Politics & Government

Should There be a Public Hearing on Redistricting?

Newspapers across the state Sunday called for a public hearing on legislation that would take redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers.

Newspapers across the state Sunday called for lawmakers in Madison to allow public hearings on legislation that would change the way Wisconsin redistricts every 10 years.

Redistricting is required every 10 years according to federal laws, and the majority party typically gets to draw lines that determine assembly and senate districts. 


AB 185 and SB 163 would take that task away from legislators and instead charge the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau with "drawing maps that are compact, contiguous, 'strictly nonpartisan' and bow to established municipal and county boundaries as much as possible," according to an editorial in The Journal Sentinel.

Editors at the newspaper are urging Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Burlington, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, to allow public hearings on the bill to give residents a voice in the process.

State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, though, wrote her own editorial for Sunday's paper saying that taking redistricting out of the legislature will create more problems than it will solve.

" ... would do little to remove the redistricting process from the political realm. Rather, it would merely move the political maneuverings to an unaccountable board, beyond the reach of the electorate," she wrote.

So, Patchers, what do you think? Should redistricting stay with lawmakers or move to another body like the Legislative Reference Bureau?


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