Earlier this month, Common Cause in Wisconsin (CC/WI) e-mailed every Republican, Democratic and Independent candidate for the Wisconsin State Senate and Assembly in this November 8th election, inviting them to pro-actively contact us to inform us of their support nonpartisan redistricting reform and if they wished to have their names listed publicly on our website.
The day following the e-mail message to candidates, September 8th, CC/WI sent this release to inform the public of this initiative. In it, CC/WI invited citizens to contact state legislative candidates in their area to urge their support for ending partisan gerrymandering and to contact CC/WI to have their names listed publicly in support of nonpartisan redistricting reform and specifically legislation introduced in 2021 – Assembly Bill 395/Senate Bill 389. This is a comprehensive reform measure that is modeled after Iowa’s highly successful, 42-year-old redistricting process that takes the partisan politics out of redistricting and delegates the boundary-drawing to a non-partisan state entity that does not utilize partisan political considerations in their task.
As of today, CC/WI has been contacted by 5 Wisconsin state legislative candidates for the State Senate and 31 candidates for the Assembly. Here is the complete, up-to-date listing of those supportive candidates that have proactively contacted CC/WI to have their names listed.
As we have done during every state legislative election year since 2014, CC/WI wants to make it simple and easy for Wisconsin voters and media to be able to see which state legislative candidates support the non-partisan redistricting reform embodied in the “Iowa Plan” by providing a continually updated list of those candidates on our website.
Any statewide or state legislative candidate (or their authorized proxy) who supports the “Iowa Plan” and would like to see their name listed on our site should contact CC/WI by phone at (608) 256-2686 (leave a message if no answer), by email, jheck@commoncause.org, or, even by letter to: Common Cause in Wisconsin, P.O. Box 2597, Madison, WI 53701-2597. Citizens can and should urge candidates to support non-partisan redistricting reform and request that they get their names on this list.
Candidates must be pro-active to have their names appear on this site! Even incumbent legislators running for re-election who co-sponsored AB 395/SB 389 during the last legislative session and previously must contact us to be on the list. Why? Because it demonstrates that they are paying attention and continue to support this reform issue. And, because it’s important for candidates for public office to take the initiative to inform voters about where they stand on important issues like ending partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin.
The list of candidates who inform us of their support for the Iowa Model redistricting plan for Wisconsin will continue to be linked on our dedicated Common Cause Wisconsin webpage and updated regularly until the November 8th election. As a reminder, election clerks will mail out absentee ballots to voters requesting them beginning on September 22, 2022. Candidates should contact CC/WI immediately, before voters begin casting their absentee ballots so that voters know where Wisconsin Assembly and State Senate candidates stand on this important issue.
Redistricting reform in Wisconsin is critical and necessary if we are ever to return to having a functional, less politically polarized state legislature that is responsive to the citizens of this state rather than to political bosses interested primarily in holding onto power. There is no question that an overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites want and support non-partisan redistricting reform. Now, let’s find out which candidates of all political parties for the Wisconsin Legislature are willing to stand up and pledge support for it and for the voters of our state.
On Wisconsin!
Jay Heck, State Director
