Because of the way her Assembly district was drawn, she says, "My vote doesn't count. Janel Brandtjen won unopposed. Harris lives just blocks away from a Democratic district with a representative who shares her views. Someone is always going to be on the edge of that line. But Harris, a former employee of Milwaukee Public Schools, said her new district feels worlds apart.
Democrats tried to stop the GOP's map before it was even drawn. They filed a federal lawsuit about a month before Republicans introduced their plan in the Legislature. Their argument, which is pretty standard in redistricting cases, was that the population had changed and the old map was out of date. Once the map was passed, the case grew. Democrats claimed the new map violated the federal Voting Rights Act, that it disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of people and that it violated so-called "traditional redistricting criteria.
The lawsuit also claimed that the map was a partisan gerrymander — that Republicans drew it with politics in mind, silencing the voices of Democratic voters.
Legal arguments aside, there were glaring signs that the three-judge panel assigned to hear the case was frustrated with Republicans. After GOP lawyers initially refused to turn over certain documents, the judges issued a scathing order that argued that secretive tactics Republicans and their lawyers used to draw these maps had spilled over to the courtroom.
They called out the Republicans lawyers by name and accused them of "disinformation, foot-dragging", "obfuscation," "sandbagging" and "hide-the-ball trial tactics. They also accused the Legislature and its attorneys of "giving every appearance of flailing wildly in a desperate attempt" to hide the redistricting process from the public.
But despite their frustration, the judges only made one tiny change to the map, moving a single district line in a Latino neighborhood of Milwaukee. The court decided that the map did not violate traditional redistricting criteria.
Even though the judges had major issues with the way things were handled, they basically upheld the map. The federal courthouse building in Milwaukee. But we don't think that they rise to the level of a legal violation. The Democrats also dropped their partisan gerrymandering claim, because in the world of federal court, those kinds of lawsuits never go anywhere.
For Democrats, this was one lost battle among many during these years, but there was another fight they were gearing up for. They organized a massive recall campaign against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. But on June 5, , Walker won big , defeating Democratic challenger Tom Barrett by almost 7 percent , an even bigger margin than when the two of them faced off in the governor's race.
This election — and this night — was the peak of Walker's political career. It was not a close call," Miller said. Miller had been living the recall fight, but with a different focus. In and , there were more than a dozen attempted state Senate recalls launched against incumbent lawmakers from both parties.
Three were Republican blowouts, but Democrats still had a shot in the fourth race because they were being held under the old legislative map — the one drawn in by a federal court. Under that map, the Senate seat in Racine was very competitive, the definition of a swing district.
Democrat John Lehman eked out a victory by votes, giving Democrats a one-seat majority in the state Senate. It was mostly symbolic because the Legislature was not in session, but it did come with one big prize: Those private lawyers who helped Republicans draw the map now worked for him.
Suddenly, all that changed. Miller took all of those redistricting documents and posted every page of them online. He said he was trying to expose what he thought was a secretive process. Doug Poland, one of the lawyers who handled the redistricting case, knew what to look for.
In the stacks of redistricting information that Miller posted online for the world to see, Poland noticed some documents he had never seen before. Documents that should have been turned over during the redistricting lawsuit. Poland notified the federal judges who had been so frustrated with Republicans in the redistricting lawsuit, and those judges had seen enough. They order Republicans to turn over the hard drives that were used to draw the maps so that Democrats could investigate them.
What they found formed the foundation of a new case that led them all the way to the United States Supreme Court. State legislatures require a specific number of members to be present in order to conduct official business, such as debating or voting on legislation.
The minimum number of members required to conduct official business is known as quorum. Many legislative bodies have rules that allow present members to compel absent members to return for business. While a lack of quorum can occur due to unexpected events, such as illness or inclement weather, it can also be used as a political tactic.
Several times in recent decades, members of a minority party left the state capitol or the state entirely to prevent the passage of legislation. This is a state legislative walkout. These walkouts can result in legislation dying on the floor or the majority party compromising on the legislation, among other outcomes. This page details noteworthy state legislative walkouts.
Noteworthy walkouts are those where legislators left the state for at least a week or received significant national media attention. Are you aware of one that could be included here? Click here to email us. The following walkouts are included on this page. Click the links to navigate to information about each.
On Feb. In this show of solidarity with Oregonians who are being failed by the current direction of your policies, we hope this action conveys the importance of these issues," the group wrote. The Oregonian reported that Republicans wanted Brown to reopen schools and increase vaccine availability to older residents in more rural areas. The walkout ended on March 2, Senate Minority Leader Fred Girod R said that the walkout accomplished his goals of highlighting the issues of school reopenings and vaccinations.
On September 25, , Republican members of the House did not join a session discussing the redistricting plan for the state's congressional districts.
Thirty-four legislators were present, with 40 needed for a quorum. Of those absent, 18 had excused absences and eight did not.
The House passed the redistricting plan the same day. On May 30, , all 67 members of the Democratic caucus left the chamber during consideration of Senate Bill 7 , a package of voting-related legislation. Legislators left the chamber around p. Most of us walked away from that meeting understanding that this was our only option," state Rep. Gina Hinojosa D said. Following the closure of the regular session, Gov. Greg Abbott R said he would call a special session to take up the legislation again and threatened to veto the part of the state budget that funds legislative salaries.
On July 12, , enough members of the Democratic caucus left the state during consideration of House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1 to break quorum. We are living on borrowed time in Texas. Their constituents must not be denied these important resources simply because their elected representative refused to show up to work. Moody was one of the Democratic legislators to leave the state.
Phelan issued no statement but said the removal was effective immediately. Moody issued the following statement: "The most important titles in my life will never change: Dad, Husband, El Pasoan. Nothing political has ever even cracked the top three, so nothing has changed about who I am or what my values are.
The Texas Tribune said Moody was "one of Phelan's top allies in the Democratic Party," citing their work together on bills relating to the state's criminal justice system. Cortez returned to Austin from Washington, D.
On July 25, he traveled back to Washington, D. The Texas Tribune noted that the warrant, the first issued as a result of the walkout, would likely not have any impact as Texas law enforcement does not have jurisdiction outside the state. The initial special session concluded on August 6. On August 5, Abbott announced an additional day special session scheduled to convene on August 7.
State Rep. Eddie Lucio D , who returned to Texas, said he expected enough of the caucus to return to Austin to have a quorum within a week. Republicans, who accused their peers of breaking legislative rules, shirking responsibility and manipulating the democratic process, had initially dispatched the State Patrol to round them up and bring them back.
The Wisconsin Senate seeds 20 lawmakers present to hold a vote on the bill. But with only 19 Republican members, at least one of the 14 Democrats must also attend. Now with the standoff showing no sign of abating -- and lawmakers in other states weigh whether to follow in the Wisconsin Democrats' footsteps -- experts say the absconding lawmakers' tactics are legal even if highly unusual. The state constitution requires lawmakers to fulfill their duties to the best of their abilities and allows the legislature to "compel the attendance" of absent members to reach a quorum, though the documents do not spell out what types of compulsion can be used.
But the state constitution also prohibits lawmakers from being arrested during a legislative session, unless they're accused of "treason, felony or breach of the peace. The "murkiness" of those two provisions, said one state Democratic aide, is why they fled, despite the knowledge that they couldn't be physically detained under the law.
The jurisdiction of Wisconsin State Patrol ends at the state line. Experts say the troopers, who lack legal authority to take the lawmakers into custody, could have staked out or escorted the Democrats to the statehouse, adding pressure on their movements and creating an unflattering public spectacle.
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