This post originally appeared at https://wisconsindailystar.com/news/critics-question-wisconsin-redistricting-lawsuits-request-for-new-senate-elections/tcsquare/2023/08/13/

by Benjamin Yount

Critics of a recent lawsuit filed to force new representative maps believe forcing the 17 state senators elected by using those maps to run again is going too far.

The suit filed last week with the Wisconsin Supreme Court asks the court to not only draw new maps for the 2024 election, but also have those 17 state senators elected last year to run again next year.

“Reasonable people might have disagreements on what the maps should look like. But to say ‘we want to kick people out of office’ who were elected 10 months ago, and completely disenfranchise everybody who voted for those 17 senators is breathtaking,” Scott Manley, executive vice president of government relations for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce told The Center Square.

Manley (pictured above) said the groups driving the redistricting lawsuit are asking for a writ of quo warranto, which the Wisconsin Constitution defines as the “right to any office” and illegal votes.

“They’re using this rather obscure provision of law that allows a court to remove somebody from office because they have unlawfully usurped that office from another person,” Manley said. “Think, for example, of someone who lost an election but refuses to leave. That would be what you’d use a writ of quo warranto to deal with.”

The lawsuit says Wisconsin’s current political maps are unconstitutional because they retaliate against some voters based on politics and violate Wisconsin’s promise of a free government.

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, is one of the senators who would have to run again next year. He said the idea of new elections sounds fair to him.

“Wisconsin should have had fair maps last year, but now we have a chance to have fair maps in 2024. Last November, I was elected to a four-year term, and I will continue to work hard to represent the constituents who elected me until the next election,” Spreitzer said in a statement. “However, it is only fair for the entire legislature – including the 15th Senate District – to be up for election next year, so that voters will have the opportunity to elect the legislators of their choice on fair maps.”

Manley said the Democrats who may have to run again are all in safe districts, but many of the Republican state senators are not.

“If [Democrats] think that they can get a Senate majority by going through a redistricting map exercise with the court, they don’t want to have to wait until the senators elected in 2022 are up for reelection in 2026.”

But outside of politics, Manley said there is a constitutional quandary raised by the move to invalidate the 2022 senate elections.

“The State Senate is a body comprised of 33 senators. If you remove 17 of them, you’re only left with 16. A quorum is 17,” Manley said. “They would be robbing the people of Wisconsin of the State Senate to do the people’s business.”

The groups pushing the lawsuit have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly. There’s no word when a decision on that request could come.

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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Scott Manley” by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

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