Monday, September 11, 2023

Wisconsin gerrymandering spotlight on Assembly District 94: Packing the City of La Crosse

 
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Packing the City of La Crosse.
    
Source:  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.

Excluding the City of La Crosse, the 94th Assembly District is located entirely within La Crosse County (population 120,784 in 2020).  The only missing piece is the Town of Burns (population 955).  

Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska) was elected to the Assembly in a May 2011 special election.  In November 2022, he defeated his Republican challenger by 2.6 percentage points.

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