Friday, October 27, 2023

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

 
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.
 
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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