Don’t let party machinery dictate voter choices

Voters should have no fear, the incumbents are here.

Or, at least, they will be here, or somewhere, when it comes time to run for reelection next fall.

You see, there is a plan in place of which incumbents will move where and who will drop out to avoid messy primaries in the wake of legislative redistricting.

“We have a very strategic plan,” Rep. Karen Hurd told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram in a recent interview. “We discussed who’s willing to move, who isn’t willing to move. I said I will not run against a fellow Republican incumbent.”

Hurd, who previously lived in Fall Creek and is currently the 68th Assembly District representative, is moving to a new residence near Thorp in order to be able to run in 69th Assembly District, which includes Clark County and the southeast corner of Taylor County — including Stetsonville and Medford.

Meanwhile, over in Wausau, Rep. Pat Snyder told those at last week’s Legislative Meeting hosted by the Medford School District that he plans to get a studio apartment not far from where he lives now in order to maintain residency in the district after he was drawn out of its boundaries.

There is a pejorative and politically loaded term for politicians who go shopping for constituencies. Wisconsin voters are well familiar with the concept from recent statewide races. In this case, however, the politicians accurately note that significant percentages of their previous constituencies live in the new districts. They just want to continue to serve them. In that context, there is a certain nobility in being willing to uproot your life and change your voting residency to a new district in order to keep your elected position.

An underlying tenant of democracy is that the voters are the ones who get to decide who their leaders are, and not the other way around. This is true regardless of what plans have been made by legislative leadership.

The window to circulate nomination papers for Assembly and State Senate opens April 15 with petitions due to the Wisconsin Elections Commission by June 3. It is time for people, regardless of political party, to step up and answer the call to serve their neighbors and communities in shaping the laws of the state.

There has been a lot of media attention on redistricting and its impacts on incumbents. All the computer modeling and backroom politicking that goes into drawing districts is meaningless unless there are good, local candidates willing to run on both sides of the political aisle.

It will be up to the candidates in coming months to demonstrate that they serve their new constituencies and not the political machinery and backroom bosses more concerned with maintaining their own power base than in actually moving Wisconsin forward.

It will be the responsibility of the candidates to show that their fingers are on the pulse of their constituents and of the issues and concerns that matter to local voters.

Ultimately, it will be up to the voters to decide who represents their interests.

Central Wisconsin Publications Editorial Board consists of publisher Kris O’Leary and Star-News editor Brian Wilson