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Assembly to hear redistricting plan
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by Christine Lagorio
Thursday, February 28, 2002
In another effort to eliminate two state Assembly seats while maintaining strong minority representation, an assembly committee proposed a new political boundary map Wednesday.
Although the full Assembly will schedule a vote on the plan today, a federal court in Milwaukee will redraw the boundaries if the legislature and governor cannot reach a consensus within a month.
Political boundary redistricting must be done every 10 years to adjust for population shifts in accordance with U.S. Census figures. New districts are being drawn to include roughly the same number of people. This plan would create new seats in Dane and Waukesha counties and in Fond du Lac, pitting 10 incumbents against each other for five seats.
Designing districts that protect geographical and minority representation has caused partisan disputes. The current plan includes six minority districts but was opposed by the committee’s three Democrats. It passed the committee on census and redistricting 5-3. The committee’s chair, Rep. Bonnie Ladwig, R-Racine, said she was disappointed to not have the support of Milwaukee-area Democrats, who prefer to have just five minority districts with higher representation.
“Our map has six minority districts; one has about 52 percent and the others are above 60 percent voting-age minorities,” she said. “I think you are taking away the potential for having minority legislators if you decrease the number of minority districts like they want.”
A group of prominent Democrats and citizens filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court last year asking a three-judge panel to take over redistricting. It argues the Legislature is unlikely to reach a compromise. The court has scheduled a trial beginning April 11 to redraw the legislative lines. Gov. Scott McCallum needs to approve any proposal the legislature passes for it to become law. His press office declined to say whether he supports the Assembly map.
