I represent right now the 62nd district in Racine County.
And as I take a look at this interesting map
that was drawn by the governor,
it carves me out of a place that I grew up in.
It takes me out of communities that I've fully invested
in right now, and I'll even go back to
when I was elected to the Board of Education,
I was urged by those that were elected
in the village of Caledonia that I would represent them.
This carves me out of all of that.
And I will just tell you that
representing those communities is a lot different
than what you see here.
There are a ton of cameras here.
I didn't see that many when I went to a town hall
in the village of Raymond the other night.
It was just the residents that were there
asking me questions about what's going on here.
We invest so much in the communities
that we were elected to.
This is my third term.
I will not depart from the district
where I will represent the most of the people
that I do now.
That's why I obviously believe the maps we drew
with the least amount of upset to the people
we represent were the best.
But moving forward, I will represent these people
no matter what you try to draw me out of.
Thank you.
So you can see that the surgical nature
that was done on these districts was certainly done
to accommodate Democrat candidates.
Now we think they probably already gone out
and identified people to run in those seats.
And most likely they've already been contacted
by either the governor or the DPW.
This is all part of a long range political plan.
If you took randomized computer data
using any criteria that you could think of,
there is no way that you would be able to draw a map
where you would have 30 Republicans paired together
and only two.
And it just so happens that one of those
might be running for another office.
That is not done randomly.
What we're doing today is we are attempting
very small fixes to fix the most egregious parts
of the partisan gerrymandering.
It does not fix most of them.
In fact, it only fixes about half a dozen.
There is no way that they do not ignore the natural geography
and they split up communities in order to achieve
a partisan electoral interest.
So again, we're trying to make the map slightly
a little bit more fair.
All we've really done is make small changes on the edges,
as you can see from these maps.
If, for some reason, Governor Evers and his staff
say that these small changes are a gerrymander,
then the entire map that they have submitted
is nothing more than the most egregious example
of what a partisan gerrymander would look like.
Now, in the amendment that we are adopting
from the Senate today, we did move a couple blocks
here and there to get so that these representatives
don't have to necessarily move to go back
into their district.
Some are still gonna be able to do that
because we couldn't fix every situation.
That being said, that's why I'm proud
that every one of these legislators today said,
even if the Governor Evitos the map,
they are moving into the districts
they have represented their entire life.
So we hope that Governor Evers looks and says,
he can have his original map or with the tweaks,
but it's the same people running in the same districts.
There's no partisan advantage.
Now, since January 12th, the Evers map has been lauded
as the fair map.
Evers said, quote, Wisconsinites don't want Republican
or Democrat maps because Wisconsin isn't a red or blue state.
We're a purple state and our map should reflect
that basic fact.
He's always promised I'd fight for fair maps,
not maps that favor one political party or another,
and that's a promise I'm proud to keep
with the maps he was submitting on that day.
Well, with these small tweaks, we are attempting
to make the map as purple as Governor Evers
said it was when he submitted it.
Getting 99% of what you want should be an unprecedented
political win in split government.
Why would the Democrats not vote for this?
And why would the Governor not meet with us to discuss it?
It's his map.
He should want to drop everything that he is doing
to get to a yes if what he has said in the past
that this is one of the most important issues
vexing Wisconsin.
So let's just confirm it was fair in January,
but all of a sudden now it might not be a fair map.
I think the citizens of Wisconsin are smarter than this,
and it's your job in the media to help report
on the obvious collusion that you see before your eyes
that is part of the Democrats' effort
to gerrymandered Wisconsin.
What possible reason could the Democrats have
to not vote yes on this bill today?
Ask yourself, we actually reached out to the Democrats.
We've been doing that for the past 24 hours,
and we were told by the Assembly Democrat caucus
they would not support Governor Evers' original map.
They thought they might have a couple people
who could vote yes on the map drawn by their governor.
Why is that?
Because they think the fix is in.
We have offered to the Assembly Democrats
a very reasonable position that gives them 99.5%
of what they wanted.
In fact, we gave them 100% and they still said no.
So the Democrats' excuse that you will probably hear
during the debate today is that they didn't have enough time
to go over these maps and the changes
which are super small and almost inconsequential.
Now we arranged for the Legislative Technical Services Bureau,
LTSB, to set them up with special redistricting computers,
weeks ago, so that they would have the time
to go over the submissions as soon as they were put forward
on January 12th.
The only reason we are here today on this super fast timeline
is because the court has ordered us to be on the schedule.
It's not the one that we chose.
We have tried again and again in our court filings
and in our pleadings to slow this process down
because we think it's confusing for Wisconsin voters
and it sounds like it's confusing for Assembly Democrats.
The court has denied our motions.
So if the Democrats don't like the timeline,
they can take it up with the Supreme Court, not us.
If the schedule is good enough for the court,
it's good enough for the legislature
and that's why we are here acting today.
Wouldn't it be nice of all of us as elected officials
figure out something without having to ask the Supreme Court
or to have the US Supreme Court to be involved?
That is not our ultimate goal.
It might be the only choice that we have
if we can't get the governor to sign his own map
and if we can't get Democrats to vote for the map drawn
by their partisan governor.
So I'm asking one more time.
Why don't we just put this to bed?
Allow the citizens of Wisconsin to have a map,
allow us to not have to go to the US Supreme Court
asking them to intervene like they did a few years ago
and give the citizens of Wisconsin the maps that they deserve
and the opportunity for the people who are behind me
to run for reelection and see where the chips fall
in November of 2024.
So with that happy to answer any questions.
So to be clear, this is the Senate version
but with more changes.
No, it is the Senate version exactly.
We are concurring with the Senate.
But in the Senate's version, all of these tweaks
were already included along with that
for Senator Jacques and Mark Hart.
So after you pass it goes to the governor.
Correct, it goes to the governor.
Rather than the special consultants have
a deadline for very first for the report on the proposals
we have week and a half, why not go on here next week?
Special session pass and give them time at least.
They'll catch one time and do it that way.
We didn't put it in something other report.
So the Democrats have had the time
with the computers to do all the analysis.
Governor Evers has been the one talking
about introducing a fair map.
We are taking them at their work.
They said they did not want to adopt Governor Evers' map.
Okay, so we are going to adopt the tweak map today
so we have a chance to get it to Governor Evers.
Adding more time does not help the process.
We want to be able to know what the answer is,
not wait for some expert to give opinions
on five different maps.
We have one in front of us.
It's the one that could pass the legislature.
It's the one that could get signed into law
because it's obviously drafted by the governor.
And it allows us to stop the spending,
stop the lawsuits and give the people
of Wisconsin a finite answer.
But the map that Wilson entered the court
has 17 pairs in the Assembly.
Is that also partisan during it?
Because more Republicans have paired on that map
and the young man has passed.
I'm not going to characterize.
We have nothing to do with drawing that map.
Again, I think if you randomize the ability
to look at the number of pairs,
it's impossible to draw a map
without using partisan intent to only pair people
on one side of the political aisle and not randomly do it.
I mean, we have almost two thirds of the seats.
So it would make sense that we would have
a similar number of pairs.
But in Governor Evers maps, I think we have all but one.
So it's like 80, 90% are paired on the one side.
That's not random.
Thanks everybody.
Thank you.