Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers wants lawmakers to prohibit partisan gerrymandering. Fulfilling a promise from his State of the State address, the Democratic governor calls the Republican controlled state Senate and Assembly into special session on April 14th. At a Capitol press conference on Tuesday, Evers said he’ll be promoting the issue between now and then.
We’re going to work real hard in the meantime to make sure that the people of Wisconsin are talking to the legislators and making sure that they understand that this is the will of the people and it’s the law of the land. I’ll be visiting lots of folks all across the state.”
In a statement, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said “This one-sentence constitutional amendment provides no details as to how this would actually work. But we’re supportive of the governor’s concept and we would be more than happy to negotiate with him to develop a plan to be voted on by the entire Assembly.” A statement from the office of Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said “The State Senate is still hard at work preparing for the regular session floor period in March. We’ll consider the governor’s special session call after the caucus decides how to handle the dozens of bills and amendments the Assembly passed last week before adjourning for the year.”
Previous special sessions called by the Democratic governor have seen Republican lawmakers simply gavel and gavel out with no action taken.