Gov. Scott Walker: Reverse redistricting ruling, fight new maps

Madison — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants the state to fight to keep the legislative maps that he signed into law and that had given Republicans a reliable election edge for five years until federal judges struck them down last month.

The GOP governor would have to approve any maps that lawmakers might pass to replace those invalidated by a panel of federal judges two weeks after Republicans won their stunning Nov. 8 election victory.

The state and the Democratic plaintiffs in that case are contending in court over whether, when and how to redraw the old legislative maps passed by GOP lawmakers and Walker in 2011.

In a year-end interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Walker showed no appetite for undoing what he and his fellow Republicans enacted five years ago.

"Oh, clearly on principle alone they should fight this," Walker said of the state Department of Justice. "I think lawmakers and governors around the country are interested in this case regardless of party... because they believe the legislative bodies should be drawing the (district) lines, not the courts."

Sachin Chheda, director of the plaintiffs' Fair Election Project, said that what politicians in power want is beside the point. It's citizens who matter, he said.

"What citizens want is for elections to be meaningful. I don’t think there’s any evidence that citizens want politicians to draw lines to protect themselves," Chheda said.

The state is appealing the November lower court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which must accept all redistricting appeals.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, wants the panel of federal judges to wait to replace the existing maps until the Supreme Court decides whether they discriminate against Democratic voters.

"Given the uncertain nature of the law on partisan gerrymandering, the court should not require a revised plan until after the Supreme Court has ruled on the case," Schimel and state Department of Justice attorneys wrote in a court filing this week.

If new maps do have to be created, they must be drawn by the Legislature, which is currently under GOP control, and not by unelected federal judges, Schimel contends.

The Fair Elections Project, which brought the lawsuit, disagrees. Wisconsin has already held three statewide legislative elections — in 2012, 2014 and 2016 — using the district maps that have now been struck down as unconstitutional, the plaintiffs argue. To ensure that doesn't happen again in 2018 the court needs to require timely action, they wrote in their own court filing.

"If this court were to postpone this case’s remedy phase until after the Supreme Court disposed of any merits appeal by defendants, then it would be very difficult to put in place a new plan in time for the 2018 election," attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote.

It can take months for first-time candidates for the Legislature to consider, organize and fund a run for the Assembly or Senate.

The judicial panel that struck down the redistricting maps should not be afraid to take the lead in drawing up new maps, Fair Elections says. If the court leaves the new maps to the Legislature and Walker, it should give them a deadline of April 1, 2017, to approve them to ensure there's time for the court to consider them ahead of the coming elections, they contend.

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In the interview, Walker sharply disagreed with those arguments.

"As long as constitutional protections are met — which we believe clearly the maps did — it should be the legislative branch drawing the maps, not the courts," Walker said.

The governor declined, however, to rule out passing new maps ahead of a decision on the state's case by the Supreme Court.

"I haven’t even thought that far ahead, but I think they should certainly press (the November ruling) to the courts," Walker said of the Department of Justice and lawmakers.

In that decision last month, the judges ruled 2-1 that the maps were unconstitutional because they were "intended to burden the representational rights of Democratic voters ... by impeding their ability to translate their votes into legislative seats."

National implications

Depending on the outcome of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case could have national implications because it includes a new method of determining whether legislative maps are drawn in a way that discriminates against voters of a particular party.

The ruling focused on the map containing the state's 99 Assembly seats, but redrawing those districts also would alter the Senate districts that are each composed using three Assembly districts as building blocks. The decision does not affect congressional maps, which also were redrawn to benefit Republicans in 2011.

Finding the maps unconstitutional were Kenneth Ripple, a senior judge with the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of Wisconsin's Western District. U.S. District Judge William Griesbach of the state's Eastern District dissented.

Ripple was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, Crabb by Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Griesbach by Republican President George W. Bush.