Wisconsin Republicans commit more than $1.8 million in taxpayer funds to defend GOP-drawn legislativ
Republican legislative leaders are poised to spend more than $1.8 million in taxpayer dollars on private attorneys to defend Wisconsin’s GOP-drawn legislative maps, according to contracts with three law firms.
Two lawsuits filed directly with the Wisconsin Supreme Court request new legislative maps ahead of the 2024 election. Both were filed last month, shortly after Justice Janet Protasiewicz was publicly sworn into office, giving liberals their first majority on the state’s highest court in more than a decade.
The complaints seek to undo a state Supreme Court decision last year that helped Republicans increase their majority in the Legislature and led to a supermajority in the Senate. Neither case challenges the state’s congressional maps.
The plaintiffs have asked that every Wisconsin legislator be on the ballot next year under newly drawn maps, including the half of state senators who otherwise wouldn’t be on the ballot until 2026. Candidates elected to those Senate seats would serve two-year terms, with four-year terms beginning again with the 2026 election.
Under three contracts signed last month by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, Wisconsin taxpayers will be on the hook for more than $1.8 million in fees to outside attorneys who have been hired to defend the state’s existing maps — considered some of the most gerrymandered districts in the nation.
https://madison.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/redistricting-lawsuit-wisconsin/article_49f2860e-0c06-11ee-83e0-bf9213c40774.html