Democrats fear GOP will race to redistrict before (WI) recall elections

In coming weeks state Republicans hope to legalize concealed weapons, pass a voter ID bill, expand the use of school vouchers and further deregulate the telecommunications industry. Democrats also fear they’ll turn to redistricting, moving up the statutory schedule so they can lock in electoral gains from last year’s election before recall efforts give Democrats a chance to pry control of the state Senate from GOP hands.

“There’s every indication that the Republicans are moving their agenda forward rapidly, and it could be with recalls on the horizon they would want to move redistricting forward in advance of the traditional schedule,” says Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, D-Monona.

And Democrats would be shut out of the process, he says. Republicans have denied them the funds to hire attorneys to represent them on redistricting issues, while Republicans announced their intent to hire a redistricting legal team in January.

He says he has no evidence that the Republicans plan to accelerate the process other than their blatant efforts to ram other conservative agenda items through the Legislature while Democrats watch helplessly from the sidelines.