The 2012 Wisconsin State Assembly elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. All 99 seats in the Wisconsin State Assembly were up for election. Before the election, 58 Assembly seats were held by Republicans, 38 seats were held by Democrats, 1 was held by an independent, and 2 were vacant. The primary election was held on August 14, 2012.
This was the first Assembly election after the legislative redistricting following the 2010 United States census. The maps passed into law ware widely considered one of the most severe Republican gerrymanders in U.S. history.
Republicans flipped the independent-held seat and reclaimed two vacant seats, to enter the 101st Wisconsin Legislature with 60 of 99 State Assembly seats.
Elected members took office on January 7, 2013.
Background
Republicans won control of the Assembly, alongside the governorship and the State Senate, in the 2010 elections. Using their newly-gained governmental trifecta, Republicans began enacting a number of high-profile, highly controversial bills. Chief among them was Wisconsin Act 10, also known as the "Budget Repair Bill," which sought to eliminate public-sector unions and reduce the pay of public employees in a purported attempt to balance the state's budget.[1] This sparked a heavy backlash from public employees, especially teachers, and students, who staged protests of the legislation across the state.[2][3][4][5] In addition, 14 Democratic members of the Wisconsin Senate staged a walkout to Illinois to deprive the chamber of a quorum to prevent the passage of the bill.[6] Republicans managed to pass the bill anyway the next month,[7] but the fallout from the bill's passage led to the attempted recall of governorScott Walker and the successful recall of multiple members of the Senate in 2011 and 2012.[8][9]
In May 2011, Democrat Steve Doyle flipped an Assembly seat by winning a special election in the 94th district.[10]
In the 2010 elections, Republicans won significant majorities in both houses of the Legislature and the governorship. Republicans used their majorities to pass a radical redistricting plan after the 2010 census which substantially shifted the partisan bias of the state legislative maps. It was the product of a Republican project known as REDMAP, which used new statistical and mapping software to craft the maps.[11] The maps themselves were crafted and agreed upon in highly secretive meetings among Republican legislators, the details of which were only made public during court hearings regarding the constitutionality of the maps in 2015.[12]
Several lawsuits were brought against the 2011 redistricting plan. A set of early challenges against the plan led to only minor alterations to two districts in the Milwaukee area, which the court ruled violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by improperly diluting the population of Latinos across two districts.[13] Later suits against the map would eventually become the Supreme Court case Whitford v. Gill.
Results
Republicans maintained their large majority in the Assembly, winning 60 seats to the Democrats' 39. Republicans were aided in part by highly favorable redistricting, winning 74% of contested seats while only winning 52% of the vote in those races. Factoring in uncontested races, Republicans won 60% of seats in the Assembly despite losing the statewide popular vote by almost 175,000 votes.[14]
↑ Daley, David (2017). Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation. pp.139–147. ISBN978-1-63149-321-8.
↑ Baldus v. Members of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board,849F. Supp. 2d840(E.D. Wis.March 22, 2012).
↑ Daley, David (2017). Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation. pp.138–139. ISBN978-1-63149-321-8.
↑ "Communications". State of Wisconsin Assembly Journal. One-Hundredth Regular Session (Thursday, July 5, 2012). Wisconsin Legislature. July 5, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
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