Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices’ ‘Neutral Expert’ Consultant Trashed Trump, Republican Leaders as Liars

Bernard Grofman, the Wisconsin redistricting maps “consultant” praised by Gov. Tony Evers as a “neutral expert,” trashed former President Donald Trump and Republican leaders as liars and conspiracy theorists in an interview with a blogger in 2021.

The post appeared on a liberal blog called “Down With Tyranny.” Grofman’s quotes are in an article by Howie Klein that is titled, “Do More Trumpists Behave That Way Because They Can’t Get Laid– Or Because They’re Racists?”

In addition, Grofman’s X page contains a single post – an op-ed that he wrote for the Washington Post. “My op-ed telling the Dems to divide and conquer by splitting their huge spending bill into pieces just came out in the Washington Post Monkey Cage,” he wrote. The column advises President Joe Biden and Democrats how to “bypass” a Republican filibuster.

The “Down With Tyranny” blog post, whose writer referred to January 6 as an “insurrection” in the piece, quoted Grofman as saying,

“Trying to explain the violence on the Hill by only talking about what the demonstrators believe is to miss the point. They are guilty, but they wouldn’t be there were it not for the Republican politicians and the Republican attorneys general, and most of all the president, who cynically exaggerate and lie and create fake conspiracy theories and demonize the opposition. It is the enablers of the mob who truly deserve the blame and the shame.”

Right before that comment, he said, “What Trump supporters who rioted in D.C. share are the beliefs that Trump is their hero, regardless of his flaws, and that defeating Democrats is a holy war to be waged by any means necessary.”

Grofman is one of two consultants chosen by the liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to recommend new maps for legislative districts. He and Jonathan Cervas, a professor from Pennsylvania, are being paid up to $100,000 each by Wisconsin taxpayers. In their report, the two hired-gun consultants predictably recommended against both conservative-drawn maps, including a map by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty that even they admit performed best or well on the traditional, mandated redistricting criteria listed in the state Constitution.

They said only the Democratic maps – which flip control of the Legislature to Democrats under multiple credible election scenarios – pass muster. However, as WILL pointed out in a court filing, to reach this conclusion they invented their own social science model, arguing that Legislature control should mirror statewide elections, which is not a requirement of the Wisconsin Constitution, which, by the way, gives redistricting authority to the state Legislature – and not to two out-of-state consultants who aren’t accountable to Wisconsin voters in any way.

Grofman was also quoted extensively trying to explain Trump’s appeal in that article, and he concluded that Democrats had abandoned the working-class voters.

“We would not have Trump as president if the Democrats had remained the party of the working class. The decline of labor unions proceeded at the same rate when Democrats were president as when Republicans were president; the same is, I believe, true of loss of manufacturing jobs as plants moved overseas,” he said.

Grofman’s articles include “Statistical Fallacies in Claims about ‘Massive and Widespread Fraud’ in the 2020 Presidential Election: Examining Claims Based on Aggregate Election Results,” and a chapter with other people that reads, “Extreme polarization in American politics—and especially in the US Congress—is perhaps the most confounding political phenomenon of our time.”

He also co-authored an article with the other consultant, Jonathan Cervas, pushing ranked-choice voting.