What's wrong with this picture?
GOP packing of the City of Racine.
Map: Wikipedia
The UW Applied Population Lab defines 'cracking' as
drawing districts in such a way as to divide a concentration of specific types of voters across several districts such that they are a minority in each one, with practically no hope of achieving representation in any of the districts. This practice also helps make districts less competitive. [emphasis added]
The UW Applied Population Lab defines 'packing' as
the practice of drawing particular districts in such a way as to ensure that another party's candidate wins that seat by a tremendous margin. Although the opposing party is all but guaranteed the seat, packing makes surrounding districts less competitive, and thus tips the balance of power in the legislative body overall toward the ruling party.
Diluting the urban vote in southeastern Wisconsin, part 3.
Most of the district is located west of the I, even though most of Racine County's residents lives east of the I. The combined population of the City of Racine and villages of Caledonia, Elmwood Park, Mount Pleasant, North Bay, Sturtevant, and Wind Point is 138,000, which is 70% of the Racine County total of 196,000.
In other words, the area east of the I is large enough to accommodate more than 2 Assembly districts. (An average district contains about 59,000 residents.) Yet again, the GOP chose to configure a district that allows the more conservative west of the I portion of the county to wag the dog. (The orange line show the north-south route of I-94.)
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) has represented the district since January 2005. In November 2022, he defeated his Democratic challenger by 58 percentage points.
Related reading:
Racine County Eye, 5/5/2022
But when Republicans won complete control of the state legislature and governor’s office in 2010, they were able to draw the maps without interference. The results were heavily partisan-skewed districts in a state that’s almost evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters. Those maps allowed Republicans to hold large majorities in the legislature for nearly the entire decade, even when its candidates’ vote totals across the state were less than Democrats’ totals.
With little fear of losing those majorities, state Republicans have made little to no effort to adopt some measures that have strong public support across Wisconsin. Those include legalizing marijuana, mandating universal background checks on all firearms purchases, enacting red flag laws on guns, and expanding Medicaid, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll. [emphasis added]
And we have this white male menagerie to thank.
Other posts in the series:
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