No matter how they try to "localize" it, any GOP redistricting scheme is map-rigging garbage

Last week, the gerrymandered WisGOP Legislature took the next steps in laying poout the groundwork for the upcoming round of mapmaking in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Assembly to approve bill delaying redistricting https://t.co/L3Y1OABXFm

— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) June 16, 2021

New lines must be drawn every 10 years to account for population changes. Many city and county officials say it's impossible to do the job on time this year because the U.S. Census Bureau is so far behind in producing data they need to draw their districts.

Assembly Bill 369 would let them conduct the spring 2022 elections using their current districts. New maps would be in effect for local races starting in the spring of 2023.

Seems innocent enough, unless you have an issue with the State Legislature ordering the locals (and it is an order) to delay the setup of their districts and wards. And you should wonder why the "party of local government" wants to mandate when locals can put in new districts, but otherwise, what's the concern? And why would all Dems vote against it?

Melanie Conklin of the Wisconsin Examiner is a former Capitol staffer who knows what to look for when it comes to going behind the scenes in looking at how this bill was put together, and you will not be surprised who she discovered to have come up with the scheme plan.

The drafting note file — used by the Legislative Reference Bureau to write a bill — contains a memo from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos requesting the bill be drafted. More detailed instructions came from Vos staffer Joe Handrick, a former Republican legislator and one of the architects of the 2011 rigged maps that a federal judge described as among the most gerrymandered in the country. In addition to serving as Vos’ “outreach director” according to his Linkedin resume, Handrick is also the current director of the new conservative policy group, “Common Sense Wisconsin.”

Always be scheming. Always.

And "Minocqua Joe" (who's set up shop in Madison for decades) is far from the only Republican hack involved.

Others involved behind the scenes on the bill are GOP stalwarts, strategists and lawyers who have been active in Republican politics. One party on the emails attached to the drafting notes was Jessie Augustyn, who was on former Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald’s staff and who also represented Fitzgerald as his attorney in election lawsuits as well as lawsuits brought by Jere Fabick fighting Gov. Tony Evers’ emergency public health orders. Augustyn also works with The Federalist Society.

Andrew Phillips, who is representing the Wisconsin Counties Association as outside counsel, represented Vos and 13 other Assembly Republicans who were sued in 2019 for refusing to disclose information under the state open records laws.

All coincidence that it's WisGOP wingnut welfare folks that wrote up this bill. Totally.

Conklin goes on to point out that the staff on the current Senate GOP Leader also wanted to put their stamp on this bill.

The bill was pushed to a public hearing on Monday [June 7], but drafting notes indicate that the request to have it drafted was made on March 16 — nearly three months ago. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu’s staff person Brian Radday also sent an email suggestion, which Handrick apologized to the Legislative Reference Bureau for forwarding at the last minute after they said they were all done. This was on April 26.

The bill went through a number of different revisions, but the one presented as something new that needed to be acted on immediately so it could be voted on next Wednesday in the Assembly was drafted, reviewed, submitted and jacketed (the process of crafting a bill) by April 27.

The Senate version of this bill was put through a committee on a party-line vote on Wednesday, and that house will likely vote on it sooner than later. But I'd be confident on Governor Evers vetoing the bill as soon as it hits his desk, and not just because it overrides the ability of local governments to draw lines and account for new development and population shifts over the last 10 years (an especially big deal in places like Madison).

The real reason is because the WisGOP's plans with this bill have little to do with how local governments redistrict, as my State Senator pointed out the moment this bill was released.

Ask yourself if you take Robin Vos & the attorney who wrote Act 10 at their word when they say this proposal is just a little way to help poor local officials, and not a ploy to delay fairer maps and maybe even get a Republican governor in 2022. Do they have *any* credibility??

— Kelda Roys 😷 (@keldahelenroys) June 7, 2021

It's part of a larger scheme for WisGOPs to try to run out the clock on redistricting, so they can't draw up new maps for 2022. Then they'll try to shrug, say "nothing we can do, guess we have to keep what we have", and run on these crooked, out-of-step maps for one more cycle. And if their gamble really pays off, not only does the gerrymandered Legislature stay in power, but they'll have a GOP hack for Governor who will sign onto newly gerrymandered maps for 2023 and beyond.

My guess is that the Republicans will be forced to draw something at the state and federal levels, but with 21st Century WisGOPs, they'll try anything (or do nothing) until they are legally prevented from doing so. All Dems and good government groups are tuned into these mentality of these lowlifes after a decade in Fitzwalkerstan, and they saw through it from the minute this bill came out.

Let's be real, WisGOPs will only stop being map-rigging scumbags when it costs them by being so, either through being voted out by an angry public, or through being sent to jail for obstructing justice and/or other corruption.