Diluting the urban vote in southeastern Wisconsin, part 6.
With 138,000 Racine County residents -- 70% of its total population -- living east of the I (Interstate 94), an Exact-O knife is not necessary to create legislative districts. (The purple-outlined island of land to the northwest is the Johnson Park Golf Course and Disc Golf Course, operated by the City of Racine.)
Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) was first elected to the Assembly in a January 2018 special election. In November 2022, she defeated her Libertarian opponent by 54 percentage points. The Republicans were unable to field a challenger.
Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/11/2023
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? They support fair maps.
Other posts in the series:
See also: Wisconsin Gerrymandering Spotlight, round 2
See also: Spotlight on Wisconsin gerrymandering
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