House Editor David Wasserman writes: While most pundits focused on Wisconsin's state senate recall elections in August, GOP Gov. Scott Walker quietly signed into law his party's redistricting plans. The new map, which the legislature conveniently passed before Democrats had a shot at taking the Senate in the recall, will have a much more meaningful and long-lasting effect on the state's politics. Republicans engineered a Congressional map designed to protect their new 5-3 edge in the delegation, particularly freshman GOP Rep. Sean Duffy, the Republican who currently represents the most Democratic district. The tradeoff is that Democratic Rep. Ron Kind's district will get substantially safer for Democrats.
Democrats have pledged to take the map to federal court. They allege Republicans violated state law by drawing legislative and Congressional maps before local authorities had the chance to redraw precinct boundaries. However, if a court were to force the legislature to go back and draw new lines, it's unclear how the situation would get much better for Democrats, since Republicans managed to hold the state Senate by a single seat last month
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