The 81st Assembly District includes cracked portions of Iowa County (blue highlight), two separate chunks of Dane County (purple), Sauk County (green high), and Columbia County (orange). It's a gerrymandered patchwork quilt.
Dave Considine (D-Baraboo) has represented the district since January 2015. In November 2022, he defeated his Republican challenger by 17 percentage points.
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.
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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.
Related reading:
WORT, 12/19/2022
In the wake of the 2022 elections, one thing became glaringly obvious: the gerrymandering of Wisconsin’s legislative districts is more skewed than ever. In a year when all statewide races were decided by a margin of 3% or less – including narrow Democratic wins for Governor, Attorney General and Secretary of State, Republicans still ended up with a 64-35 majority in the state Assembly.
Other posts in the series:
See also: Wisconsin Gerrymandering Spotlight, round 2
See also: Spotlight on Wisconsin gerrymandering
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