Newly released court documents show Republican state lawmakers were required to sign non-disclosure agreements when they drafted new legislative redistricting maps. Internal memos also reveal staff of GOP legislative leaders told lawmakers to ignore public comments during the process.
The release of the documents comes just two weeks before a federal court will take up a legal challenge against the new maps, which were approved last summer by majority Republicans.
Latino group Voces de La Frontera uncovered the activity and filed a complaint Monday in Dane County court claiming a violation of the Open Meetings Law. “It really makes a mockery of our democratic process,” said Voces executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz.
Neumann-Ortiz levels charges against “all actors” including the Government Accountability Board, which implemented the law, and Michael Best & Friedrich, a law firm hired by Republicans to consult on the redistricting. She says Act 43 should not be implemented as the “entire process is corrupt.”
A contact to Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald’s office went unreturned.