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.

Common Cause believes voters should pick their elected officials instead of elected officials picking their voters like we do in Wisconsin today and that when only one in ten legislative elections in 2014 were competitive, we need redistricting reform.

Only nine of 99 assembly races and three of l7 senate races were considered competitive, defined as a margin of victory of ten points or less.

Common Cause believes that democracy is in trouble when only 10 percent of legislative races are competitive.

Common Cause believes the Government Accountability Board, created with bi-partisan support and respected throughout America, should be preserved and protected from partisan attack.

Common Cause believes that special interest money and corporate campaign cash should be repudiated, and if not eventually rejected by Congress and the courts, at least be regulated and reported.

So I ask you to join me as a member of Common Cause.

Become part of the solution.

Stand with Republicans and Democrats throughout Wisconsin who endorse Senate Bill 58 because you, too, believe Wisconsin can be as clean, open, honest and respected as it once was and again should be.

Roger Utnehmer is President and CEO of DoorCountyDailyNews.com, and a member of Common Cause in Wisconsin's State Governing Board.