State Fair Map Advocates Alarmed by Partisan Push in Other States to Gerrymander Maps

Friday, August 15th, 2025 -- 9:00 AM

(Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Public Radio) Advocates pushing to create an independent redistricting process in Wisconsin say they’re alarmed by a partisan push in other states to lock in control of Congress through targeted redistricting.

According to Rich Kremer with the Wisconsin Public Radio, after Texas first announced plans to create new congressional maps in an attempt to secure more Republican seats in Congress, California and other states responded with their own plans to influence the outcome of the 2026 midterms.

Still, members of the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition say they’re not giving up on redistricting reform. At the President’s request, Republican Texas state lawmakers are trying to pass new maps that would net the GOP five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The maps passed the state Senate but can’t yet clear the Texas House of Representatives because more than 50 Democrats left the state to deny a quorum in that chamber.

Last week, the President said Republicans are “entitled to five more seats.” On Tuesday, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, announced Democrats in his state will retaliate by drawing new maps that will flip the majority in Congress back to Democratic control.

Because California’s state legislative and congressional maps are drawn by an independent commission, Democrats there need to call a special election and convince voters to give mapmaking power back to the state’s Legislature.

Wisconsin League of Women Voters Executive Director Debra Cronmiller told WPR the escalating battle between Texas and California “is so anti-democratic.”

“I just hate it at it’s core,” Cronmiller said. “It is what politics has disintegrated to at this moment in time. And I do think that (it is as) clear an indication that … we are in a constitutional crisis, frankly. I don’t know what the right response is.”

The league is a member of the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, which calls for the creation of an independent redistricting commission to draw voting maps for the state, instead of legislators doing it.

That proposal, she said, is partly modeled after California’s process. “Would it have occurred to me that a state like California would be willing to throw away what has been the model for independent redistricting commissions around the nation?” Cronmiller asked.

“I’ve got to tell you, that was not on my radar. So, I am horrified to see this happening, but it never occurred to me that we would have an administration say we’re entitled to five more seats.”

Cronmiller said Wisconsin has faced “political manipulation” for the better part of 15 years because of maps drawn in 2011 when Republicans controlled the state Legislature and governor’s office.

But she said Democrats in states like Maryland, New York and Illinois are also guilty of gerrymandering to maintain political power.  In late 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority declared state Assembly and Senate maps unconstitutional, which pushed lawmakers to approve new ones that have resulted in smaller Republican majorities in both chambers.

Lawsuits filed by liberal leaning law firms are currently attempting to strike down Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts, which are largely based on maps drawn by Republicans 14 years ago.

Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition Organizing Director Giusely Flores told WPR the gerrymandering battle between Texas and California will only make it more difficult to enact reforms in states like Wisconsin.

“We can’t save democracy by suppressing voters, and this has to be an opportunity to think about a new process and standards, especially in Wisconsin, and we need to get creative,” Flores said. “We need better systems in place. We need systems in place to make sure that politicians don’t choose their voters.”

That happens, she said, at the grassroots level through education and advocacy. The coalition has proposed draft legislation to create a randomly selected, nine-person independent redistricting commission with strict rules on who could serve.

Maps proposed by members would have to be approved by three-quarters of the board. The coalition’s website lists several bills and joint resolutions to change Wisconsin’s redistricting process between 2009 and 2022, none of which have come close to passing the Legislature.

Polling conducted by the Marquette University Law School in 2019, 2020 and 2021 shows strong majorities of registered voters favor having a nonpartisan commission redraw Wisconsin’s voting maps rather than state lawmakers.

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