After a year of battling over legislative redistricting in the state, and nearly $1 million in legal fees, a three-judge panel will likely create legislative redistricting lines.
On Friday, the final day of the federal redistricting trial, attorneys for both Republicans and Democrats presented experts and other testimony for their maps, but could not reach a compromise.
The state must redistrict because of population changes shown in the latest census reports. The census data has shown that the city of Milwaukee has seen a population loss — mostly white — at a much higher rate than any other part of the state. Data show there have been increases in Dane and Waukesha County and Fox Valley.
The two maps drawn — one by Republicans and the other by Democrats — have created debate about cutting representation in Milwaukee.
The Republican plan maintained six Assembly seats and two Senate seats with a majority of African-American voters. Of those, all but one Assembly district are represented by African Americans. The plan also maintained an existing Assembly seat held by a Hispanic. It would also create two Assembly districts that, in time, could be filled by a sixth African American and a second Hispanic lawmaker.
The Democrats’ plan puts five African-American voters into districts. Republicans propose six Assembly districts for the 200,000 plus people who live in the region.
The Madison lawyers are James Troupis for Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, and Michael May for Sen. Chuck Chvala, D-Madison. Troupis and May each have a team of expert witnesses.
May has enlisted David Canon and Kenneth Mayer, political science professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to help him make his case.
Troupis hired Bernard Grofman, a political science professor at the University of California-Irvine, and Ronald K. Gaddie, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma.
May told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the GOP attempt to create more minority districts diluted the minority vote — “spreading minority voters too thinly throughout Milwaukee” — a city with “extreme” levels of voter polarization.
“Black voters are geographically compact, they vote cohesively, and white voters engage in block voting to deny them opportunities to elect their candidates of choice,” argued May, citing Canon’s review of election results.
“It is because of this extreme racial polarization that professor Canon concludes the district should have at least 60 percent African-American voting-age population and no more than 35 percent white voting-age population in order for the minority group to elect the candidate of choice,” May said.
Testimony at the two day trial focused on an analysis of the African-American districts in Milwaukee.
David Canon, UW-Madison professor of political science, backed the Democrats’ plan. Canon said at least 60 percent of the African-American voting population is needed in a district to comply with the voting rights rule that says minorities must have a chance at electing a candidate of their choice.
But University of California-Irvine professor, Bernard Grofman, said the Republicans’ plan includes a 55 percent African-American population level.
Congressional districts have been redrawn, leaving Milwaukee with one, which was signed into bill by Gov. Scott McCallum.
Redistricting occurs every 10 years, following the census, to ensure equal representation. This time, Wisconsin lost a House seat, dropping from nine to eight, because the 2000 census showed that increases in the state’s population failed to keep up with other states.
Milwaukee lost population, and the new congressional map makes one district of the two now represented by Democrats. One incumbent, Tom Barrett, is running for governor this fall, and the 5th District he represents is being combined with the 4th District, represented by Jerry Kleczka.
While the Legislature agreed on a new congressional map, it failed to set new boundaries for its own districts.
