Republicans Found Guilty of Partisan Unconstitutional Gerrymandering - Refuse To Fix

The Federal panel of two Republican-appointed judges and one Democrat-appointed judge overseeing the gerrymandering case against the Republicans found that they unconstitutionally gerrymandered Wisconsin districts strictly for partisan gain, and they have ordered at least a portion of the maps fixed before any of the new maps can be used. The Republicans had already been ordered by the court to reveal their secret emails which showed they signed agreements to keep secret the maps and discussions that took place at a private attorney's office through intimidation, and the emails also showed that the Republicans orchestrated public testimony in favor of the maps. The judges had already given the Republicans a chance to fix their gerrymandering, but Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald refused.

The Republicans have already wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money trying to protect their illegal gerrymandering. The panel said, "Regrettably, like many other states, Wisconsin chose a sharply partisan methodology that has cost the state in dollars, time and civility." And Fitzgerald wants to waste far more by refusing to fix their gerrymandering. He said there is "not a chance" they will be willing to fix their gerrymandering.

The Democrats are pleading on the side of Wisconsin citizens to fix the gerrymandering. Senate Democrat Leader Mark Miller said, "It is ridiculous that Republicans would ignore a court order to fix an unlawful map. Maybe they should sleep on it," and Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said, "We need to immediately begin to redraw the maps in a manner that is fully open and transparent and does not, in the words of the court, 'needlessly move' more than a million citizens of Wisconsin."

If the Republicans are unwilling to fix their gerrymandering, Wisconsin taxpayers will likely pay millions of dollars to get maps through the courts. Tell the Republicans to stop wasting taxpayer money and fix their illegal gerrymandering!

The judges began their decision with, "There was once a time when Wisconsin was famous for its courtesy and its tradition of good government."

Doug La Follette can help get us back to those traditions as Governor of Wisconsin by renewing the Wisconsin Idea.

Wisconsin Republicans Refuse to Fix Gerrymandered Maps After Judges Plea

A three-judge panel in Federal court, who has lambasted the Republicans for their secrecy many times, gave the Republicans the option yesterday to make changes to their gerrymandered maps to fix the issues that brought them to court. The Republicans responded by saying they wanted to, but couldn't change the maps because of some ancient one-time Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling.

Today, the three-judge panel called out the Republicans for their ridiculous assertion. Judge Diane Wood said, "Nothing stands in the way of further revision of the redistricting plan."

By fixing the maps, the Republicans could have ended the court case. Judge Robert M. Dow Jr said "We wouldn't be sitting here if we didn't think there were some issues for trial. You guys can take those issues off the table."

The Republicans were given until 2pm today to decide if they would fix the maps. At 2pm, the judges gave them more time to decide, until 4pm. However, the Republicans continue to waste taxpayer money in court and refuse to make any changes. They have officially refused to fix their gerrymandered maps.

So, now that they can change the maps, they don't want to. Seems they were lying when they said they had any desire to fix their gerrymandering.

Keep wasting the taxpayers' money on frivolous arguments to keep your gerrymandering process secret and the result unchanged, Republicans. You could have stopped this now and saved a lot of time and money. Instead, you continue to stick your nose in the sand, believing in your own twisted reality.

I guess we'll see you Republicans in court again tomorrow.

Wake the f**k up, Wisconsin, and get these Greedy Bastards out! -> Walker is still a toss-up in the latest polls!

Secret Republican Documents Reveal They Orchestrated Public Testimony in Gerrymandering

The Journal Sentinel has inspected the 84 documents that Republicans fought tooth-and-nail to keep secret, now that they were made public today when the Republicans were "slammed" by three judges for their secrecy.

The Journal Sentinel's inspection of the documents shows "among other things, that those who drew the maps orchestrated the testimony in favor of the maps for a public hearing that occurred just after they were made available publicly."

"The records provide an inside view on the process Republicans used to draw the maps and show the testimony in favor of the maps was largely orchestrated by those who drew the maps. They recruited people to testify and supplied them with talking points."

Wisconsin Republican leadership was able to keep these secret in part through intimidation of their peers.

Last year, Republicans rudely denied any plans to draw new maps in secret.

'“You talked to Democrats who ‘think’ that Republican leaders have these grand plots,” Andrew Welhouse, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, says in an email response to questions about GOP plans. “I guess I’ll leave it up to your journalistic standards if their motivated speculation is worth reporting on.”'

Update: (7:16pm) The Journal Sentinel has updated their page with additional information.

From the Journal Sentinel, "The redistricting team considered forcing some senators who were not up for re-election in 2014 to go through special elections in 2012, the emails show. They did not pursue that plan after determining it might violate the state and federal constitutions."

WI GOP "Slammed" for Secrecy in Gerrymandering

The latest decision in the federal court case against the Wisconsin Republicans for gerrymandering is a harsh review of recent Republican tactics, calling them "shameful," the Journal Sentinel reports. The Republicans were fighting tooth-and-nail to keep some 84 documents secret, but have now been ordered to make the documents public.

The Republicans were claiming the documents fell under attorney-client privilege, because they consisted of only legal advice. However, the panel of three judges (2 Republican appointees and 1 Democrat) found the documents to primarily consist of political advice. Thus, the documents can't fall under attorney-client privilege. The panel wrote,

"In the court's view, it is quite apparent that these email discussions involve advice on political strategy, as opposed to legal strategy, and, therefore, are not afforded attorney-client privilege protection."

"Without a doubt, the Legislature made a conscious choice to involve private lawyers in what gives every appearance of an attempt -albeit poorly disguised - to cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin's Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege. What could have - indeed should have - been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny."

The court gets it. The Republicans did the work of the people in private through intimidation, when they should have done it in public. Now they think they can keep the documentation behind that work secret. The Republicans are dead wrong.

The Republicans in Wisconsin are finally being called out for their intimidation, secrecy and lies.

We now have a glimpse into why the Republicans fought so hard to keep the documents secret.

Democrats Push for Redistricting by GAB Bill

According to WPR, the Democrats will push today for a vote on a bill they introduced last July in the Wisconsin Assembly to change the way we handle redistricting every 10 years. The bill calls for the GAB to draw up new maps, and then the maps would go to the legislature to be voted on. If the maps don't pass, they're sent back to the GAB.

Such a bill would prevent any more secret gerrymandering in the future, but Republicans are expected to block it.

Republican Intimidation, Secrecy and Lies

Last week, we learned through a court order that the Republicans signed confidentiality agreements and were told to ignore the public comments of their fellow Republicans while gerrymandering Wisconsin. The memo read, "Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments." Republicans kept this secret all while doing the work of Wisconsin at a private law firm, and then later fought tooth-and-nail in court to keep this stuff secret.

Today, PolitiScoop has an article regarding an anonymous Republican NDA-signer who says they were threatened into signing the NDA. Zak Schultz from Wisconsin Public Television has the scoop in this video from WPT's Here and Now on Friday.

"According to one lawmaker who asked not to be named, the logic they were given was the maps and the documents would be protected by attorney-client privilege, and the secrecy pledges were needed to protect that. But this lawmaker told me he felt part of the pledge was intimidation, to keep the rank and file from complaining. He was even shown two versions of the map, one more favorable and one less favorable, and was told if he didn’t go along, the less favorable version would become law."

The WPT Here and Now clip has lots more background information, including an interview with UW-Madison Professor Barry Burden.

Last year, Republicans rudely denied any plans to draw new maps in secret.

'“You talked to Democrats who ‘think’ that Republican leaders have these grand plots,” Andrew Welhouse, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, says in an email response to questions about GOP plans. “I guess I’ll leave it up to your journalistic standards if their motivated speculation is worth reporting on.”'

Now they have.

Wisconsin: Ignore the Public Comments

"Public comments...may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments."

That's what Wisconsin Republicans were told to do while they secretly redrew district maps to keep them in office. Of course, the Republicans didn't want Wisconsin to know they were screwing us over. The Republicans also signed confidentiality agreements to not talk about the maps while they worked on them in secret at a private law firm in Madison.

The information came about during court proceedings for a lawsuit against the Republicans in front of a three-judge panel. The Republicans fought hard to keep this information secret, but the judges forcefully ruled against them saying,

"Quite frankly, the Legislature (Republicans) and the actions of its counsel give every appearance of flailing wildly in a desperate attempt to hide from both the court and the public the true nature of exactly what transpired in the redistricting process."

"Indeed, the arguments advanced by the Legislature more than suggest that it wishes to have its cake and eat it too. "

"...the Legislature has taken action that affects the voting rights of Wisconsin's citizens and now attempts to cloak the record of that action behind a charade masking as a privilege."

"Finally, given the Legislature's refusal to adequately cooperate in the discovery process, despite the Court's having twice denied their requests for privilege, the Court reaffirms its earlier directive: cooperate immediately. Neither this Court, the parties in the case, nor Wisconsin's citizens have the interest or time to endure the litigation tactics being used by public officials or their private counsel in what has quickly become a poorly disguised attempt to cover up a process that should have been public from the outset, despite the Legislature's concerted efforts to mask the process behind the closed doors of a private law firm."

Ignore the money they spend, too. We taxpayers paid $400,000 for these secret meetings to draw up where and who we vote for. The secretly gerrymandered maps were finished months ago, but we're still paying for two Republican aides to work at the private law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich. We pay the two aides $129,236 per year in total, and we don't know what they're doing there. According to the Journal Sentinel, the agreements say the aides are "working at the direction of Michael Best attorneys."

When asked about the news, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said, "You almost get the image of a shadowy government." An immigrants rights group has written a complaint letter to the Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to investigate the Republicans' redistricting process as another violation of the Open Meetings Law. You may remember the last one.



Wisconsin: Ignore the public comments of Republicans, because they clearly aren't being the slightest truthful. Do we really want to be ruled by the secret government of Scott Walker?