MADISON, Wis. — The battle over legislative boundaries continued this week as lawmakers took action on a resolution laying out guidelines for map drawing. The move came as a non-partisan group prepared to release its new drafts of maps Thursday evening.
Republicans in the Assembly and Senate voted in favor of a resolution Tuesday to use Wisconsin's current legislative maps as the basis for new ones to be used for the next decade.
The resolution doesn't have nearly the power as a law does. Instead, it is meant to be a guideline for lawmakers as they draw political boundaries.
Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) called the current maps gerrymandered during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“The idea that we would endorse the existing maps is the opposite of what elected officials who believe in democracy should be doing in terms of a starting point,” Hintz said.
In 2011, Republicans had total control of state government and drew the maps that have since delivered large majorities in both chambers, even in 2018 when Democrats won all statewide races on the ballot.
“Make no doubt about it, [this] is aimed at preserving our current gerrymandered maps and extending Republicans manipulated maps for another decade,” Hintz told reporters.
However, Republicans downplayed concerns about the resolution. Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) told the Associated Press the measure was about transparency and the continuity of representation.
“The parameters of reapportionment have always been the same, trying to keep districts compact, contiguous, keep communities of like interest together,” Steineke said.
The nonpartisan People's Maps Commission, created by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, planned to release three drafts of Assembly, Senate, and Congressional maps Thursday evening.
Commission Chair Christopher Ford said the latest guidelines passed by the Assembly and Senate don't change what the group plans to submit to the Legislature.
“We're not too worried about the resolution,” Ford said. “We'll still continue our process like we've been doing throughout the entirety of this process, this year of timeframe. We'll still look at public testimony, we'll still look to get the public feedback and reflect that in our maps that we'll ultimately submit.”
Earlier this week, Gov. Evers said it is “unlikely” he would sign any maps into law that were drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature based on the current ones.