Retiring Guy's Digest: Cheating to win elections: Wisconsin GOP attempts to defend the indefensible use of cracking and packing in drawing legislative districts (Appleton part 5)

Friday, September 15, 2023

Cheating to win elections: Wisconsin GOP attempts to defend the indefensible use of cracking and packing in drawing legislative districts (Appleton part 5)

Located in east-central Wisconsin, the district comprises the northeast corner of Winnebago County and part of southern Outagamie County. The district contains most of the city of Appleton, including the downtown area (but not the areas within the purple boxes), and most of the city of Menasha (approximately within the orange box).

Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) has represented the district since January 2021. She defeated her Republicans opponent by 13.2 percentage points in November 2020 and 18.8 percentage points in 2022.

Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/11/2023

Map: Wisconsin State Legislature (box added)

Somehow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tyler Katzenberger can write an article about legislative district without mentioning 'gerrymandering', 'packing', and 'cracking'.

It's called journalistic malpractice.

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.

Th 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.

Meet the leaders of the packing and cracking brigade!

Bad optics: Wisconsin Senate, Wisconsin Assem/bly

Wouldn't you rather have this diverse group in the majority?

Related reading:

Wisconsin Examiner, 4/15/2022

“Upon review of the record, we conclude that insufficient evidence is presented to justify drawing state legislative districts on the basis of race,” Ziegler wrote. “The maps proposed by the Governor, Senator Janet Bewley, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (“BLOC”), and Citizen Mathematicians and Scientists (“CMS”) are racially motivated and, under the Equal Protection Clause, they fail strict scrutiny.”
Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair Elections Project, said in a statement that the court had killed Wisconsin’s democracy. Since 2011, Wisconsin has had one of the strictest partisan gerrymanders in the country, baking a Republican majority into the Legislature that is nearly impossible for Democrats to overcome in the 50-50 state.

Other posts in the series: