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Dear Editor:
Here's one thing the Democratic and Republican parties agree upon: at election time, each wants its own legislative districts to be "safe" and the other party's districts to be "competitive." In other words, it's good to have the reelection of your own incumbents guaranteed, while your opponents' candidates have to fight for reelection. This goes a long way toward explaining the cynical and ridiculously expensive process by which Wisconsin's legislative districts are drawn. It's the explanation for how Iowa County voters are split among 4 different Assembly districts.
The process known as "gerrymandering" -- a word for which most of us harbor at least a vague contempt - isn't just a matter of creating districts with silly looking outlines. It's about mis-representing the true nature of the electorate. It's about manipulating a community of voters who all understand that the difference in their political preferences tends to be close to a 50/50 split, in such a way as to nullify the half that's not loyal to the party in power.
For many of us, it has long been obvious that the deliberate fabrication of unfair advantages for either Republicans of Democrats is not a good way to maintain a healthy democracy. However, what we are learning in this century is that gerrymandering threatens to transform both major parties, and not in a good way. As we have seen, when a district is a sure bet for one party or the other, an incumbent becomes most concerned about satisfying the most extreme voices in their own party. And that goes a long way toward explaining the meanness and desperate deceit which has come to typify our elections, when in fact that's not how we - the voters - treat each other, face-to-face, day-to-day.
This time around, we have an opportunity to take a step in the direction of a sensible, doable fix. On the November ballot, Iowa County voters can say "Yes" to taking the redistricting process out of the hands of Democratic and Republican strategists and assigning it to an unbiased, independent commission. This would not be an unproven experiment. The citizens of the state of Iowa have found the process to be not only fairer, but considerably cheaper.
Please vote "Yes" for fair redistricting. It's something we can do, that will actually make our elections better.
Michael Brandt
Arena, WI