GOP now Grand Old Mob: A leak reveals Wisconsin Republican intimidation tactics

These people make me sick.

This is an update on the pact that 58 Assembly Republicans and 17 Republican Wisconsin state senators signed to keep exactly how they redistricted our state a secret. Even the fact that they signed a pact was a secret until a 3-judge panel forced the legislators to reveal all.

Now from Wisconsin Public Television blogger Zac Schultz we learn of more secret information: GOP legislators were shown two district maps to get them to comply with the Walker-Vos agenda. One was a map of the district they’d get to keep if they complied with Vos’ wishes and went along with the secret pact and the GOP redistricting plan. The other map pretty much ensured that the legislator in question would be out of a job come next election. We get the picture and it syncs perfectly with the behavior we’ve seen from this white collar criminal crew. The GOP of Wisconsin intimidates each member to guarantee there will be no action taken by that member to serve constituents with personal duty, with conscience, with repect for liberty or democracy, or by the wishes of the constituency that each legislator takes an oathe to serve.

“…Last spring Republicans in control of the Assembly and Senate hired a private law firm, at taxpayer expense, to help draw the new maps. After the maps were drawn, individual Republicans were brought in one by one to look at a map of their district. They were required to sign a secrecy pledge, in which they promised not to reveal what they had just seen. According to one lawmaker who asked not to be named, the logic they were given was the maps and the documents would be protected by attorney-client privilege, and the secrecy pledges were needed to protect that. But this lawmaker told me he felt part of the pledge was intimidation, to keep the rank and file from complaining. He was even shown two versions of the map, one more favorable and one less favorable, and was told if he didn’t go along, the less favorable version would become law. Republicans had already gone through a grueling battle over Governor Walker’s collective bargaining changes, and they were facing the prospect of multiple recalls in the Senate later that summer.

No Democrats were involved in the process, and they didn’t see the maps until they were released to the public on a Friday afternoon in July.

The maps were law within a matter of days, with both the Senate and Assembly passing them on party-line votes, and Governor Walker signing them into law. …”

Read Zac’s post in full at Redistricting Secrecy Pledges

A criminal complaint has been filed with the Dane County district attorney alleging serious violations of the Wisconsin Constitution and open meetings statutes. State Rep. Robin Vos has been identified as a key figure in this secret scheme. He is behind the formerly secret “talking points memo” which informed his GOP lackeys that “Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments.”

“What we have here is an egregious example of intentional violation of the public trust. That secrecy agreement went to the planning process, the negotiating process, and ultimately the decision-making process,” – Peter Earle, attorney representing Voces de la Frontera and other groups in a lawsuit challenging the redistricting maps.