Iowa State auditor says Vos’s redistricting plan isn’t from Iowa

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Thursday morning, Representative Deb Andraca was joined by Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand and Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler to discuss Wisconsin Republican Robin Vos’ “Iowa-style” redistricting bill, which critics say does not follow the Iowa model of nonpartisan redistricting.

Speakers said Vos’ redistricting bill is “a bad faith effort to distract from his unconstitutional threat to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz and omits key fail-safes included in Iowa’s redistricting legislation, allowing Wisconsin legislative Republicans to reject proposed maps and amend them however they wanted,” officials said noting that both Republicans and Democrats in Iowa say Wisconsin Republican’s “Iowa Model” is not even close to the real “Iowa Model.”

Iowa Model

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand said, “This is not the Iowa model. It’s also just impossible to expect Iowa-style fair results when you still have the capacity to gerrymander at the end of the day, which is what this bill allows for. They can reject, and reject, and draw their own. You can’t do that in Iowa. That’s why the Iowa system works. If they have pulled that out then you do not have the Iowa system in this bill.”

In response, Rep. Deb Andraca said, “We also know that the bill that they’re offering up today was drafted in less than a day—the same day it was introduced. It is completely bypassing the committee process, and it’s up for a vote on the floor. There’s no opportunity for public input, and there’s no opportunity for public scrutiny. Republicans are rushing this through without even a hearing to gather input from thousands of Wisconsinites who’ve worked on this issue for years. … We know a vast majority of Wisconsinites want fair maps, and they deserve to have a say. And there’s no reason we can’t take our time to craft a solution that works for our state, works for Wisconsin, and achieves what Robin Vos claims to want: actual fair and nonpartisan redistricting.”

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler replied, “What Robin Vos is proposing is a bad-faith fake out. It’s a red herring, or red walleye, to try to distract people from the fact that, even now, he is threatening to impeach a duly elected Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. No one should take the bait. … Democrats, people of good faith across the political spectrum, allies of democracy, are going to keep on fighting this impeachment threat until Robin Vos makes publicly clear that he is not holding an impeachment gun to the head of Supreme Court justices. This is not how a democracy is supposed to function. And no attempt to distract and deceive the public is going to change that.”

The Wisconsin Law Journal reached out to Vos on Thursday, but he did not respond prior to publication.