Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Cheating to win elections: Wisconsin GOP defends the use of cracking and packing in drawing legislative districts (City and County of Eau Claire edition)

 
GOP gerrymanderers chomp away at the Eau Claire area community interest.
 
The 93rd Assembly District stretches 90 miles from west to east across 4 counties:  all but the Town of Clifton in Pierce (red box) a portion of teeny-tiny Pepin (orange), southern Dunn (green), and Eau Claire (purple) .
 
Passive Warren Petryk (R-Eau Claire) has represented the district since January 2011.  In November 2022, he defeated his Democratic challenger by 19 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!


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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