Republicans have transformed election law to obstruct voters, empowered white poll workers to suppress voters, gerrymandered state and congressional districts to elect as many Republicans as possible, infused dark money, among other anti-democracy efforts.
The objective is to enact Republican public policy in opposition to the public will.
One example is the legislative and administrative law attack on clean and safe water creating a crisis that has sent children to the Emergency Room, imperiled the health of communities and polluted rivers, streams, lakes and aquifers
Gov. Scott Walker threw in a new voter obstruction technique this year: Refusing to hold elections to fill vacant legislative seats.
In state senate district one in northeastern Wisconsin, State Sen. Frank Lasee, (R-De Pere), resigned in Dec, 2017. Gov. Scott Walker has publicly refused to call a special election that most observers believe the GOP would lose though the district is gerrymandered Republican.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin to this point has not launched a public case calling for a special election. One Door County resident in senate district one told me, "nobody is doing anything, the Democrats?" He laughed.
Can you imagine if the roles were reversed? Republican outrage would blanket news coverage across the state.
Progressive writers are making the legal and political case for special elections, and it's writers filling the void where one would reasonably expect the Democratic Party to be.
Meanwhile, voters wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the Gill v. Whitford gerrymandering case from Wisconsin, in light of positive legal developments for voters and democracy against North Carolina Republicans.
From the Raleigh News Observer:
Rick Hasen, a professor at California-Irvine, is often said to be the nation’s leading election law expert. Hasen wrote that the decision could hardly be seen as a surprise, given what our legislature did. 'If there is any case that could be invalidated as a partisan gerrymander, it is this one,' he indicated. It is 'the most brazen and egregious' political electoral distortion yet seen in the United States. North Carolina leaders 'admitted the practice, but argued it should be seen as perfectly legal.'
The Supreme Court stayed the federal court ruling pending appeal. And it is unlikely the review will be squeezed into the current term, given the late scheduling adjustments that would be demanded. The court presently has two political gerrymandering cases on the docket. But Hasen thinks the impact of the North Carolina decision will be felt immediately. The court now knows 'what the future of gerrymandering will look like if it is doesn’t act in the Wisconsin or Maryland cases,' Hasen wrote.
The future would look even better with an energetic, activist and effective Democratic Party of Wisconsin safeguarding democracy.
Now, we look mostly to the courts for that kind of thing.
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