Rep. Peter Barca is the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats Leader
UPDATE (4:45 PM CST):
Gov. Walker has used the chaos of Election Day to mask his signing of Republican-protection maps into law.
Gov. Walker had an opportunity to chose a different path, but today’s blatant, partisan power grab by Gov. Walker is proof that he has absolutely zero interest in uniting Wisconsin and that his bipartisan pledge was strictly rhetoric. It is now clear that Gov. Walker signed these redistricting maps into law in a manner intended to hide his actions with only one goal in mind: giving himself and his fellow Republicans a monopoly on power in our state and dodging accountability for their anti-middle-class extremism.
Click here for my full statement on Facebook.
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Original post below
Right now the people of Wisconsin are headed to the polls in six state Senate districts to reject Gov. Walker’s extreme agenda and his unprecedented assault on Wisconsin’s working, middle-class families.
But it seems that Gov. Walker may have an Election Day surprise for Wisconsin voters that he hopes will allow Republicans to hold onto power regardless of the outcome of today’s historic recall elections.
Gov. Walker made a deliberate decision to have redistricting be decided on Election Day when he called the legislative Republicans’ plan up on August 4th. Thanks his own decision, Gov. Walker now has until the end of the day to sign or to veto his party’s divisive and partisan redistricting maps that would crush our democracy and attempt to monopolize power on all levels of state government so the Republicans can avoid accountability for the next decade.
If Walker does not veto the redistricting maps by the end of the day, this is what the law becomes:
- Nancy Nusbaum and Rep. Fred Clark are completely drawn out of the state Senate districts that voters may be electing them to today.
- Sen. Alberta Darling's district in the 8th becomes a Republican stronghold for the next decade in at attempt to cheat Rep. Sandy Pasch out of that seat if she wins today.
- Sen. Bob Wirch is completely drawn out of his state Senate District – even after voters reelect him next week.
This is a real test of leadership for Gov. Walker.
He has until the end of the day to listen to the citizens of Wisconsin who have rallied by the hundreds of thousands in the freezing -9 degree cold, canvassed in the blistering 103 degree heat and are currently exercising their most basic and fundamental right in elections being held to today to tell him that Wisconsinites have had enough of his cynical, partisan games and dirty tricks.
All he needs to do to pass this test is take out his veto pen and use it.
Regardless of the outcome of today’s elections, vetoing these maps will help to heal some of the wounds caused by Gov. Walker’s past actions so we can move forward with a renewed focus on creating good-paying jobs for Wisconsin workers and families.
However, if he chooses to sign his party’s maps into law, or if he chooses to cowardly let them become law without his signature, Gov. Walker will be telling Wisconsinites on Election Day that he simply doesn’t care what they say in the ballot box.
Unfortunately for Gov. Walker, that isn’t how democracy works.
The people of Wisconsin will make their voice heard today and it’s not going to be a message that he is going to like.