Wisconsin Republicans have enjoyed outsize control of the Legislature in one of the most closely divided states for a dozen years. Maintaining that power is now at the heart of a drama involving the state Supreme Court that has national political implications.
A new liberal tilt to the court is driving Republican fears of losing their large legislative majorities, which were built under some of the most gerrymandered political maps in the country. Republicans have threatened to impeach the justice who was elected earlier this year and flipped the court to a 4-3 liberal majority, unless she withdraws from any case involving redistricting. The GOP is citing concerns about her campaign statements and fundraising.
Democratic leaders have decried that threat as “political extortion” and are mobilizing voters to pressure Republicans in districts won by the new justice and to back down.
“Impeachment is an act of pure power politics,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “It’s a desperate gambit to avoid accountability to voters who choose their state representatives, their state senators and their Supreme Court justices.”
Altering the makeup of the Wisconsin Supreme Court also holds the potential to affect the 2024 presidential election in the perennial battleground.
Wisconsin Republicans, who hold majorities of 64-35 in the state Assembly and 22-11 in the Senate, are squarely focused on their own futures. The political maps they drew that helped them win near veto-proof supermajorities are at risk of being overturned under the newly left-leaning Supreme Court.
Two lawsuits challenging the gerrymandered maps as unconstitutional were filed the first week after the new justice was seated. The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will take either case.
Republicans, and even Democrats the last time they had majority control of the Legislature 14 years ago, have resisted moves to give up their power to draw electoral district boundaries.
States that have shifted responsibility for redistricting from partisan legislatures to independent commissions generally have seen a reduction in gerrymandering, in which lines are drawn in a way that expands or cements one party’s grip on power. Districts drawn by independent commissions generally result in election outcomes more closely aligned with the will of voters.
Neighboring Michigan stands as a stark example of what can happen under independent redistricting.
Republican lawmakers, who then controlled Michigan’s redistricting process, drew maps after the 2010 census that gave them an enduring advantage for the next decade. In 2020, for example, Democratic legislative candidates received a slight majority of votes, yet Republicans won a 58-52 majority in the Michigan House and a 22-16 majority in the Senate under the maps they had drawn.
Unlike Wisconsin, Michigan allows its residents to propose their own laws or constitutional amendments and put those proposals on the ballot for a statewide vote. In 2018, voters approved a citizen-led effort to take redistricting away from state lawmakers and give the task to an independent commission. That commission, which is instructed to be guided by “partisan fairness,” drew the current legislative and congressional maps after the 2020 census.
The 2022 midterm election was the first to use Michigan’s new districts, resulting in a flip of legislative control. Democratic legislative candidates received just under 51% of the total statewide votes, translating to a 56-54 House majority and a 20-18 Senate majority.
In Wisconsin, it is impossible to change the redistricting process unless lawmakers voluntarily relinquish their power. That’s because Wisconsin is among 26 states that do not allow citizens to bypass their legislature through ballot initiatives.
The result is that Wisconsin continues to operate under legislative districts shaped by Republican lawmakers, who have built lopsided majorities that do not reflect the state’s overall political leanings.
While Republicans have used partisan gerrymandering to maintain their large majorities in the Legislature, voters have elected Democrats to all but one of the statewide executive offices that are decided on a partisan basis, including governor and attorney general. They also have elected a Republican and a Democrat to the U.S. Senate — votes that also are done on a statewide basis.
“Republican leadership in Wisconsin has worked hard over the past decade to insulate themselves from the will of the voters,” said Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer.
