Senators from both sides of the aisle are joining the fight to re-evaluate redistricting in Wisconsin after several sent a letter to the head of the Senate’s elections committee calling for a public hearing on the issue.
Thirteen senators sent Committee on Elections and Urban Affairs Chair Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, a letter on Sept. 4 requesting a public hearing on a bill that would create a nonpartisan redistricting process.
“It is widely held that the current process which allows the political parties to draw the legislative district boundaries are badly broken and ripe for abuse,” the senators said in the letter.
The bill, which draws inspiration from a similar process in Iowa, would turn over the redistricting process to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, one of the letter’s signees, said in an interview with The Badger Herald.
“It gives a nonpartisan group a chance to make the districts, and the Legislature can vote on them or not,” Risser said. “So the Legislature still has a chance to look it over.”
Other signees of the bill include Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center; Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison; Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay; Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville; Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee; Sen. Nikiya Harris, D-Milwaukee; Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee; Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee; Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine; Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma; Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton; Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar; and Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Kenosha.
Lazich wrote an editorial in August for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel against the bills and said leaving the responsibility to a non-elected member of an agency is worrisome because the agency is not accountable to the public.
The letter was also sent to Senate Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, who released a statement Tuesday saying he does not want the bureau’s involvement in redistricting.
“Legislative reapportionment is one of the most important duties that the Legislature is required to perform under the Constitution,” Fitzgerald said. “I have no interest in turning that duty over to an unprotected, unaccountable board of individuals that could bring their own partisan leanings and internal agendas to the process.”
Risser said he does not see the logic in claims about the unaccountability of the bureau because people elect legislators in their district who will approve or disapprove of the group’s districting.
He added legislators who believe redistricting should be done by the Legislature have forgotten how the process was done in the past.
“The last reapportionment was done by a law firm for $500,000,” Risser said. “The Legislature passed it, but it was prepared by a law firm paid by the Republican party.”
Cullen said Michael Best & Friedrich LLP was hired by the Legislature in 2011, with a $500,000 payment that included taxpayer dollars. Calls to the law firm were not returned.
Cullen said the situation is very ironic considering the status of Lazich’s Senate seat and the seat of Rep. Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva, Assembly Committee on Government Operations and State Licensing chair.
“The irony in this whole thing is these gerrymandered districts is what creates these completely safe seats for Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “The irony is both Lazich and August have completely safe Republican seats, and it will never cost them an election.”
Lazich did not return requests for comment.
