{"id":4696,"date":"2023-08-04T05:03:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T05:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4696"},"modified":"2023-08-04T05:09:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T05:09:23","slug":"progressives-sue-for-new-wisconsin-electoral-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4696","title":{"rendered":"Progressives Sue for New Wisconsin Electoral Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/progressives-sue-for-new-wisconsin-electoral-maps\/tcsquare\/2023\/08\/04\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Ben Yount<\/h5>\n

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Progressives in Wisconsin moved quickly to ask the state\u2019s new Supreme Court for new electoral maps.<\/p>\n

A coalition of groups and voters led by the firm Law Forward filed a petition Wednesday with the state Supreme Court that challenges Wisconsin\u2019s current political maps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past 12 years, one political party captured the Legislature and has insulated itself from being answerable to the voters,\u201d Law Forward President Jeff Mandell said in a statement. \u201cDespite the fact that our legislative branch is meant to be the most directly representative of the people, the gerrymandered maps have divided our communities, preventing fair representation. This has eroded confidence in our political system, suppressed competitive elections, skewed policy outcomes, and undermined democratic representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandell (pictured above) added that Wisconsin has been ruled \u201cby right-wing interests\u201d for the past decade-plus.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Law Forward and the other groups want new maps drawn for the 2024 election with at least a few more Democratic-majority districts.<\/p>\n

The suit claims Wisconsin\u2019s current maps \u201cretaliate\u201d against voters, treat voters differently based on their political views and \u201cviolate the promise of a free government found in the Wisconsin constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed less than 24 hours after Justice Janet Protasiewicz took her oath and flipped Wisconsin\u2019s Supreme Court from what observers call a conservative majority to a liberal majority.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said that timing should raise some suspicions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWisconsin\u2019s current legislative maps are valid and constitutional. Instead of redefining their radical political platform to match the values of everyday Wisconsinites, liberal Democrats are counting on judicial fiat to help them gain power,\u201d LeMahieu said in a statement. \u201cThe timing of this lawsuit questions the integrity of the court. It\u2019s clear that liberal interest groups are coming to collect from Justice Protasiewicz after her campaign broke judicial code to earn their financial support earlier this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday announced his support for the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, members of the Wisconsin State Legislature have consistently ignored the will of the people, and they\u2019ve been able to do so comfortably and without facing any real accountability because they have gerrymandered themselves into safe, partisan districts. It\u2019s time for that to change,\u201d Evers said. \u201cToday\u2019s filing is great news for our democracy and for the people of our state whose demands for fair maps and a nonpartisan redistricting process have gone repeatedly ignored by their legislators for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case asks the Supreme Court to take the case directly and quickly. But there\u2019s no word when the court could make a decision.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Ben Yount is a contributor to The Center Square. <\/a>
\nPhoto \u201cJeff Mandel\u201d by Law Forward.<\/a>
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The post Progressives Sue for New Wisconsin Electoral Maps<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/progressives-sue-for-new-wisconsin-electoral-maps\/tcsquare\/2023\/08\/04\/ by Ben Yount \u00a0 Progressives in Wisconsin moved quickly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4697,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696\/revisions\/4697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}