One Walker legacy: making the political process more favorable to GOP
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/298842321.html
Since they came to power in 2011, Walker and his party have not only changed the way the state is governed, but they have changed the political playing field. In a few big ways and lots of little ways, they have seemingly made it easier for Republicans and harder for Democrats to win elections. Whichever way the pendulum swings next year, the 2016 race will be contested under a different set of political rules than those of previous decades, rules adopted by one party over the ardent opposition of the other.
The most consequential of these changes involve redistricting, which has given the GOP a virtual lock on the Legislature, and Act 10, which disarmed a critical Democratic election ally, public employee unions. But the changes also involve an extensive rewrite of the state’s election rules.
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Early Voting Curtailed. The window for early in-person voting used to be three weeks, and included the three weekends before Election Day. Now it runs just two weeks, with no weekend voting. Among other things, that ends Democratic “souls to the polls” Sunday voter drives in Milwaukee’s African-American churches. Democrats view the early voting curbs as an effort to suppress urban turnout.
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Campaign finance. One final piece of the story is the loosening of rules for raising and spending money in state elections. This shift has been driven more by court decisions than by legislation. But Republicans plan to rewrite Wisconsin’s campaign finance law as a result of those court decisions. They’re expected to raise limits on individual contributions to candidates and liberalize rules for corporate spending.
Also noted in the article: Voter ID.
