Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin signed into law on Monday new legislative maps that could drastically alter the state’s balance of power, giving Democrats a chance to win control of the state’s legislature for the first time in more than a decade.
“When I promised I wanted fair maps — not maps that are better for one party or another — I damn well meant it,” Mr. Evers, who drew the maps after the state’s Supreme Court ordered new ones, said in a statement.
Despite the state being a battleground in national races, Republicans, aided by heavily gerrymandered maps, have controlled both of the state’s legislative chambers since 2011. They now hold about two-thirds of the seats in both the Senate and the Assembly.
But Democrats look likely to pick up seats under the new maps, which will be used during the November election. The maps outline an almost even split between Democratic- and Republican-leaning districts: 45 are Democratic-leaning, 46 are Republican-leaning, and eight are likely to be a tossup, according to an analysis from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Several incumbents are being drawn into each other’s districts, The Associated Press reported.
“Wisconsin is not a red state or a blue state — we’re a purple state, and I believe our maps should reflect that basic fact,” Mr. Evers said. “Today is a victory not for me or any political party but for our state and for the people of Wisconsin who’ve spent a decade demanding more and demanding better of us as elected officials.”
While Democrats have long sought to overturn the previous maps, their hopes were renewed when the state’s Supreme Court flipped to a 4-to-3 liberal majority in August after Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal former Milwaukee County judge, was sworn in. Justice Protasiewicz won the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history in April, during which she was openly critical of the Republican-drawn maps and argued that they were “rigged.”
