Although the issue is likely to be brought to the floor as the Iowa model bill, state Rep. Pat Snyder expects that the state Senate is going to vote on a slightly redrawn version of Gov. Evers’ CURRENT map submission to the state Supreme Court Tuesday. The Senate is then expected to send the slightly redrawn Evers’ map back to the Assembly to amend before sending it to Evers’ desk.
It’s not clear whether Evers would sign it, even though the starting point is his own map.
The comments follow a day and a half of sudden movement on the maps issue with two consultants preparing recommendations to the liberal controlled Supreme Court by Feb. 1. Evers’ spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said, “Let’s be very clear: if Republicans today take up maps that are not the fair maps @GovEvers submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, then they aren’t the governor’s maps. Period.”
Despite her comments, we previously reported that Evers’ maps give the Democrats control of the Legislature if you use the 2022 governor’s race or a composite of 2016-2022 elections to determine districts’ partisan slant, using Dave’s Redistricting mapping software. They also game the maps to give Democrats a partisan advantage in a myriad of ways.
Although some argue that local candidates perform better than statewide candidates, Evers’ map tries to neutralize this possible effect by pitting Republican incumbents against other Republican incumbents, peeling away conservative areas to make districts more blue, and moving Republican incumbents to new districts where they haven’t built up connections with constituents – sometimes switching them to new districts by a couple of blocks. It also forces the state’s only black senator in history out of the legislature for at least two years.
State Rep. Pat Snyder told Wisconsin Right Now on Tuesday that the state Senate and Assembly “want to negotiate. They are trying to come up with what’s best for Republicans and Evers.”
He said the state Senate is starting with Evers’ CURRENT map, which the governor submitted to the state Supreme Court (not the People’s Map version already rejected by the US Supreme Court). The Republicans in the Legislature are slightly redrawing it to remove some of the most egregious partisan incumbent pairings – the districts of Andre Jacques and Howard Marklein in particular.
Snyder said the Senate and Assembly are “trying to do our best and take our best shot at keeping the majority” because “who knows what’s happening Feb. 1.” From the Democratic side, he noted that Brad Schimel could defeat Ann Walsh Bradley, flipping back control of the court.
He said that he heard the Senate might vote on this slightly redrawn Evers map on Tuesday, and then it will go to the Assembly, which would also slightly redraw it to remove some of the most egregious partisan moves, possibly the one we reported on today that moved Snyder out of his Wausau district by a couple blocks.
“They (the Senate) would make corrections for their Senate districts and send it to us (the Assembly), and we would accept it and make Assembly corrections and send it to the governor,” Snyder said.
He said that as of Monday night he had heard there were no active discussions between Evers and the legislature on this, though. “The last I heard, they haven’t talked to him (Evers) as of last night or yesterday,” he said.
Although the legislative records say the Senate bill being brought up is the Iowa model, Snyder said he hasn’t heard anything about the Iowa model being brought back into the discussion today. He said that the Senate had a chance to act on that last fall but chose not to so “now they’re scrambling.”
“They want to try to negotiate these things,” he said.
Snyder said that, although problematic, Evers’ map isn’t as bad as the other Democratic submissions to the court.
Two consultants handpicked by the court are expected to recommmend a map to the liberal court. They could take one of the submissions but don’t have to. One of those consultants angered Democrats in New York with his map submissions there. The liberal court will choose a map or draw its own by March 1. Republicans are planning to appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Cudaback then swiped at Snyder on X, writing, “Oopsies! Rep. Snyder said the quiet part out loud to a right-wing blog, telling them the GOP Legislature today is ‘trying to do our best and take our best shot at keeping the majority.’ This is about one thing: Republicans desperately trying to retain power. Full stop.”
First of all, Wisconsin Right Now isn’t a “right-wing blog,” as much as she wants to make it so. We are a multiple gold award-winning news site that won awards for the best investigative, public service and news reporting in the state last year.
Secondly, she appears to be admitting in this tweet that Evers’ central goal is partisan, i.e. to prevent Republicans from maintaining a majority.
