on the topic of gerrymandering, “Wisconsin is the most extreme partisan gerrymander in the United States in the post-2010 cycle.
It’s about as far out from what you would consider to be fair as you can imagine.” Make no mistake about it.
This was a deliberate and nefarious attempt by Republicans to circumvent the will of Wisconsin voters. Wisconsin Republicans, their aides and their lawyers redrew the boundaries behind closed doors and then proceeded to ramrod their redistricting plan through the legislature without any outside input.
One last point, Democrats are still currently underrepresented in the Assembly. In this last election, Hillary Clinton received 46.9 percent of the vote (Trump received 47.9 percent), yet the Assembly has the largest Republican majority since the 1950s (36 Dems – 63 GOP).
Meanwhile, president-elect Donald Trump has the audacity to claim that he won the popular vote and alleges there was massive voter fraud. But, in typical Trump fashion, he has failed to produce a shred of evidence to substantiate his baseless assertion. In the final analysis, the only fraud taking place is being orchestrated by power-hungry Republicans.