More Republicans head for exits in  Trump state as election advantage evaporates

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate is the latest in a “string of retirements” of prominent GOP lawmakers as rebalanced district maps begin to take effect.

Sen. Devin LeMahieu has held the office since 2015 and was elected majority leader in 2020. But now that the state’s new liberal-leaning supreme court has agreed to new un-gerrymandered district maps giving Republicans less of an advantage in upcoming elections, LeMahieu has suddenly determined that “… the time has come for a new chapter in my life."

“LeMahieu is the second top Republican to announce his intention to leave the GOP-controlled state Legislature,” reports MJS. “Assembly Speaker Robin Vos earlier this year announced he would retire at the end of his current term.”

In 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned legislative maps drawn by GOP lawmakers, which overwhelmingly favored Republicans, by a 4-to-3 vote — but only after a ferocious and expensive election that put a new liberal judge on the court.

That ruling forced the state to submit new maps in advance of the 2024 election. Liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz, elected that same year, cast the deciding vote to eliminate the GOP-drawn maps.

Prior to its new maps, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project called Wisconsin's state legislative maps among the most unfair in the nation, with Princeton giving "F" grades to both the state assembly map and the state senate map in 2022.

Vox.com's Ian Millhiser called the Wisconsin’s Republican gerrymander so aggressive that it was practically impossible for Democrats to gain control of the state legislature.

"In 2018, for example, Democratic state assembly candidates received 54 percent of the popular vote in Wisconsin, but Republicans still won 63 of the assembly’s 99 seats — just three seats short of the two-thirds supermajority Republicans would need to override a gubernatorial veto," Millhiser wrote.

Now, three years later, Republicans are headed for the door as fairer maps end the likelihood of reelection in this state that voted for President Donald Trump in the last national election.

The MJS reports LeMahieu said he is looking forward to spending more time with his wife and “rooting for bold conservative reform from the sidelines."

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