4 results for author: Calvin Dexter


Snyder Fails to Deliver for Democracy

Representative Pat Snyder's campaign commercials (85th Assembly district) claim that he "always delivers." In one of the most fundamental ways possible, Snyder has failed to deliver for the people of his district, and the state as a whole. In a representative democracy, the people control the state legislature.  Their votes will matter, and the makeup of the legislature will reflect the people's priorities.  In a partisan gerrymander, a political party controls the legislature regardless of the will of the voters. Under Wisconsin's extreme partisan gerrymander, it didn't matter how we voted. The Republican candidates always won 60 - 65% of the ...

Public Should Question Proposed Mining in the Town of Easton

To protect its own interests, the public must pay attention to the proposal for mining in the town of Easton, near Dells of the Eau Claire County Park. The mining company, Greenlight Metals, Inc., will not protect the public’s interest. Whether the government will do so is far from clear. Greenlight has made a cost-benefit analysis that it has a reasonable chance of making money for its shareholders by mining just east of Wausau. We should have no illusions that, in its analysis, Green Light would alter its money-making plans if the mining would negatively affect the quality of life of local residents or harm the environment, except to the ...

Wisconsin Government Belongs to the People

Wisconsin Government Belongs to the People, not to a Political Party. Partisan justices on Wisconsin’s supreme court have approved a formula for one-party control of Wisconsin government. They adopted state legislative district maps that were extremely gerrymandered to favor Republicans. The decision enables Republicans to keep continuous control of the legislature for yet another decade. That control will persist even when a decisive majority of citizens statewide vote for Democratic candidates. That was sadly demonstrated in the 2012 and 2018 assembly elections under the previous ten-year GOP gerrymander. The new maps are reportedly even more ...

Wisconsin faces permanent one party rule of legislature

In the decade that followed, the gerrymandering party never came close to losing control of either the state senate or the state assembly.