Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with evening showers and a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:13 and sunset is 7:37 for 13 hours 24 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1922, U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
Gov. Evers convened a special session of the legislature to consider a solution to partisan gerrymandering. Legislative leaders left that session open, rather than gaveling it closed:
Evers announced his intention to call the special session in February, urging lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering. He officially ordered the session in March. The constitutional amendment would include language to expressly prohibit drawing districts that give a disproportionate advantage or disadvantage to any political party. It would not lay out a new process for drawing maps.
Wisconsin adopted new legislative maps in 2024 following a state Supreme Court decision that found the previous maps were an unconstitutional gerrymander. The maps will be in place until 2030 when redistricting happens again. Unless there is a change to the current process, lawmakers will again be in charge of drawing new maps in 2031.
Ahead of the noon start time for the session, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August (R-Walworth) announced their intentions to leave the session open in a statement. They said they did so in “an effort to continue meaningful dialogue.”
“We view the Governor’s proposal as a first step on which to build a more comprehensive, workable solution for Wisconsin,” the leaders said, adding that they want a face-to-face meeting with Evers to discuss ideas. “We’re committed to a transparent and balanced solution that reflects the interest of all Wisconsinites.”
[…]“In nearly every instance in which Republicans did not immediately gavel out of the governor’s special sessions, Republicans simply quietly gaveled out months later, largely to avoid press interest, bad headlines, and public scrutiny and accountability,” Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback wrote in a social media post.
See Baylor Spears, Lawmakers leave conversations with Evers on gerrymandering, tax relief, school funding open, Wisconsin Examiner, April 15, 2026.
An earlier deal on gerrymandering, in which the WISGOP agreed to state legislative maps with less gerrymandering, came about only because the Legislature faced the immediate prospect of an adverse decision from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The WISGOP accepted Evers’s proposal as an escape from the likelihood of an even less favorable outcome from Wisconsin’s high court. See Associated Press, Wisconsin’s Democratic governor signs his new state legislative maps into law (‘Republicans control the Legislature but approved the new lines to avoid a court fight’), Politico, February 19, 2024.
That’s not what’s at stake here. Gov. Evers is simply proposing a constitutional amendment prohibiting overly partisan maps. He isn’t proposing new district maps, but rather a requirement that whenever new maps are drawn, they be drawn in a generally nonpartisan way.
Perhaps that’s even too much for the WISGOP.
Upcoming posts (in no decided order): The Regents, Economic Demand, Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, and Whitewater’s Workforce.
Wolf Steals a Bear Sign in Yellowstone National Park:
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