Party-blind maps of state legislative districts based on Iowa model - drawn in 2014
To the surprise of many, Wisconsin Republicans are suddenly calling on the state to adopt Iowa’s nonpartisan process of redrawing Congressional and legislative district lines. Democrats and fair map advocates pushed for the state to go this way in the wake of the Republican-controlled 2011 redistricting, and in 2014 two senators, Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) and Tim Cullen (D-Janesville), sponsored bills that would adopt standards that would have mirrored Iowa’s in substantive ways.
Longtime Isthmus graphic artist David Michael Miller attended a news conference Cullen and Schultz hosted for the proposed bill, SB 163. During questions he asked Cullen if the Legislative Reference Bureau could produce maps following the strictures of their new bill. Cullen replied yes, it was “a good idea.”
The LRB eventually drew three maps — marking congressional, state Senate and state Assembly districts. Miller incorporated their redesigns into two maps — for congressional districts, below, and one for state legislative districts, above.
Party-blind congressional district maps based on Iowa's model - drawn in 2014
Miller also took his own stab at congressional redistricting and produced a map, below, that followed the Iowa strictures more closely than the LRB.
Nonpartisan congressional districts drawn using 2010 census and based on Iowa model
Miller packaged these maps in a February 2014 article, “Slaying the Gerrymander: The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau maps nonpartisan redistricting."
Miller wrote: “Iowa's redistricting procedure is noted not so much for the data it considers as for the data that cannot be considered. While providing equal representation and following county and municipal boundaries are of prime importance, the rules decree that no weight can be given to a precinct's voting history or even where the incumbent resides. Demographics are also off limits, excepting racial and language factors that must be considered to comply with the Voting Rights Act.”
Read the entire 2014 story here.
