<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi friends,</div><div>I wanted to share this very well written explanation of partisan gerrymandering in our state by State Sen Chris Larson and offer something you can do to help ensure Fair Maps are drawn in WI. In my opinion, fair maps are a crucial ingredient in a thriving democracy; unfortunately, WI right now has a very lopsided set of maps that heavily favor one political party, even though our state is a 50/50 "purple" state. Please consider either going to the WI state capital on Thurs 10/28 at 9 am or write to your elected officials (before the public hearing) to share your views. I intend to contact my elected officials (including Gov Evers) to tell them that I, (along with 80% of Wisconsinites), support Fair Maps and in particular bill (SB 389). Thank you for your consideration of this critical and timely matter. <br></div><div>Catherine Marrari<br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Senator Chris Larson</b> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:Sen.Larson@legis.wi.gov">Sen.Larson@legis.wi.gov</a>></span><br>Date: Mon, Oct 25, 2021 at 8:45 AM<br>Subject: Larson Report: My Voters, by Choice<br>To: Catherine Marrari <<a href="mailto:hiking4us@gmail.com">hiking4us@gmail.com</a>><br></div><br><br><u></u>
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<span class="m_-5178262443001642478mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden">Today, we wrap up our series with the final installment “My Voters, by Choice,” where we discuss the impact of gerrymandering on our democracy.</span>
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<a href="https://mailchi.mp/3cdaaef4281a/larson-report-my-voters-by-choice-4882662?e=6f48bf18d3" style="color:#656565;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">View this email in your browser</a>
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<div style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><span style="color:#006400"><span style="font-size:42px"><i>The Larson Report</i></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size:32px"><i><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140/images/13a58c4e-0a54-f1ba-c37c-80acc27eea57.jpg" style="border:0px;width:640px;height:160px;margin:5px 0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" width="640" height="160" align="middle"></i></span><br>
<span style="color:#006400"><span style="font-size:24px">Progressive perspectives from Senator Chris Larson</span></span></span></div>
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<td class="m_-5178262443001642478mcnTextContent" style="padding:0px 18px 9px;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;word-break:break-word;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left" valign="top">
<h1 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif">Catherine,</span></h1>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">Nearly a year ago, in November 2020, I began a series of Larson Reports entitled <i>Democracy in Distress. </i>In it, we’ve covered a variety of topics, including the spread of misinformation, money in politics, and voter suppression. Today, we wrap up our series with the final installment “My Voters, by Choice,” where we discuss the impact of gerrymandering on our democracy.<br>
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According to the Schwarzenegger Institute of USC, <i><b>Wisconsin has the 2nd worst partisan gerrymander in the nation</b></i>. <i><b>Republicans just released their map proposals</b></i> for the next decade on October 21st (<a href="https://legis.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140&id=62c31d8672&e=6f48bf18d3" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">AB 624/SB 621</a> and <a href="https://legis.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140&id=c56507bde1&e=6f48bf18d3" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">AB 625/SB 622</a>), and if anything, <i><b>these new maps are even worse!</b></i></span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">We begin with the basics of what gerrymandering is, continue on to how it has been used in Wisconsin, and conclude with what’s next and what can be done to fight back.</span></p>
<h1 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:24px"><b><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif">Scary Gerry</span></b></span></h1>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">The term “gerrymandering” originated from a 19th-century Massachusetts politician named Elbridge Gerry. While Governor of the state in 1812, he signed a bill that created a legislative district in the Boston area that resembled a salamander in shape. A Gerry-mander, if you will. Since then, the term has come to stand for any legislative district that is drawn in such a way as to serve the political interests of the creator rather than the interests of the people they represent. Currently, it refers to districts meant to advantage one party or another (partisan gerrymandering), but in the past it has also been used to dilute the voice of voters of color (racial gerrymandering). Sadly, with the way today’s politics have aligned, it’s often difficult to distinguish one type from the other.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">To actually accomplish the goal of creating districts that advantage one group over another in an unfair manner, two primary strategies are used: packing and cracking. The graphic below gives a pretty clear visual example of what this looks like in a hypothetical community.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/iQMN--R9m-8K7ZGHdR-KZ4uT1czpakTiZ5HyfvvRczPFtu2nzYB-dcuYUGlQ_ruimpgYqSotRmv6NvM09HCaCszOP0O1Tsf115LHgC3wss8rL4PQcWZgVlG9xoQGeuTA75neeBcI=s1600" style="border:0px;width:600px;height:396px;margin:0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" width="600" height="396" align="middle"></b></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12px">Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">In the example above, two different scenarios play out, each with a 60/40 split of voters, but neither of which contain a reasonably equivalent share of seats. In the first scenario, 5 districts are created, with Blue winning all 5. It is “fair” in one sense, in that the majority party is in power, but it seems very undemocratic when you consider that the 40% of the population that supports Red have no voice in their government whatsoever. This is a textbook example of “cracking,” or diluting the vote of the red party by spreading them out over multiple districts. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">In the second scenario, despite having a minority of voters, the Red party actually wins 60% of the seats. This is an extreme example of packing, where Blue voters have been “packed” into two 90/10 districts, while Red voters are placed into three 60/40 districts, giving them both a solid governing majority and three relatively safe seats.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">Where does Wisconsin fall on the packing/cracking spectrum? By and large, it’s a matter of packing. Democratic voters, who tend to live in population-dense communities, are packed into a smaller number of super-majority districts with 60% or more of the total vote, while Republican voters are spread among many more districts with smaller (but still safe) majorities. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">Unlike the example above, Wisconsin voters statewide are fairly evenly split. However, Democrats have won slim victories in all but one of the last eleven statewide races (see the table below), with a median victory margin of 5.5 percentage points.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1"><img src="https://mcusercontent.com/6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140/images/7e7fcb79-0627-569e-8633-7bdd252a0b88.png" style="border:0px;width:597px;height:279px;margin:0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" width="597" height="279"></b></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">You might think that with such competitive statewide elections, the legislature would be evenly split. That could not be further from the truth. Currently, the Assembly has a 61-38 Republican majority and the Senate has a 21-12 majority. Knowing this, two main questions come to mind: has it always been this way, and how did we get here?</span></p>
<h1 dir="ltr" style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:24px"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1">An Un-Wisconsin Idea</b></span></span></h1>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">Since the advent of representative democracy, politicians have been trying to get an edge over their opposition. In a two-party system, like we have in the United States, this essentially splits the field into two teams. In Wisconsin, we have had a long history of split-ticket voting, leading to large swaths of our history where a Governor of one party presided over a legislature of another. This divided government led to a situation where for 30 years, the court system determined the legislative maps for our state, rather than the legislature and governor, because the two parties could not agree on a plan.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">That all changed in 2010, a “wave” election year where Governor Scott Walker and a Republican-majority legislature took unilateral control of state government. In August 2011, just 5 months after receiving census data from the federal government, Governor Walker signed bills to create new Congressional and state legislative maps, which remain virtually unchanged to this day (the 8th and 9th Assembly District lines were redrawn in April 2012 to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act with respect to Hispanic voters in Milwaukee).</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">Despite most of the state’s political attention being paid to the Act 10 uprising and the subsequent recall elections, it was clear from the start that these new maps were not fair by any means. How unfair? Well, according to analysis by the PlanScore project of the Campaign Legal Center, the maps which went into effect in 2012 contained a 14.1% GOP bias for Congress, 11.7% bias for the Assembly, and 12.4% bias for the State Senate. Looking at the chart below, we can see that this bias was much higher than any of the four previous redistricting plans.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1"><a href="https://legis.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140&id=d88c184fcf&e=6f48bf18d3" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/P4uvcZjw_kqOT_xMqTyw1DVrlHkmUiOuQkVIRXXvTMC0EH8hFdfBW_-AfUP_BngQL6R4PZFvYnTAMsDA_8DPrUhLANOyDNlKrGbG0QpSsdvVljOGlbS4iyt5Vj8Ihbj4e0Wmlyoq=s1600" style="border:0px initial;width:640px;height:407px;margin:0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" title="Chart" width="640" height="407"></a></b></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">As you can see, while slight advantages have been enjoyed by both parties over the years during redistricting, the 2012 plans were different. Single-party control of state government, combined with a Governor and GOP leadership in Scott Fitzgerald and Robin Vos who were willing to sacrifice norms of fairness for pure partisan advantage, led to the situation we have today, where even the most competitive elections see a near supermajority of seats won by Republicans across the state. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">If Republicans have their way this time around, the maps for the next decade will be even more biased. Thankfully, Governor Evers is sure to veto these incredibly unfair district maps, meaning that once again, the future of our state rests with the courts.</span></p>
<h1 dir="ltr" style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:24px"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1">Kicking the Habit</b></span></span></h1>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">The 2012 redistricting fiasco brought with it an increased awareness within the general public about the importance of fair legislative maps. The Fair Elections Project, a bipartisan effort to create fair maps, and the Fair Maps Coalition, a group of community organizations united around the concept of fair maps, have been hard at work educating the public, pursuing legal remedies to gerrymandering, and helping to pass referendums and legislation at the city and county levels in support of fair maps.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">All of this work has been remarkably successful. In fact, jurisdictions representing around 80% of Wisconsin residents have passed referendums or resolutions in favor of nonpartisan redistricting. I was even fact-checked on this claim, which was rated “True.” A Marquette Law School Poll in 2019 found 72% support for a nonpartisan redistricting process statewide.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/qRMKa0u-m0ZRSqbHx_UCAhQYqiyhFK1trW4C6tIiXeJ2LKutUBJk4gRa6zyhs_0-n4EYkdQYXqUuzrnU1cPH_9zYZBDjSBxoMXnwov_nLohKMEa8Y0nbrd4ZGwPkg2rIrRQvZFTN=s1600" style="border:0px;width:600px;height:232px;margin:0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" width="600" height="232"></b></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">In the long term, changing our state’s laws, like <a href="https://legis.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140&id=a57ff5f983&e=6f48bf18d3" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">AB 395/SB 389</a>, which my colleagues and I introduced this session to create a binding nonpartisan map-drawing process, is the best way forward. In the short term, what can be done to ensure the maps in place for next year’s crucial midterm elections create electoral outcomes that reflect the will of a majority of voters?</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">The reality is that unless you’re a lawyer involved in one of the ongoing legal cases surrounding our maps, or a judge hearing one of those cases, what happens with our maps is mostly out of your hands for this cycle, with one clear exception. On <u><b>Thursday, October 28th at 9:00am, the legislature is hosting a joint public hearing</b></u> at the Capitol in Madison regarding the Republicans’ proposed redistricting plan. <i><b>It is absolutely crucial that as many Wisconsinites as possible attend this hearing and make their voices heard</b></i>. We must make clear to all politicians, regardless of party, that we will not tolerate one side rigging the game and disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/M69aswUTOfBzgT6lVlHUwSURNJ3icEilDZurLP4jZDPPkpgBNi6cUS5-TmQTAPDHYe6CeuzjA0ZixpwGpFO5SDxnKCLeMsR3XvwRnQLrfOWb9HVkB2q_Y6FDZoqYURub5Sna-rOz=s1600" style="border:0px;width:516px;height:305.084px;margin:0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" width="516" height="305.08379342226925" align="middle"></b></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">If you can’t make it to Madison for the hearing, <i><b>consider contacting your elected officials to let them know you support fair maps (SB 389), not the gerrymandered GOP proposals mentioned above</b></i>. If a majority of the legislature is going to vote for a plan that a majority of the state opposes, they absolutely need to hear about it. Looking ahead to the 2022 elections, before you make your choice of who to vote for, find out where they stand on fair maps. </span></p>
<h1 dir="ltr" style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:24px"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1">Conclusion</b></span></span></h1>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">Whether this is the first installment of my <i>Democracy in Distress</i> series that you’ve read, or you’ve been with me since the beginning, I want to take a moment to say “thanks.” If you’d like to catch up on any of the previous installments, visit my <a href="https://legis.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140&id=f06257c1f5&e=6f48bf18d3" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">legislative website.</a></span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:16px">It is my distinct privilege to represent my neighbors in Madison, whether they live in the 7th District or anywhere else in the state. We are all in this together, and we all deserve to have our voices heard. That means voters should pick their representatives, not the other way around. For my part, I will continue to do all I can to fight back to ensure all our neighbors' voices are heard in Wisconsin.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family:Georgia,Times,"Times New Roman",serif;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><span style="font-size:18px"><b id="m_-5178262443001642478docs-internal-guid-96213fe3-7fff-1a07-6497-83ba6d4ea2d1">In service,</b></span></span></p>
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