Abigail Leavins
Redistricting lawsuit rally Wisconsin State Capitol Nov. 21, 2023
Nick Ramos, the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, was among the speakers who rallied for new electoral maps for the state.
When asked if she feels like she has a voice in Wisconsin elections, Amanda Peterson does not hesitate: “Oh no, no.”
Peterson, a volunteer with Fair Maps Wisconsin, showed up early Tuesday morning to the Wisconsin Capitol for a rally ahead of the Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission. Law Forward filed the lawsuit in August, arguing that the electoral maps created by Republican lawmakers fail to meet state constitutional standards for redistricting.
Peterson says that these gerrymandered maps have produced a nearly veto-proof Republican majority in the state Legislature, leaving her with little voice in her home state. She hopes the rally, which was organized by Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Common Cause Wisconsin, will draw attention to the issue. She’d also like to see the Supreme Court issue a ruling that results in more accurate maps.
Pat Raes, the president of SEIU Wisconsin and a Madison nurse, argued at the rally that Wisconsin’s maps have far-reaching impacts on voters, impacts she has seen in her work, including lack of access to reproductive health care.
“In order to move Wisconsin [to be] more aligned with the will of the people and the guardians of our society, we need to get rid of the etch-a-sketch gerrymandered maps,” Raes said.
Dr. Cheryl Maranto, from North Shore Fair Maps and the Wisconsin Maps Assessment Project, also spoke at the rally, calling out issues she says are important to Wisconsinites: affordable healthcare, sensible gun legislation, funding for public schools, and access to abortion.
“But the Legislature says no,” Maranto said after naming each of these issues.
Maranto said it is a victory that the Supreme Court was hearing a challenge to the maps. “Today is a great day,” she said. “Thousands of Wisconsinites have worked for years for today so we can challenge our harshly gerrymandered maps.”
Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, confirms that advocates have been fighting for years for fair maps. He says that there have been many proposals during that time to address Wisconsin’s gerrymandered districts but the Legislature has ignored them.
“This lawsuit is really the best opportunity — probably in the last dozen years — to really get a substantive change to the redistricting process, because the Legislature has just failed to address the problem,” Heck says in an interview.
The rally ahead of the Supreme Court arguments was an important “opportunity for people who've been fighting for this for years and years to gather before the court and to express their hope,” Heck says.
Since Republicans now control safe seats, they do not have to listen to the needs of the people, adds Heck, noting fair maps would help promote actual representation. “That's what we're really just striving for, for people to be able to have a voice and a choice at election time.”
Law Forward filed the redistricting lawsuit the day after liberal-leaning Janet Protasiewicz was sworn into the Wisconsin Supreme Court. During the campaign Protasiewicz referred to Wisconsin’s maps as “rigged” and Republican lawmakers have since threatened to impeach her and keep her from ruling on the case, which now comes before a court that leans liberal, 4-3.
In a Nov. 21 fundraising email, the Wisconsin Republican Party took aim at Protasiewicz and lawsuit proponents. “After the Democrats spent millions to buy Janet Protasiewicz a seat on our Supreme Court, now they’re calling in their chips to have Justice Janet create maps that elect as many Democrats as possible. The far-left is hellbent on seizing power at the cost of a fair democracy, and they aren’t even hiding it anymore.
The redistricting lawsuit has attracted national attention and coverage. This morning, John Bisognano, president of the National Redistricting Committee, issued a statement calling Wisconsin’s maps among the most gerrymandered in the nation.
“The state Legislature has time and time again restricted the rights and freedoms of the people without consequence because of these horrendously manipulated maps,” Bisognano said. “This challenge is a step toward justice for the voters and restoring a more representative democracy to the state.”
Maranto told rally goers that while the Supreme Court needs to find the maps unconstitutional, the fight doesn’t stop there.
“Winning this case is not enough,” Maranto said. “We need to keep fighting to enshrine the right for fair, nonpartisan independent redistricting in our state constitution — that is the only way we will guarantee Wisconsinites true democracy.”
