Thread by @benwikler

Wisconsin’s maps are about to get fairer. To quote the famously mild-mannered Governor Evers… “HELL YES!”

Time for a thread of celebration and gratitude.

https://twitter.com/GovEvers/status/1499531961945231364

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 yesterday in favor of Gov Evers’s final maps proposal, and against the proposals submitted by the GOP. It’s a huge deal.

https://twitter.com/patrickdmarley/status/1499514083275591686

One important caveat: our GOP-led state Supreme Court decided last November to adopt a “least-changes” approach to redistricting, meaning they’d pick a map that involved as few changes as possible to the ultra-gerrymandered 2010 maps.
wpr.org/win-republican…

But within that harsh constraint, Governor Evers’s maps represent a significant step forward in the fundamental fight for representative democracy in the state of Wisconsin.

Governor Evers said every step of the way that he’d stick up for fair maps, no matter what the GOP threw at him. He created a People’s Maps Commission to propose non-gerrymandered maps. When the GOP ignored it and passed awful maps, he vetoed them.

In Wisconsin, when the legislature and governor can’t agree on maps, they go to the courts. Previously, federal courts have made the final decision. But our GOP-dominated state legislature sued to put the right-wing state Supreme Court in charge.
wpr.org/wisconsin-legi…

There are also 3 non-GOP-aligned judges, 1 of them elected in the spring 2020 pandemic election. Thanks again to everyone who played a role in winning that race! Without it, the 4-3 ruling yesterday would’ve gone the other way. Learn more about that fight:

The 4-3 conservative majority rejected the even more gerrymandered GOP approach to redistricting; while still Republican-leaning, the new maps create a few more districts more competitive.

Attorney General Kaul & his team at the DOJ led the case for Gov Evers & the state of Wisconsin at the state Supreme Court. Without his steadfast commitment to democracy & prodigious legal talent, things might’ve gone otherwise. We absolutely need another 4 years of @JoshKaulWI.

Hearing the arguments, and seeing the proposed maps, Wisconsin’s John Roberts, Brian Hagedorn, joined the 3 non-GOP justices to choose Gov Evers’s least-changes proposal.

Under the new maps, instead of a clear 6-2 gerrymander of House districts for another decade, we get a more competitive House map—particularly in the 1st, a seat once held by none other than Paul Ryan himself.

https://twitter.com/WisVoter/status/1499523582174670851

And in the Legislature, analysis tells us that the new maps create 6 more competitive districts that could elect 44 Democrats in the Assembly—a definite improvement on the current 61-38 GOP majority.
apnews.com/article/voting…

Yes, that’s still far from a fair representation that would match the 50-50 R vs Dem split among voters. But this is the start of genuine progress.

Most critically, these more competitive districts supercharge our fight against Robin Vos’s profoundly undemocratic dream of a veto-proof majority. The danger is still there. But the GOP’s proposed maps would have made it far more likely.

Meanwhile, the dramatic expansion of genuinely competitive districts means more voters have a greater chance of affecting who represents them, which in turn ought to help render legislators more responsive to the needs and views of their constituents.

This victory is the result of work by many heroes, over long years.

Let’s say it first: Enormous kudos to the grassroots activists in every corner of Wisconsin, who made this cause their own throughout a grueling decade.

The fight for fair maps has been more than an “issue” in Wisconsin—it’s a movement. Huge thanks to the Fair Maps Coalition @WIFairMapsCo, with activists all over the state & its small but mighty staff, and All on the Line Wisconsin @allontheline_wi. Watch: participant.com/campaigns/slay…

One particular strategy worth highlighting: county referenda, passed through grassroots organizing all over the state, helped demonstrate unequivocally that the people want fair maps. Thanks to everyone who made those happen!

Vast gratitude to the state legislators in both the Assembly @AssemblyDemsWI and Senate @WISenateDems who held the line against Republican maps despite overwhelming pressure and attempted backroom deals. Not a single Dem voted for the GOP maps.

Assembly Democratic Leader @GordonHintz announced this week that—like Senate Democratic Leader @SenBewley—he wouldn’t be running again this year. Both are leaving their caucuses, and our democracy, in a stronger position than they held when they took on the mantle of leadership.

All of us owe a debt of gratitude to both Leaders Hintz & Bewley for fighting—in partnership with their caucuses, the grassroots, @Tony4WI, & @WisDems—to ensure that the GOP wouldn’t grab supermajorities in 2020, and for holding the line against a disastrous GOP re-gerrymander.

Thanks also to the National Democratic Redistricting Coalition (@DemRedistrict) and AG @EricHolder for years in the trenches driving forward a vision of a more representative democracy, despite so much incoming.

And thanks to so many partners & allied groups who played critical roles, including @blocbyblocMKE, @VDLF_Action, @LWV_WI; the @lawfwd team; and the many attorneys, mathematicians, former judges and legislators, and others who poured themselves into this effort.

And without the voter uprising of the last four years, we wouldn’t have had Governor Evers empowered to veto the GOP maps and propose better ones; we wouldn’t have had AG Kaul to lead the case.

We wouldn’t have had sufficient Democratic strength in the legislature to sustain the Governor’s veto, and Wisconsin wouldn’t have had enough independent-minded state Supreme Court justices to rule for the fairer maps at the end.

Although gerrymandering is an indelible blight on our democracy, we still have enough democracy for the people—all of us—to have a say, and we have spoken with a resounding voice. You, reading this, played a vital role, and it’s worth taking pride in that.

At the same time—the fight continues. In fact, at this very moment, Wisconsin Republicans are taking their battle over Wisconsin’s maps to SCOTUS.
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

Even if they lose, because of our state Supreme Court’s least-changes framework, these maps are still far from an even playing field. And more ominously, WI law allows the legislature & gov to pass new maps to supersede maps drawn by courts.

https://twitter.com/DanRShafer/status/1499547027373531139

If Republicans win the governorship in 2022, they may well seek to undo this progress. It will take continued resolve, vigilance, and labor to ensure that democracy moves forward rather than sliding back. #AllinForTony

But we know that we are up to the task. The evidence is in front of our eyes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has made this cause their own, in ways seen and unseen.