Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

De-politicizing maps gains support in some red stretches of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

More than 80 percent of the counties in Wisconsin went for Donald Trump in 2016. Now, two-thirds of the counties are backing an effort to end partisan gerrymandering.

mapchart.net

Two-thirds of the counties in Wisconsin — home to more than 70 percent of its population — have gone on record in favor of de-politicizing the state's legislative mapmaking.

A coalition of good-government groups has been leading the effort to gain support among county governments to end partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin. They are advocating for legislation that has some bipartisan support in Madison but is still seen as a long shot. It would take redistricting responsibility out of the hands of the Legislature in 2021 and give it to state bureaucrats, who would be barred from considering partisan voting patterns in drawing boundaries.

Wisconsin is the first state to consider such legislation since the Supreme Court this summer said federal courts had no role in settling partisan gerrymandering claims.


The ruling effectively killed a federal lawsuit in which Wisconsin Democrats said their free speech and equal protection rights were being infringed by maps drawn by Republicans at the start of the decade. While Democrats won a majority of votes sitewide in last year's midterm, five of the eight congressional seats were won by Republicans and they also secured a lopsided majority in the state House and a five-vote edge in the state Senate.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

"The fact that two thirds of Wisconsin's 72 counties, many of them 'red,' are now on record in support of ending partisan gerrymandering, demonstrates the deep grassroots support across the state for fair voting maps and against rigged elections," Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, told the Milwaukee Independent.

A recent Marquette University Law School poll found 72 percent support for taking redistricting responsibilities away from elected Republicans and Democrats. The bill would emulate the system of neighboring Iowa, which in 1980 became the first state to end partisan gerrymandering.

The Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, which has more than a dozen participating groups, is planning a meeting Nov. 9 where organizers can develop strategies for lobbing the Legislature.

Read More

What can we learn in 2025 from the 100-year-old Scopes Trial?

Two groups of protesters, one blue and one red, marching with placards across an abstract American flag background.

Getty Images//Stock Photo

What can we learn in 2025 from the 100-year-old Scopes Trial?

Based on popular demand, the American Schism series will renew in 2025 with a look at science-based public policy caught in the crossfires of today’s culture wars.

Readers often send me comments on how this series effectively sheds light on our contemporary political divisions through careful examination and analysis of our own American history, since so many of our present issues are derivative of conflicts long brewing in our past. As I wrote last year on these pages, history can act as a salve for our present-day wounds if we apply it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Chicago South Siders impacted by air pollution can help shape future environmental policy
factory chimney emitting smoke
Photo by Ria on Unsplash

Chicago South Siders impacted by air pollution can help shape future environmental policy

Communities in the southwest and southeast sides of Chicago impacted by the adverse effects of air pollution from truck traffic, warehouses, and factory operations have the opportunity to change their future. But what exactly are they experiencing, and how can they change it?

For the greater part of the last year, officials, including State Sen. Javier Cervantes (D-1) and 12th Ward Ald, Julia Ramirez and others from organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund have been drafting Senate Bill 838. The bill aims to curb environmental injustices, such as air pollution caused by heavy truck traffic and industrial practices, that overburden Chicago’s Southwest and Southeast communities.

Keep ReadingShow less
Behind the “Lie of the Year,” some bitter truths

Diners watch as Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, debate for the first time during the presidential election campaign on September 10, 2024 at the Bar Tabac in New York City.

(Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

Behind the “Lie of the Year,” some bitter truths

As it has been doing yearly since 2009, the fact-checking organization PolitiFact has chosen the Lie of the Year (2024). There was an abundance of nominees.

And, it turns out, they chose the same whopper I identified as a top contender months ago: President-elect Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that Haitian migrants were eating the household pets of Springfield, Ohio.

Keep ReadingShow less