Wisconsin’s Assembly speaker won’t talk about redistricting

New developments in the fight over redistricting in Wisconsin. Redistricting is the process of drawing new legislative boundaries every ten years. Under Wisconsin law, the political party in charge at the time of the census gets to be in charge of drawing the political maps. And of course they draw the lines to benefit their party. But never more so than following the 2010 census, when republican legislators in Madison gathered behind closed doors to draw the maps. The result was districts gerrymandered to make it much harder for democrats to win. It worked. Democrats captured more votes in the recent election, but still couldn’t dent the republican majority. The way the process was handled, with private attorneys hired at taxpayer expense, and lawmakers privy to the plan forced to sign agreements not to speak of it publicly. That has led to a series of lawsuits which have waged for the last eight years. Now democrats who have filed a lawsuit and have tried to subpoena Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, asking him to turn over documents and sit for a deposition. But Vos is refusing to do so. Apparently he would rather work behind closed doors and keep the public from the process without being willing to stand up and take ownership of his actions. If Vos really thinks he acted in the best interest of the state, he should say so. Perhaps Vos isn’t really proud of his handiwork and that’s why he won’t even answer questions about it., even under legal pressure to do so.