Roger Utnehmer on Nonpartisan Redistricting Reform in Wisconsin

The following is a statement made on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 by Common Cause in Wisconsin Board Member Roger Utnehmer at a press conference in Green Bay on recently-introduced legislation to end partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin:

Common Cause is a citizens lobby that advocates for clean open government and campaign and redistricting reform.

Being a broadcaster for 38 years has made me a fiscally-conservative capitalist and a socially-liberal progressive.

I’ve voted for Republicans and Democrats.

I crammed four years of college into seven working for a Republican state senator and ran for the assembly in 1974 as a Republican.

My background makes me like a lot of people in Wisconsin, the political middle-ground, people who can support Republicans on fiscal issues and Democrats on social issues.

People like me make the case that redistricting reform, preservation of the Government Accountability Board and over-turning Citizens United are bi-partisan issues.

The message I have today is simply this; the most patriotic civic engagement people can make today is to become involved with Common Cause and support redistricting reform.

Wisconsin as Russia

By Bill Kraus


“In Russia, the law was not there to protect citizens and people, it was there to aid authorities. The law was not meant to be used by citizens, but by the state.”

This quote is from the book RED NOTES by Bill Browder (Yes, that Browder. His grandfather was Earl Browder, the face of the Communist Party in the United States for many years in the middle of the last century).

The context is unimportant.

What is important is that it calls to mind a series of laws enacted and proposed in Wisconsin in recent years.