From Judy Pincus

Barneveld

To the editor:

Every 10 years, after the Federal Census, new state legislative districts are drawn up by the sitting legislature and approved by the Governor. When last drawn in 2011, Republicans controlled the governorship and the legislature. Behind closed doors, Republicans were able to severely gerrymander the map to secure safe districts for Republican candidates. In effect, the legislators subverted democracy by selecting the voters they wanted in their districts instead of the other way around. As a result, in 2018, although Democrats won 54 percent of the vote statewide, the Republicans kept 63 percent of the seats in the Assembly.

Governor Evers has pledged to have an independent commission — made up of an appointment each from the speaker and minority leader of the state Assembly and the majority and minority leaders of the state Senate — draw up the redistricting map in 2021. This commission would be prohibited from using any political criteria in drawing the map and their work would be transparent. However, the Republican legislature is not likely to support this plan. If the Governor and legislature can’t come to an agreement, then it will fall on the Supreme Court to draw up the map.

This is why the current Supreme Court race is so important. If Neubauer wins, and a liberal wins the next race in 2020, the court will have a liberal majority drawing up the plan if it comes to that. If not, the conservative majority, all of whom have supported Walker in the past, will be drawing up the plan.

Vote on April 2 to help end gerrymandering.