Texas and California have been front page news lately for wanting to redistrict their Congressional Districts before the 2026 elections. The driving force is if Texas can successfully redistrict that will add up to five more Republican seats in the House of Representatives thus – hopefully – guaranteeing the Republican majority. California is fighting back and claiming they can redistrict and add Democrat seats. Texas is doing this by what appears to be legal legislative means while California needs to do away with a voter approved citizen committee first so the Democrat majority legislature can only then consider the desired partisan changes.

Normally redistricting for Congress, as well as the state legislative districts and local municipal wards, is a once a decade process following the national census. It has been done by some states out of sequence, but very rarely. And, gerrymandering seems to be a familiar tactic. This is where districts are designed solely to favor the majority party – assuring the majority party more success in future elections. Look at the Congressional Districts in Illinois and California for “excellent” examples of gerrymandering.

Texas and California are not alone in this current mid-course political manipulation. A Washington Post story listed seven states contemplating such a move (TX, CA, IN, OH, IL, MO, & FL) while a Wisconsin Public Radio article listed eight (adding NY to the list). A Public Broadcasting story listed ten (adding MD, KS, and WI but deleting IL). A graphic on a national television news show had many states identified to include NH which only has two Congressmen. What may be surprising to some is that Wisconsin is included in the discussion while others may be more surprised that Wisconsin was excluded.

In Wisconsin redistricting is a state legislative process, although it has a history of ending up in the judicial branch for final action and approval. In January of 2020 Governor Evers (D), by Executive Order, created an independent advisory commission to propose maps to the legislature. The maps were to be free of partisan bias and partisan advantage, with districts that are compact, contiguous, avoid splitting wards and municipalities, retain the core population of each district, maintain traditional communities of interest, and prevent voter disenfranchisement. In 2023 the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the resulting state legislative maps as there were a couple of minor cases of districts being noncontiguous (not all connected together).

The totally new maps (not just minor corrective changes) drawn up by the Governor, approved by the Legislature, and used in the 2024 election changed everything in the Coulee Region. Previously, the 95th Assembly District was virtually the City of La Crosse and the 94th was the rest of La Crosse County. Together they covered the entirety of La Crosse County and did not exceed the county boundaries. Governor Evers totally ignored his previous directive (from January of 2020) as now both the City and County of La Crosse are sliced and diced into parts of three Assembly Districts.

The 94th District now stretches north into Trempealeau County (includes villages of Galesville and Ettrick). The 95th District now stretches east into Monroe County (includes City of Sparta and villages of Norwalk and Cashton). The 96th District now reaches into southwestern La Crosse County to the edge of the City of La Crosse. Talk about gerrymandering and the City and County of Eau Claire have a similar story!

There are other changes. Democrat Rep Jill Billings, after more than a decade of representing the 95th (only the City of La Crosse), now represents a large agricultural region of La Crosse and Monroe Counties. She is now on the Assembly Agriculture Committee where she is trying to learn about the needs and wants of her new constituents. (Is this “on the job” training?) Republican Rep Nancy Van derMeer only has about 30% of the same constituents she had previously in the same 70th Assembly District. Fort McCoy was previously enveloped within one assembly district but is now covered by two districts.

For Wisconsin’s Congressional Districts, Democrats have turned to the courts to try to reconfigure the eight districts before the 2026 elections. The liberal-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear challenges earlier this year and now there have been two lawsuits filed. Their targets are 1st Congressional District Rep. Bryan Steil and 3rd District Rep. Derrick Van Orden – both Republicans. The Coulee Region is mostly within the 3rd Congressional District. Except for the 3 or 4 counties in the eastern part of the 3rd District, the Congressional Districts appear to be free of grotesque gerrymandering, though the details may show otherwise.

Add to this redistricting concern the now heated discussion that the next Census should count only citizens of the United States (and, hopefully, in their own state). This means that illegal immigrants, foreign students legally in the country, and probably numerous other sub-groups will not be counted for purposes of redistricting or government largesse.
Stay informed and get involved. Redistricting in Texas and California indirectly impacts Wisconsin’s Coulee Region too!