Democrats march, rally for fair maps

Former legislator urges residents to call representatives and urge support for bills
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

The Shawano County Democrats kicked off their education blitz on the planned redistricting of Wisconsin on July 17 with a march and rally at the courthouse that brought out over a dozen people.

The Democrats are seeking to have a nonpartisan commission draw the maps, a requirement every 10 years as the U.S. Census data, arguing that the maps were heavily gerrymandered in 2010, guaranteeing that Republicans continue to have strong majorities in both the Assembly and Senate. They believe that the gerrymandering has led to those with extreme views on both the right and left getting elected to office, reducing cooperation and compromise and leading to gridlock.

Fifty-one counties have passed advisory resolutions in support of the nonpartisan commission, and 17 counties have passed advisory referenda with voters. Shawano and Menominee counties have done neither, while Oconto County has approved a resolution.

Former state Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber, who represented the 57th Assembly District for six years until she was defeated in 2014 while making a run for state Senate, led the rallying cry in Shawano on July 17, urging Democrats to call on local legislators to support Assembly Bill 395 and Senate Bill 389, which both call for the formation of the commission.

“Fairness in government is what we need, but in my mind, the most important issue we have to deal with is gerrymandering,” Bernard Schaber said. “We have to have fair maps. We have to end gerrymandering in Wisconsin because, if we don’t, nothing else will get done.”

Bernard Schaber argued that nothing is getting done in the legislature, and that giving candidates on both sides a fighting chance in elections is the way to solve the issue.

“Nothing of substance is getting done,” she said. “If we want a clean environment, if we want good health care, if we want to have education that works well for everybody … we have to end gerrymandering.”

Bernard Schaber noted the legislative bills are languishing in inactive committees at the moment, thus the need for contacting legislators on the issues.

“We have to call the committee people and tell them you want a public hearing,” she said. “We have to ask them to be active and to do something.”

The call to action is not just for those sitting on committees looking at the bills. Bernard Schaber said the Democrats in attendance needed to contact all legislators to demand action be taken.

“It’s our job to tell the representatives and our senators to do what we ask them to do, not what the big parties ask them to, not what WMC — the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce — tells them to do,” Bernard Schaber said. “It’s their job to listen to us, and to do what we ask them and tell them to do.”

To not call legislators on the issue would give the impression that it’s not a pressing issue among constituents, according to Bernard Schaber.

“If you don’t call them, they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s not important,’” she said. “You even have to call people that you know support the bills because they’ll think it’s not important.”


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com