Wisconsin Republicans have advanced the legislative maps proposed by Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI), but their decision has raised eyebrows, highlighting the unique dilemma they face leading up to November.
More Republicans than Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature voted to pass the maps, suggesting they might believe they can keep their majority under the revised boundaries. However, it might be less about Republicans’ confidence in the maps and more about their fears over the power of the newly Democratic-leaning state Supreme Court, viewing Evers’s map as their best option in avoiding more Democratic-favored lines.
GOP state Sen. Van Wanggaard said voting for Evers’s maps was their best option given the hand they’ve been dealt.
“Republicans were not stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was a matter of choosing to be stabbed, shot, poisoned, or led to the guillotine,” Wanggaard said in a statement. “We chose to be stabbed, so we can live to fight another day.”
But some Democrats think Republicans will find a way to challenge the maps if Evers passes them, which he still has to do even after the legislature took up his proposal. Republicans could find a voter to argue the maps are unlawfully racially gerrymanders, which would be reviewed by a three-judge panel, two of which would be picked by the conservative chief judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Democracy Docket reported.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) previously told Democracy Docket he was skeptical of Republicans’ willingness to adopt Evers’s plans.
“We’re fearful the Republicans are finally trying to come around to do what they should have done in the first place, but they’re doing it with — I guess the technical term would be ‘with s***-eating grins on their faces,’” Pocan said last week when Republicans first signaled they might push through the Democratic governor’s proposal. “We can assume that this is not done because of the idea of good government.”
The Senate passed the maps by a vote of 18-14, with five Republicans joining nearly all Democrats in voting against the maps. The maps were then sent to the Assembly and passed by a vote of 63-33 later that day, with all Republicans in favor, joined by one Democrat.
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In December, the Democratic-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the current Republican-drawn maps were unconstitutional. The justices have received six proposals, ruling out two plans from Republican groups after two consultants hired by the court said they were partisan gerrymandering. The justices now have four plans to consider.
Evers said he would sign his maps into law if the legislature did not alter his proposed boundaries. However, Republicans and Democrats appear to also be at odds over when the newly advanced maps would go into effect, before or after the November election.