Homeward Bound
Last month, the Republican-controlled state legislature triumphed in a state redistricting gladiator match with Gov. Tony Evers before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The GOP won a 4-3 decision to keep old gerrymandered maps from 2010.
The decision will predictably give Republicans a lock on the legislature for another decade, even with the ebb and flow of political sentiment in a deeply purple state.
Maybe some lawyers hired by Republicans and their friends are happy. But nobody else is smiling.
The Associated Press on Monday reported that a quarter of the 118 legislators up for re-election have decided to call it quits. That number includes two local Republican senators, Kathy Bernier and Jerry Petrowski, who represent the 23rd and 29th senate districts, respectively.
You’d think guaranteed political power would encourage the Republicans to stick around. But that’s not the case. The Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) reports that this number of departures inches up to the record set in 1942, when, in the middle of World War II, 32 legislators left their posts. Among the 30 incumbents this year who have announced their retirement, 17 are Republican and 13 are Democrats.
We are sure that there are as many reasons why legislators this year pulled the plug as there are legislators leaving. But the mass exodus of politicians is no mystery. Theirs is a job with a lot of responsibility where you get very little done and the public pretty much thinks you are terrible.
The Marquette Law School public opinion poll that came out last week Wednesday reported the state legislature’s job approval rating is under water. Back in 2019, the Wisconsin public generally approved of the legislature by a 52-31 margin. That goodwill has vanished. The public now mostly disapproves of the state legislature by a major 14 point margin, 47-38. The legislature’s most visible leader, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), is not well known, but mostly disliked. Back in 2019, 59 percent of the public had no idea who he was. Thirteen percent of people gave him a favorable rating. These days, half of Wisconsinites know Vos, but, with this knowledge, people just like him less. People find him unfavorable versus favorable, 29 to 12 percent.
People’s dislike of the GOP-controlled legislature is not just a dislike generally of state politicians. Governor Evers has a 47-42 favorability rating. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has a 43-36 favorability rating.
The Republican legislature has earned people’s foul opinion of them. A summary of the 2021-22 Wisconsin legislative session released last month by the LRB details how little the legislature got done. It is miscellany of minutiae. Act 39 lets motor vehicle racetracks sell booze. Act 203 lets pawnbrokers send e-mails to customers. Act 58 provides a sales tax exemption for sweetened dried fruit. Act 14 modifies DNR rules about hollow logs used for baiting bears with food. Act 62 allows somebody to shoot a muskrat or beaver causing damage to a road if it is safe.
The tale of the legislative session is told in the last eight pages of the report. It is a long list of bills that made its way all the way through the legislative process only to be vetoed by Gov. Evers. It is a testament to wasted time, wasted energy and a pathological inability to compromise.
Wisconsin sits in political misery. According to the Marquette Law School poll, 56 percent of residents think the state is on the wrong track. Yet, with divided government, we don’t see how the state can change direction. We don’t see how our democracy can serve the people. We’re in a tough spot.
We can see how even veteran legislators might throw up their hands. Sometimes, there is nothing you can do. You just have to go home.
Editorial by Peter Weinschenk, The Record-Review
