Editor’s note: Have something on your mind? “Community Voices” is the place to let Milwaukee hear what you have to say. To be considered, we need your name, email address and phone number for verification. Please email your submissions to [email protected]. (Photo provided by Benjamin Rangel) Benjamin Rangel is a high school government teacher at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Milwaukee. He represents the Fourth Congressional District on the People’s Maps Commission. He also serves as the managing editor of Bridge the City, a local podcast whose mission is to bridge together people, resources and ideas that inspire Milwaukee to action. When I applied to serve on Gov. Tony Evers’ People’s Maps Commission, I did so on a bit of a whim. Because I am a high school American government teacher and student of political science, the issue of partisan gerrymandering has consistently been one of the issues that shocked me and my students. Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! How could we call ourselves a representative democracy when representation is so clearly manipulated for political gain? For instance, here in Milwaukee, our local political leaders have pleaded with state legislators in Madison for a fair and democratic budget process. Every alderperson and state representative from our area will tell you the same thing – Madison has flatlined the state’s shared revenue fund allocated to our city. Furthermore, the state restricts our city’s ability to add new sources of revenue. This is where gerrymandering comes into the picture. Currently, the state legislative districts are drawn in such a way that although Democrats have won a majority of votes throughout the state, they have remained in the minority in the Legislature. In other words, Milwaukee’s representation in state government, and its ability to support itself financially, is impossible with partisan gerrymandering. However, there may be a solution. Over the past six months, my belief in the American experiment and democracy has been reaffirmed month-after-month and I have hope that our work will be essential to the redistricting process in the coming months. Throughout the last six months, our commission has heard from some of the country’s leading experts on partisan gerrymandering. For instance, Former Attorney General Eric Holder shared why a fair redistricting process is essential to representation in one of our early hearings. Similarly, Dr. Moon Duchin, a professor of mathematics at Tufts University, has partnered with our commission to help facilitate Wisconsinites drawing their own maps and identifying communities of interest. Beyond the expert consensus that partisan gerrymandering is a threat to American representative government, it has been you all, the everyday residents of Wisconsin, who have truly inspired me and reaffirmed my belief in government. After every hearing we have conducted, I leave feeling inspired and recommitted to our work. One of the most common things we hear is “voters should choose their representative, instead of representatives choosing their voters.” This observation has become a sort of truism during our hearings, and for good reason. In 2011, following the last census count and led by the Republican Legislature, redistricting in Wisconsin was done in secret at a private law firm. Court proceedings and investigative journalists, using computer algorithms, have shown that congressional and state legislative districts were redrawn in a way that overwhelmingly advantaged Republicans. For instance, in the 2018 election Democrats and Republicans essentially split the vote across the state but the Republicans won a 63-36 majority in the 99-seat legislature. During the last redistricting process, Republican state legislators were called into the offices to comment and provide feedback on how their district might be redrawn. Based on that feedback, and in order to mathematically advantage Republicans as best as possible, the maps were redrawn. In other words, the legislators picked their voters. Although the process that played out in Wisconsin benefited Republicans, Democrats are certainly not innocent in this story. Democrats in Wisconsin in 2009, with control of both chambers and the governorship, had the opportunity to pass legislation that required a nonpartisan, independent redistricting process. During our hearing in the 1st Congressional District, longtime Democrat Peter Barca shared that the political will simply wasn’t there. Furthermore, other Democratically controlled legislatures around the country have participated in partisan gerrymandering.