Advocates and Democrats are celebrating after Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed new legislative maps into law, ending more than a decade of Republican control of the state’s electoral process.
Katie Rosenberg, the Democratic mayor of Wausau, told theGrio it is a “really big moment, adding, “The governor always holds himself to a high moral standard and he knows that signing this bill was the right thing to do.”
Mandela Barnes, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, told theGrio it feels like a “new day for the state of Wisconsin” after the implementation of the new statewide maps.
“We’ve been dealing with a gerrymandered legislature that has completely governed counter to what the majority of people in this state want,” said Barnes, a former Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. “To finally have that opportunity for that to be rectified is something that I personally have been waiting on for a long time.”
April Albright, legal director at Black Voters Matter, described the move by Gov. Evers as a “major victory.” She told theGrio that it will serve as a “north star” in electoral politics and predicted its influence on people across the nation “concerned about the balance of power in their state.”
“In Wisconsin, you now have evenly split districts. For over 13 years, the state’s GOP has had a tremendous stronghold over the positions in the state Senate and Assembly,” Albright explained.
Jonathan Miller, chief program officer at Public Rights Project, told theGrio that this is a “huge win for democracy in Wisconsin.”
“Having fair maps creates a competitive balance in the legislature and that’s incredibly important to everybody,” he said. “It’s just going to make government work better.”
Former Lt. Gov. Barnes said that Black Wisconsin residents have been disproportionately impacted by unfair representation. He explained that due to the state’s GOP leadership, Wisconsin is…
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