IN MY OPINION: Take redistricting out of politicians’ hands, give it to nonpartisan commission

There seems to be only one thing people of both political parties can agree on—our legislative process is broken. Compromise is rare, most elections have pre-ordained winners and incumbents feel free to ignore constituents who disagree with them.

Fortunately, we have an opportunity to fix the problem once and for all. We can restore Wisconsin’s reputation as a state with a government that works by and for the people, and on Monday we will introduce legislation that can do just that.

We are two elected officials who unequivocally believe that politicians should not draw political maps, which is why we are introducing the Fair Maps Bill. This legislation would establish an independent, non-partisan commission to create legislative districts based on common-sense principles, including compactness, following municipal boundaries and keeping communities together whenever possible.

Ten years ago, legislative districts were drawn in secret by private attorneys working for one political party, with zero input from the public, but with one partisan objective: to take decision-making away from the voters and give it to a majority party. With the help of computer algorithms unavailable to past mapmakers, the majority party was able to draw crazy political boundaries that locked in one party’s advantage for a decade.

Wisconsin is known as a “purple” state because every statewide election is decided by extremely thin margins. Yet one party has an overwhelming majority in both the Senate and the Assembly. This majority is far beyond anything that can be explained by political geography.

When candidates run in “safe” districts, we get candidates loyal to the party, not the people in their district. We lose the moderate middle, leaving a gap where bipartisanship is usually able to grow and thrive. We get candidates who are comfortable, serving year after year with no incentive to innovate or do better.

Those who say we can never remove partisanship from the process need look no further than our own Legislative Reference Bureau. Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to pioneer a state-level, non-partisan, professional legislative staff. LRB works with both Republicans and Democrats to ensure our laws are crafted to the best of our abilities without unintended legal consequences. These men and women never reveal their partisan leanings and are trained to help legislators of either party based solely on the substance of the issue at hand.

Our bill says that existing LRB professional staff, working with a citizen-led redistricting advisory commission, should create maps that are as free from political favoritism as possible.

We already have the staffing and infrastructure in place. We already have a commission, the People’s Map Commission, which has been holding hearings in every part of the state and will create a map the legislature can adopt. This open, public process is a stark contrast to a decade ago, when our maps were drawn in secret.

The Fair Maps Bill ensures that Wisconsin maps can never be gerrymandered again. We want to join Iowa, Michigan, and the 11 other states that have a nonpartisan redistricting commission instead of waging expensive, taxpayer-funded legal battles. We want politicians, like us, to stay out of the map making process. But most of all we want to fix this problem once and for all to restore Wisconsin’s tradition of open government.

Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay), represents the 23rd Assembly District, which includes parts of Grafton, Cedarburg and Mequon. Smith (D-Eau Claire) represents the 31st Senate District.