Robin Vos proposed 'Iowa-style' redistricting for Wisconsin. What does that mean?

After weeks of discussion of impeaching Wisconsin's newest Supreme Court justice, Janet Protasiewicz, Republicans may instead have a new plan for addressing the state's electoral maps.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced Tuesday that he and Assembly Republicans would pursue legislation this week that seeks to use "an Iowa-style nonpartisan redistricting" model that would allow the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau to write new legislative maps instead of partisans.

However, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers quickly rejected the idea, saying Republicans were "making a last-ditch effort to retain legislative control by having someone Legislature-picked and Legislature-approved draw Wisconsin’s maps."

But what are Iowa-style redistricting maps? And why do Republicans think they're a good idea?

Here's what you need to know.

What are Iowa-style redistricting maps?

Since 1980, Iowa’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency has drawn district boundaries for state legislative and congressional seats. Some argue this system is cheaper, faster, more transparent and fairer than the current system in Wisconsin.

Every 10 years, the LSA holds three public hearings on a proposed set of maps, then submits a report on the maps to the state’s General Assembly. From there, the Assembly may vote to approve or reject them. No amendments are allowed other than corrections to errors.

Here's how that works:

• The Legislative Services Agency is required to submit legislative and congressional maps to the Iowa General Assembly by April 1 of the year after a Census. State law requires districts to be as equal in population as possible, to respect political boundaries by trying not to divide cities and counties, to be contiguous and to be reasonably compact. It is a blind process that cannot favor political parties or incumbents or be used to enhance or dilute the voting strength of minority groups. A five-member advisory commission holds public hearings.

• The Iowa legislature is on a tight leash. It must consider the plan promptly and can only vote up or down. And if lawmakers reject the plan, they have to explain why, based on the criteria for drawing districts. The agency then submits a second plan, and the same rules apply. An up-or-down vote is called and nothing but “corrective” amendments is allowed.

• If the second plan is rejected, the agency draws up a third plan based on legislative feedback — using those same criteria — and submits it to the General Assembly. Only then can lawmakers draw their own maps — if they reject for a third time the agency’s handiwork. That's never happened.

However, though the Iowa approach to this most political of tasks is even-handed, there are limits to what reforming the redistricting process can accomplish. And there are questions about whether the Iowa model can be transplanted to a more diverse state. 

As of 2018, Legislation to adopt the “Iowa model” has been introduced during every session of Wisconsin’s Legislature since 2011 but, so far, has never gotten a hearing during a legislative session.

Under the proposal by Vos and the Republicans, the new maps would take effect in the 2024 election cycle.

More:Tired of Wisconsin elections that don't seem fair? Look to Iowa

Why have Republicans proposed this plan?

By implementing this plan, Republicans could bypass lawsuits expected to come before the state Supreme Court that seek to rewrite Wisconsin's current electoral maps, which were adopted in 2021/2022 and favor the GOP.

"Hopefully it means that we will take all of the money that has been wasted by the liberal interests suing us over the maps and instead we get to say we don't need to waste those taxpayer dollars because we can adapt the process that has been used flawlessly in Iowa," Vos said Tuesday.

Embracing the Iowa redistricting model reflects a new direction for Vos, who over the last month warned Protasiewicz risked being impeached by the Assembly if she didn't recuse herself from lawsuits before the court that seek to change the state's electoral maps. Vos argued that, because Protasiewicz called the current maps "rigged" during her campaign, she "prejudged" the electoral maps cases and should recuse herself from the case.

The state Constitution only allows officers to be impeached for crimes or corruption, which would make it quite hard or impossible for Protasiewicz to be impeached. Democrats launched a $4 million ad campaign in response to Vos' threats of impeachment in recent weeks. Now, Vos has backed off such talk in recent days.

How have Democrats responded?

Despite the Iowa-style redistricting plan, Evers said he didn't trust Republicans to engage in a nonpartisan map-making process.

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said in a statement the announcement "is an obvious attempt to distract from their efforts to impeach Justice Protasiewicz and undermine our democracy."

Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard, D-Madison, said she supports nonpartisan redistricting but questioned the timing of and motivations behind the proposal. She said she hadn’t read the bill yet, but “the devil’s in the details with all policymaking.”

Are there downsides to the Iowa-style plan?

Critics of the Iowa-style plan worry it could lead to "underground" partisanship.

"You turn it over to unelected officials, and there is an assumption that these unelected officials are nonpartisan but there is no evidence that is true. A nonpartisan body is just as subject to groupthink as an elected organization," Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel for the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, told the Journal Sentinel in 2018.

Others worry how the Iowa plan could translate to more diverse states. As Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, pointed out, in California, "multiple ethnic groups layer on top of each other," making it harder to draw the lines fairly.

Finally, the plan hasn't always gone smoothly, even in Iowa.

In October 2021, Iowa Republicans rejected the proposed electoral boundaries based on the 2020 Census. Holding the majority in the Iowa House and Senate, the Republicans had the power to accept or reject the maps. 

They rejected them because, as the Des Moines Register reported, "The rebuffed proposal would have drawn dozens of incumbent legislators into districts together. And it would have made the 1st Congressional District so heavily Democratic that it could have imperiled Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a rising congressional star."

A new proposal was eventually agreed upon in Iowa.

When was the last time Wisconsin was redistricted?

On March 3, 2022, the state Supreme Court picked the maps proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in a 4-3 decision but, three weeks later, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the plan. In response, the state Supreme Court on April 15 issued a new decision that selected legislative districts drawn by Republican state lawmakers. 

Since Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s, states have been required to redraw congressional and legislative districts once a decade to account for natural movements in the population. The redistricting process has been fraught for years in Wisconsin. Federal courts intervened after the 1980, 1990 and 2000 Census counts when divided state government couldn’t break deadlocks.

What are the next steps?

Vos said lawmakers will take up the legislation Thursday. After the Assembly votes on it, the bill would head to the state Senate. Republicans have a 22-11 majority there. Then, the legislation would go to Evers if it's approved.

Journal Sentinel reporters Molly Beck, Jessie Opoien and David Haynes contributed to this report.