Thursday, March 22, 2012
1:59 PM
GOP leaders vindicated, exploring options
Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, and GOP Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau say they're exploring options with the Department of Justice on how to proceed following today's court decision on redistricting.
The two issued a joint statement saying it was vindicating to have 130 of 132 legislative districts and all eight House districts upheld. The statement did not address calls from Dems to come back to the Capitol to rework the maps or the court's offer to let lawmakers try to tweak the lines between Assembly districts 8 and 9.
“Our state constitution requires new district maps every 10 years to reflect changing
population, and that’s exactly what the legislature delivered," they said. "The 8th and 9th Assembly districts represented a unique challenge, and that’s why we
authored three different alternatives at the time."
GOP Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen noted any appeal of today's court decision would be heard directly by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The judgments made by the Wisconsin Legislature have largely been vindicated," Van Hollen said. "No constitutional defects were found and what began as a scattershot attack on every aspect of these laws has come down to a single finding that one line between two districts should be adjusted. While the intent of the maps was to create two assembly districts where Latino voters were likely to be dominant, the Court concluded that it was better to draw the line so that Latino voters were more concentrated in one of the districts.”
-- By Staff
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