MADISON –Today, the Wisconsin State Assembly met in regular session and took up redistricting legislation. Rep. Conley (D-Janesville) released the following statement in response:
“Drawing our electoral maps is the most important issue that comes before the state legislature every ten years. We know the maps proposed by Republicans are even more gerrymandered than their maps of 2011, the current ones in place. Republicans pretended to open their map-drawing process to the public but didn’t take time to review the public input, presumably because their maps were already drawn to their advantage before the public ever weighed in.
“I thank Governor Evers for creating the People’s Maps Commission, which held public hearings in all eight congressional districts and heard from more than 2000 people from across the entire state. The PMC then shared three sets of maps and received further input from Wisconsinites, before putting out two more maps for more public input. The final recommended maps were then released.
“This process is the first part of a fair redistricting process. However, the next steps in a fair process do not currently exist in Wisconsin state statute. I believe the PMC maps process was a well-intentioned beginning to achieving fair maps, but we simply do not have the legal mechanism to produce a refined end product. Democrats have introduced Assembly Bill 395, which would complete the fair map-making process. However, Republicans refuse to give it a hearing, let alone a vote.
“Today, the Assembly Republicans put the PMC maps forward as an amendment to their gerrymandered maps. This was a political, partisan stunt designed to take the focus off of their Gerrymander 2.0. While I fully support a fair, open, public process to draw and approve electoral maps, I voted no on this partisan stunt-of-an-amendment because the PMC maps are not a refined final product. We need the chance to further revise the maps to better reflect the people of our state. I also voted no to the Republican gerrymandered proposal.
“There is a better way. We should put the people of Wisconsin first – not partisanship, and not incumbency. Wisconsinites deserve new maps that truly reflect “the will of the people,” not the will of the party in power.”
