Thursday, October 21, 2021
For immediate release
Contact: Renee Gasch, 920-366-3780
Green Bay, Wis. – The Wisconsin State Legislature released new election maps on Wednesday that once again disenfranchise voters in Brown County and across Wisconsin. The Democratic Party of Brown County calls on the State Legislature to redraw election maps so that Wisconsin voters can choose their representatives freely and fairly.
The newly proposed set of maps deepens the unconstitutional Republican gerrymander started in 2011 by making it mathematically impossible for any other party to win a majority in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Brown County districts that were marginally competitive in the 2011 maps are even less competitive in the new maps. For example, Senate District 30–encompassing parts of the Green Bay Area and Marinette—was redrawn to have a 14 point advantage for Republicans. Assembly District 88, which Democrat Dr. Kristin Lyerly lost by only five points in 2020, was redrawn to have a 12 point Republican advantage.
“No matter what party you support, you should want Wisconsin elections to be fair and competitive,” said Renee Gasch, Chair of the Democratic Party of Brown County. “New candidates should have a fair shot at winning their district and all candidates should have to work hard to earn the votes of Brown County residents.”
Brown County is one of the most gerrymandered areas of Wisconsin. Assembly District 90 in Green Bay, for example, is packed with Democratic voters. The suburbs, which lean Democratic, are carved up and lumped in with heavily Republican rural areas that stretch across several Northeast Wisconsin counties. Despite Brown County’s history as a bipartisan swing region, gerrymandering has enabled Republicans to win all but one Assembly seat in the county plus every State Senate seat.
“Brown County residents deserve fair election maps that respect our community interests,” said Gasch. “We live, work, and play together. We should vote together too. The State Legislature must redraw maps that put the interests of Brown County residents before their own.”
The People’s Maps Commission (PMC), a nonpartisan redistricting watchdog created by Governor Tony Evers, also released a set of maps Wednesday. The PMC maps provide a comparison for voters to see what fair maps look like in Wisconsin.
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