Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is calling a special session of the Legislature April 14th to, as he puts it, “end partisan gerrymandering,” but Legislative Democrats aren’t onboard.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers called for a special session of the Legislature to “end partisan gerrymandering,” but it does not seem as if legislative Democrats are behind this push.
On Tuesday, the governor signed an executive order calling a special session on April 14th. Evers and Democrats have previously rejected a Republican proposal to adopt an Iowa-style nonpartisan redistricting commission, and last week Evers admitted that he didn’t think Democrats in the Legislature supported his push to end gerrymandering.
“Have you been getting pushback from Democrats on this [gerrymandering amendment]?” a reporter asked Evers following Thursday’s WisPolitics luncheon in Madison.
“Through the grapevine, yeah,” Evers answered. “I know they want to have an advantage [in redistricting]. Everybody does.”
A reporter then followed up by asking Evers whether he could elaborate “on what you’ve heard through the grapevine about Democrats opposing” the gerrymandering amendment?
“No,” Evers answered with a smile.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein refused to elaborate on what Evers might have meant by his comments, saying only that her caucus “would review” a redistricting proposal.
Republicans have long accused Democrats of being insincere on nonpartisan gerrymandering, noting that calls for the practice stopped as soon as liberals retook control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2023. In the new liberal majority’s first major decision, it struck down the Republican-drawn state legislative map that both the State Supreme Court and US Supreme Court had previously upheld.
In their decision striking down the Republican map, the liberal majority actually went so far as to appoint its own “experts” to redraw district lines. Legislative Republicans, recognizing that the Court aimed to gerrymander the map for Democrats far worse than Evers’ “People’s Commission” map did, signed onto Evers’ map in early 2024.
Last year, the Court rejected repeated requests to review the Congressional district map that Evers drew but accepted two requests earlier this year following the election of Susan Crawford, who raised eyebrows during her campaign by attending a virtual event whose state purpose was to “Put two congressional seats back in play in 2026.”
With Crawford on the Court and a 4-3 liberal majority seured for the foreseeable future, the Court accepted two challenges to Evers’ congressional map and appointed two panels of three circuit court judges to review them.
