(The Center Square) – There’s a new strategy at play over Wisconsin’s political maps.
Senate Republicans late Tuesday approved new legislative maps based on the design from Gov. Tony Evers.
“[This map] moves .781% of the state’s population compared to the governor’s maps,” Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemahieu explained. “That means that 99.219% is identical to the governor’s maps.”
The thinking, according to Republicans at the Capitol, is that Evers’ maps do the least amount of damage to the current Republican majorities in the State Senate and State Assembly.
Democrats, however, said the Republican vote for the governor’s maps is just another attempt to gerrymander the state in their favor.
“It’s clear that this is really incumbent-protection garbage,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said.
She said the map that Republicans approved is not Evers’ map “because they’re going to be changing it to protect their incumbents,”
A spokeswoman for the governor office said the governor won’t sign a map that is gerrymandered by Republicans.