() Wisconsin’s Democrat governor is not guessing what comes next for the state’s political maps as his party seeks to force revisions on the previously approved maps following a leftist takeover of the state Supreme Court.
Gov. Tony Evers told reporters this week he wasn’t focused on what comes next when he vetoed the maps that were 99% of the maps he drew himself.
“All I know is that the maps I vetoed would not have been good for the people of Wisconsin,” the governor said.
Evers proposed maps that would have drawn more than two dozen sitting Republican lawmakers out of their districts. However, Republican lawmakers in the GOP-led legislature tweaked Evers’s maps and drew those lawmakers back into their districts.
Evers said those changes amounted to unacceptable gerrymandering.
Evers’s veto likely means the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s outside experts will decide who voters see on their ballots in November.
“How this plays out in the Supreme Court, I have no idea, though I hope it’s going to be my map, or something similar,” the governor said.
“It’s important to make sure that the people have good maps, that we have competitive races, all that stuff,” he continued. “I am hopeful, but, the Supreme Court. Here we go folks.”
Despite his disingenuous claims of nonpartisanship, the push by Democrats to revise the maps yet again comes after dark-money donors invested millions of dollars in a race to win an open seat on the state’s high court—thereby flipping the conservative majority.
Newly elected justice Janet Protasiewicz has thus far yielded solid returns on their investment by helping to overturn the state’s 150-year-old anti-abortion law and declaring the GOP-drawn electoral maps to be illegal.
Democrat lawyer Marc Elias—the architect behind the notorious Steele Dossier who is also known for his efforts to reverse high-profile election results—has been leading the lawfare attack to give activist judges authority over the political objective.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said while the governor may claim to not know what the new liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court will do with the state’s legislative maps, his veto shows he has faith they will draw new maps that are friendly to Democrats.
“His [veto] only solidifies his trust in the Wisconsin Supreme Court to give him even more partisan, gerrymandered maps for Democrats—the very thing the court’s newest justice promised on the campaign trail while receiving record-level Democratic Party campaign donations,” Vos said in a statement.
“By signing [the maps], he would have gotten 99.7% of the maps he’s proposed in court,” Vos added. “This was never about fair maps.”
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has said whatever maps are drawn, they must be finished by March 15, so they can be used in this year’s elections.
