MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republicans made a last-ditch effort Tuesday to block the liberal-controlled Supreme Court from setting new legislative district boundaries for the November elections.
The Republican-controlled Senate approved new Senate and Assembly maps just over an hour after they were unveiled, denying the public and Democrats a chance to review them before they were released. Democrats said they did not have time to analyze the proposal before the vote.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said the new maps were the same as what Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed but had fewer incumbent lawmakers facing each other in November. Two fewer senators and six fewer sitting Assembly members would be matched with other sitting members in the same districts, LeMahieu said.
The governor’s map was “clearly a partisan attack on us,” LeMahieu said.
“We just wanted to make things a little bit fair,” he said.
Democrats said the maps, detailed in a 169-page amendment, were an attempt by Republicans to protect their majorities, which sit at 22-11 in the Senate and 64-35 in the Assembly.
“This is not a serious proposal before us,” said Democratic Senator Mark Spreitzer. “These maps make changes that protect Republican incumbents.”
The Senate approved the bill 17-14, with four Republicans joining 10 Democrats. No Democrats voted for it. The General Assembly could approve it Thursday.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court last month ruled the current Republican-drawn district boundaries unconstitutional and ordered new maps. Evers, Republicans, Democrats and others submitted maps that two court-hired consultants are now reviewing. Their opinion is due Feb. 1, and the court is expected to release new maps shortly thereafter.
But the court said it would leave it up to the Legislature if it could approve maps that Evers would sign into law.
It seemed unlikely that Evers and Democrats would support the new Republican maps released Tuesday.
“This is about one thing: Republicans desperately trying to keep power,” Evers spokesman Britt Cudaback wrote before the maps were released. “Point.”
Cudaback said in a post on Period of time.”
If Evers vetoes the new Republican maps, “it will only show his true intent to try to disenfranchise Republican voters across the state,” LeMahieu said.
Any maps examined by the Wisconsin Supreme Court are expected to shrink Republican majorities.
Under the Evers map, Republicans would have a seven-seat majority in the Assembly, up from 29 seats now, and just a one-seat lead in the Senate, based on an analysis by Marquette University Law researcher John D. Johnson School. His analysis used a statistical model to predict the results of the 2022 parliamentary elections if they had taken place in the newly proposed districts.
LeMahieu said the changes Republicans proposed to Evers’ maps would not affect the partisan breakdown of each district.
This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to control redistricting. In September, three months before the court ordered new maps, the Assembly passed a sweeping plan that takes the power to draw maps out of the hands of lawmakers and gives it to nonpartisan staff.
But Evers rejected the plan, calling it “fake,” even though it largely resembled a nonpartisan redistricting plan he has been pushing for years.
It was that bill that Senate Republicans amended before it passed Tuesday. It was just hours before Evers would deliver his State of the State address.