Democrats Blast Maps as a “Perversion of Justice” Before 17 Democrats Vote Against Governor
[Madison, WI] – Tony Evers didn’t get the response he hoped for with his Liberal Maps Commission. In fact, before 17 Democrats including Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz voted against the maps — which Senate Republicans were forced to introduce because no Democrats were interested — Democrats blasted the maps as “a perversion of justice,” a “con,” and “stealing minority representation rights.”
Democrats have finally figured out what Republicans have known all along: Tony Evers’ Liberal Maps Commission has been a sham from the beginning. Evers never wanted fair maps; he wanted maps that tilted the scales in Democrats’ favor. The result was maps that failed through every step of the process — from their failure to abide by the Voting Rights Act, to their disenfranchisement of about 523,000 Wisconsinites who would be left representation in the State Senate two years.
Today’s defeat of the “People’s Maps” is among the most embarrassing and resounding defeats for Tony Evers in his nearly three years as governor. Evers remains a failed leader who can’t even elicit support from Democrats on maps he has championed for months. If Tony Evers can’t even unite Democrats, how can he claim to be able to unite Wisconsin?
Read more from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel below:
Wisconsin Democrats reveal deep divisions on Evers-backed redistricting maps, with opponents saying they were tricked
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Patrick Marley
November 11, 2021
Wisconsin Democrats revealed their deep divisions over redistricting Thursday, with 17 of them in the state Assembly voting against election maps championed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Thursday’s debate included one Democrat calling her colleagues turncoats and another saying Evers’ allies were putting their party ahead of the rights of Black and Hispanic voters.
The internal Democratic dispute surfaced as Republicans who control the Legislature showed unity on how new congressional and legislative districts should be drawn.
[…]
Evers is backing maps drawn by a commission he set up last year. Some Democrats this week made clear they hate them.
“They hoodwinked us, gaslighted us and they tricked us,” Democratic Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez of Milwaukee said of those backing Evers’ maps.
[…]
“When it comes to looking at maps, I’m not willing to vote for any map that dilutes and/or erases African-American or Latino representation — I don’t care who wrote it,” said Democratic Rep. LaKeshia Myers of Milwaukee before voting against the commission’s maps.
Nearly half of the Assembly Democrats voted against the commission’s maps three days after most Senate Democrats rallied behind them. Myers said ahead of Thursday’s vote she didn’t want to see any more Democrats backing the commission’s plan.
“I hope and I pray that some of my colleagues on my side of the aisle won’t be little turncoats like they were in the Senate,” Myers said.
In the upper chamber on Monday, Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee was the only Democrat to vote against the commission’s maps. All Republicans joined Taylor in opposing them.