To sign or not to sign: Evers yet to act after Republicans pass his legislative map proposal

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Three days after Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Legislature passed Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' proposed new legislative maps over the objections of Democratic lawmakers, Evers has yet to either sign or veto the redistricting bill.

In Wisconsin, the governor has six days, not counting Sunday, to sign or veto a bill, otherwise it automatically becomes law as the Legislature is currently in session.

Both the state Senate and Assembly passed Evers' proposed maps Tuesday afternoon. All but two Democrats in the Legislature voted against their governor's maps, and after the vote, they questioned Republicans' motives.

"It just kind of makes you wonder why, all of a sudden, our colleagues are deciding these are the maps for them and this is the right time," State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) told reporters Thursday Republicans were ready to move on after two paid experts hired by the state Supreme Court's liberal majority issued a report two weeks ago finding the two Republican map submissions were "partisan gerrymanders" that should not be considered by justices.

"We need to have the ability to go out and recruit candidates," Vos said. "We need to have the ability to fight the policy battles that are gonna make a difference between now and November."

Evers told CBS 58 last week he would sign his own maps into law if Republicans passed them. On Friday, Evers' team posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, a video clip from the governor's State of the State address earlier this month.

Evers said in that speech he would always fight for fair maps. The post did not indicate whether or not Evers will end up signing his maps. Evers' spokesperson did not respond to questions about the governor's intentions Friday.

Howard Schweber, a constitutional law professor at UW-Madison, said politics are likely the real driver of Republicans' embrace of Evers' maps and Democrats' push to let the court settle the issue.

According to the court experts' analysis, the four Democratic/liberal map submissions skewed slightly toward Republicans relative to recent statewide election results.

However, Evers' map has a 2.5% GOP bias while the other three maps' bias ranged between 0.4% and 2%, meaning they're slightly better for Democrats.

Republicans have a natural edge when it comes to legislative maps because liberal voters are more clustered in urban areas, but the court experts and outside analysts have maintained that doesn't explain the 15.6% GOP edge in the Legislature's maps or the 10.5% edge in the maps submitted by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), a conservative law firm.

Nevertheless, Schweber said Democrats likely saw Evers' map is less advantageous than the other liberal maps and decided they'd rather take their chances on the court picking one of the others.

"I don't think there's a valid or legitimate Democratic concern here," Schweber said. "I think the Democratic concern here is that Evers, in an attempt to reach consensus, gave away more than they would've liked."

What could be a conservative challenge to the maps?

Prominent Wisconsin Democrats, including Congressman Mark Pocan, have suggested Republicans would pass the maps as means to file a challenge in federal court. Pocan earlier this week suggested GOP lawmakers' actions might be a "trojan horse" allowing conservatives to push for the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority to strike down the maps.

While language in the GOP bill adopting Evers' maps states the maps would not take effect until the November general election, Schweber said uncertainty surrounding what maps would be used for special and recall elections in the meantime is not good enough reason for Evers to reject his own maps.

"That's hardly a basis for rejecting the entire plan," Schweber said. "And it's certainly not a basis that I can see passing the straight face test for Governor Evers."

Another possible challenge would be over whether Justice Janet Protasiewicz should have recused herself. Conservatives have said because Protasiewicz's campaign received funding from the Democratic Party, she should not have sat on the case. 

Schweber said such an argument is less likely to fly in federal court if the governor signed maps the Legislature passed, as opposed to Protasiewicz and the state Supreme Court picking one of the map proposals.

"The Legislature has now duly passed a proposal for a set of maps. which is gonna be duly approved by the governor. There is no role at the moment for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and therefore, there is no legal challenge at a federal level to the state court's involvement because there isn't any," Schweber said. 

Another possibility is a challenge under the Voting Rights Act (VRA). In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Evers' legislative maps, which the state Supreme Court had picked, over changes to Assembly districts in Milwaukee leading to one fewer majority-Black district.

WILL President Rick Esenberg told WKOW-TV in Madison Friday he saw the potential for a challenge under the Voting Rights Act but did not elaborate.

The maps submitted by Evers, WILL and the Legislature all have essentially the same exact boundaries for the districts that mostly include city of Milwaukee wards, a sign all parties were sensitive to VRA concerns during the mapmaking process.

Schweber said he believes it all amounts to very slim chances of a successful legal challenge should Evers sign his own maps. 

"I have to be honest. I've tried to play this out in my head, and I've talked to people," he said. "I simply don't understand what the theory is people are worried about."