THE LINES HAVE BEEN DRAWN
Sunday, June 26th, 2011 -- 10:48 AM
One central Wisconsin lawmaker says it?s clear political motives are behind an attempt to rush through legislative redistricting.Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said in a statement Friday that Republican lawmakers are now being shown the maps, but there is no timetable for when they may come in to vote on them. Other Republicans admit they expect the vote to happen before July?s Senate recall elections.
"We're supposed to be waiting until the local units get done doing (their lines). It's supposed to work from the ground up," criticizes Amy Sue Vruwink (D-Milladore).
She expects Republicans will likely do a fair amount of ?gerrymandering? to give their incumbents the best chance to hold on to their seats.
A [url=http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/123782889.html]copy of the proposed Congressional district maps[/url] show an effort to protect freshman congressman Shawn Duffy.
"It was very interesting to see how they redrew the congressional maps," she says, "how they split up Portage and Wood counties. The way it looks right now, it is gerrymandering."
The Legislature is not scheduled to be back in session until September, but they could return specifically to take up redistricting whenever they wanted.
Vruwink says the extreme partisan nature of the process and the costs involved should lead lawmakers to look at having a non-partisan third party draw the lines.
"That's not a bad idea. It's based on the population. You want people to have good representation, not just based on if an incumbent can stay in office for the next ten, 15, 20 years," she argues.
No matter what the Legislature passes, a court challenge is expected.
Rep. Scott Suder did not return phone calls seeking comment.
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