A letter to the editor written by Team co-lead Cheryl Maranto and published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sunday March 28, 2021.
It seems contradictory — how can the fight to end partisan gerrymandering be nonpartisan? All political parties seek advantage in elections. The whole point is to win! But as in sports, how you play the game matters. Fouls and strikes are called to enforce rules of fair competition.
In one place and time, gerrymandering systematically advantages one party and disadvantages the other. At any one time gerrymandering benefits Democrats in some places (such and Maryland) and Republicans in others (such as Wisconsin).
When a city is cut into two or three pieces and appended to exurban and rural areas, all city voters lose the ability to influence policies that directly affect their lives. Their “representative” doesn’t care because, by design, they are a minority of the representative’s constituents.
Partisan gerrymandering is inherently anti-majoritarian. Elected “representatives” don’t need to support policies that are popular among Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Policies like these: 89% of the public supports background checks to buy firearms, 87% support significant infrastructure spending.
Gerrymandering districts create an unfair system. Ultimately, we all lose.
The quest for a fair, transparent process to draw legislative maps is nonpartisan. It promotes competition of ideas about how best to serve the public interest.
Cheryl Maranto, Glendale
Post Script: Speaking of popular ideas, one of them is fair maps! On April 6, 2021, five more referendums demanding fair maps passed. That brings the total to 56 (of 72) counties saying they want fair maps. Some counties pass resolutions, some put referendums on the ballot, and some do both. Every referendum that gets on the ballot gets passed. Folks that want to #EndGerrymandering are getting resolutions passed at the municipal level as well. Polling data also shows that Wisconsinites want fair maps. Polling data from the nationally recognized Marquette Law School Poll shows overwhelming public support for fair maps. Clearly the citizens of Wisconsin are ready to #EndGerrymandering and reinvigorate the competition of ideas!
1 Comment
Marcia Kaminski · April 20, 2021 at 3:48 PM
I really appreciate your equating the rules of sports analogy to fair maps principles. If sporting games had no uniform rules applied to their play, there would be chaos. People would loose interest in the game. Too many people have lost interest in government because they experience the lack of fairness and give up being an active participant in democracy.
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