Gerrymandering, "real Wisconsin", and the Dems' big gains in the 414 'burbs

One of the things to look at in the wake of Tuesday's election is the fact that despite Dem wins in every statewide office, Republicans are only set to lose 1 seat in the Assembly and gained 1 seat in the State Senate, meaning the GOP has sizable majorities in both houses (although less than 2/3, which means they can't override vetoes from Gov-elect Evers on their own).

But don't tell Assembly Speaker Robbin' Vos that this is odd. And despite the fact that 16 Assembly Republicans won their races with 55% or less of the vote, Vos insists gerrymandering had NOTHING to do with the GOP's wins in the Legislature.

“I think that’s silly,” Vos said. “I do not like the fact that Madison and Milwaukee chose Gov. Evers and they’re the reason that [Evers] won.

“But in the process that we have, Madison and Milwaukee get the chance to vote,” he continued. “I don’t like the outcome all the time, but they have a fair chance. So as much as they complain about gerrymandering and all things that I think are made-up issues for their failed agenda, I would spend the same amount of time saying, ‘You’re only playing to Madison and Milwaukee and not representing the other 70 counties.’”

Only “Madison and Milwaukee” chose Evers and the Dems "failed agenda", Robbin’? That’s not what the actual results indicate.

If you look at the unofficial election results from Milwaukee County, you are struck by how strong Dems did in the suburbs. And this Wauwatosa East graduate can’t help but notice that Scott Walker and Leah Vumir got their asses kicked in their former hometown of Tosa. Walker lost Wauwatosa by 4,429 votes, and Vukmir lost every ward in the City as Tammy Baldwin beat her by nearly 7,000 votes.

GOPs also got hammered downticket in state races in the Milwaukee burbs. Take out the south suburb Assembly race that Jesse Rodriguez won over Gabriel Gomez (and only by 55-45), and it’s overwhelmingly Dem in many places.

Milwaukee suburbs, Dem vs GOP share State Legis races
Senate District 5 (parts of Wauwatosa and West Allis) 57.1-42.9 Dem
Assembly District 13 (parts of West Allis and Wauwatosa) 57.6-42.4 Dem
Assembly District 14 (part of Wauwatosa) 61.6-38.4 Dem
Assembly District 15 (part of West Allis) 50.9-49.1 GOP
Assembly District 23 (Bayside, Fox Point, Whitefish Bay) 62.0-38.0 Dem
Assembly District 24 (Brown Deer, Part of Glendale, River Hills) 66.6-33.4 Dem
Assembly District 83 (Hales Corners, small corner of Franklin) 56.7-43.3 GOP
Assembly District 84 (Part of Greenfield) 53.9-46.1 GOP

These slight GOP to strong Dem suburban areas in Milwaukee County consist of somewhere around 250,000-300,000 people, which is the size of 1-2 Senate districts and 4-5 Assembly districts. They are “represented” as follows

Assembly - GOP 6, Dem 1
Senate - GOP 3, Dem 0

The 99-member Assembly should be divided by about 58,500 people per seat, but the 47,800-person City of Wauwatosa was nearly entirely represented by Republicans they overwhelmingly didn’t vote for. If it wasn’t for a last-minute retabulation that gave Robyn Vining the 14th Assembly district by 132 votes, that Assembly number would have been 7-0 GOP. How is that remotely fair?

Also, take a look at this results map from Tuesday’s Governor’s election. Note the wall of blue in the Southwest corner of the state.

Hey Robbin’, are you telling all those people that they’re not part of the “real Wisconsin”? Is Eau Claire or La Crosse or Stevens Point not “real Wisconsin” because they have a UW campus in them?

The Republicans just ran a candidate in the US Senate race in Leah Vukmir that was a full-throated supporter of the ALEC agenda that Vos has helped run through the Wisconsin Legislature, and Vukmir supporters ran ads bragging about how she took on "liberal mobs at the Capitol".

Let's go to the Senate map and see how Wisconsinites responded to that tone in Vukmir's race against a liberal Dem from Madison.

I see someone who’s writing off a lot of the state and thinking he can slam through an unpopular agenda in 2019, and it’s not Tony Evers. And Tuesday's results indicate Robbin' Vos and the Wisconsin GOP is going to lose if they think their gerrymandered majorities give him any mandate to keep with the regressive agenda that has kept Wisconsin behind the rest of the country in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

Then the gerrymander ends for 2022, with Ron Johnson's Senate seat up for re-election at the same time. Ruh roh, GOPpers!