WI: Assembly Republicans announce plans to introduce Iowa-style redistricting process
Wisconsin Republican lawmakers announced plans Tuesday to introduce and quickly vote on a bill that would implement an “Iowa-style nonpartisan redistricting” process in Wisconsin. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers swiftly rejected lawmakers’ announcement as “bogus.”
The announcement comes as legal challenges to Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps have threatened Republicans’ power. Republican lawmakers have called for Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself from redistricting cases due to comments she made on the campaign trail describing the GOP-leaning maps as “rigged” — or face possible impeachment, while Democrats have jumped in to defend the new justice.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) — who has opposed nonpartisan redistricting proposals for years — said during a press conference Tuesday that the bill is as “close as constitutionally possible to Iowa” and that the bill should nullify any redistricting lawsuits and conversations about recusal and impeachment.
“We are going to get this bill passed, we are going to get it signed by Gov. Evers, we’re going to have maps that look different,” Vos said. “So there will be no need to have the whole discussion of recusal and millions of dollars of attack ads, special interests trying to buy the elections, all the things that we know are coming.”
Under the bill, the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) would take charge of drawing Wisconsin’s redistricting plans that would need to satisfy certain requirements, and a redistricting advisory committee would be established to perform other tasks related to the redistricting process.
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/09/12/assembly-republicans-announce-plans-to-introduce-iowa-style-redistricting-process/