WI Senate District 24 - Incumbent Republican Patrick Testin - Challenger Collin McNamara (Democrat) - Gerrymander in Practice

Out of SIXTEEN!

Last time I checked, only Senate District 24 had a challenger to the incumbent.  That's out of sixteen State Senators up for election in 2024. Is this another definition of "gerrymandered".

Your district is so safe no one will even bother to run against you.

Of the three assembly districts within Senate 24 only Assembly District 71, which contains Stevens Point, is represented by a Democrat - Katrina Shankland.

Collin McNamara has his work cut out for him!

Senate District 24 covers parts of seven counties ... Adams, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Portage, Waushara, Wood.

Election 2024: WI Senate Districts with "hover" and "population popup' plus 'background change'!

To see a more dynamic, with more backgrounds and zoom ability - click the link below:

McNamara for WI Senate 24

 

WI Senate District 24 ... a little wierd ...Sparta, Tomah, Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point major population centers

Other maps index for browsing

Portage County Democrats

Collin #McNamara #WISenate24 - Incumbent Republican Patrick #Testin    -   Challenger Collin #McNamara (Democrat) - #Gerrymander in Practice

Move over Jon Meacham, Jonathan Haidt ... make room for Frans de Waal

 

Implies that one-third of us have some tendencies two-thirds of us question!

 

 A most astute observer...Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathic than bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral. — Frans de Waal(Primatologist)

Midsummer Nights' Science: The Eliana Hechter Memorial Lecture (2017)

Righteous Politicians are Scary - not Leaders ( Trump, Walker, Santorum , Huckabee )

Move over Jon #Meacham, Jon #Haidt ... make room for Frans de #Waal ... #JonMeacham #deWaal

Trump - 'A Life Threat'

 

'A life threat' is so much more clear than 'existential threat' ... life threat might be extended to be more complete ... 'A threat to life as we know it' underlines the point.

Do we think we will always be on the safe side of the threat?

What some of us are really afraid about is concentration of power in a single irresistible authority.  As imperfect as we may think our constitution may be its imperfection was always acknowledged.  There is unfortunately no stepping back to an instant rerun if we realize a mistake was made.

There is a need to accommodate change.  Checks and balances are the brakes on the process so that the moment is not capricious nor reactionary.

A most astute observer...Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathic than bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral.

 — Frans de Waal (Primatologist)

#Trump #LifeThreat #Existential 

#Trump #LifeThreat #Existential #WWIII 

#Trump #LifeThreat #Existential #WWIII brought to you by the #GOP

What's your vision for Wisconsin?

 Lot's of ideas ...

Invest in community level post-highschool education!

Keep places like Richland Center open and even add more or other kinds of State level support for education ... vocational and academic.  The state support for education has declined and declined.

Invest in local libraries and internet connectivity in more communities, again using State dollars.

Invest in rural health care coverage. More paramedic support coupled with local fire department full-time personnel.

Increase Homestead Tax Credit relief. 

... more later ... 

Florence Cnty WI >Social Not Just Physical Infrastructure should be Dems Party Strategy

What's your vision for #Wisconsin? #WI #WisconsinForward

WI Senate District 24 ... a little wierd ...Sparta, Tomah, Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point major population centers

Sparta and Tomah are a lot closer to La Crosse than they are to Wisconsin Rapids or Stevens Point.  Where do you think the three WI Assembly District (70,71,72) boundaries are located that divide up Senate District 24?  

The latter two are on the upper eastern end of Senate 24 and Sparta and Tomah at the lower western end.  It looks like you only have one semi-direct route from corner to corner.

Stevens Point is within Assembly District 71 along with ~20 other 'political divisions'.

The map image below shows the layout of 292 wards in the Senate District 24.  It covers parts of seven counties from Adams to Wood.  

The story needs to examine the three Assembly Districts contained within Senate 24.  All Senate Districts have exactly three Assembly Districts contained within them.

Congressional Gerrymandering In Wisconsin -- One view of the ANALYTICS with maps

Is #WISenate District 24 #gerrymandered?

#WISenate District 24 ... a little wierd ... #Sparta, #Tomah, #WisconsinRapids, #Stevens Point major population centers.

Where do you think the three #WIAssembly District boundaries are located that divide up #SenateDistrict 24?  

WI Incumbent State Senators whose time is up in 2024! Any Challenger?

16 out of 33 - 10 Rep 6 Dem - Map of Districts

Below is the list of incumbent WI State Senators up for election 2024 - who is running for their seat? Anyone?

• 02 Robert Cowles Rep Green Bay
• 04 Lena Taylor Dem Milwaukee
• 06 La Tonya Johnson Dem Milwaukee
• 08 Dan Knodl Rep Germantown
• 10 Rob Stafsholt Rep New Richmond
• 12 Mary Felzkowski Rep Irma
• 14 Joan Ballweg Rep Markesan
• 16 Melissa Agard Dem Monona
• 18 Dan Feyen Rep Fond du Lac
• 20 Duey Stroebel Rep Saukville
• 22 Robert Wirch Dem Somers
• 
  
• 24 Patrick Testin Rep Stevens Point 
•      Challenger Collin McNamara (Dem) according to Ballotpedia August 13th primary
• 
  
• 26 Kelda Roys Dem Madison
• 28 Julian Bradley Rep Franklin
• 30 Eric Wimberger Rep Green Bay
• 32 Brad Pfaff Dem Onalaska

Click the link (redirect) to see the districts, by incumbent Senator, on an interactive map!  You can change the background and scale to see better where you live.

WI Senators Whose Time Is UP!

Each district represents nearly 180,000 people (in 2020). Ever seen or met your Senator?

Is your Senator there - be aware!  The white space on the map are districts waiting until 2026!

Other maps index for browsing

#WI Incumbent State #Senators whose time is up in #2024! Any Challenger?

Safe #Gerrymandered #WISenate results in no choice

Rep stands for Republican, Dem for Democrat.

Election 2024: WI Senate Districts with "hover" and "population popup' plus 'background change'!

Click on link to redirect to interactive map with selectable backgrounds, scalable,  etc.

 WI Senate Districts  blogger.com only allows images and YouTube videos ... hence redirect for interactivity!

Other maps index for browsing

#Wisconsin #Senate Districts currently November, 2023

#WI - Where do you #vote? Quick lookup #map 

Gerrymandering: Why dysfunction in Congress could be here to stay

 

Why dysfunction in Congress could be here to stay. abc news

The recent dearth of competitive seats, however, doesn’t only influence the size of the majority: It also influences the character of the elected officials who make up that majority. Competitive districts often produce politicians who feel incentivized to compromise. In “safe” districts, the most important campaign is the primary, not the general election, meaning candidates are rewarded for sticking as close to their base as possible.

Dysfunction 538

#Gerrymandering: Why #dysfunction in #Congress could be here to stay

How Leonard Leo’s project to reshape US judiciary got its start in Wisconsin

 

How Leonard Leo’s project to reshape US judiciary got its start in Wisconsin

The conservative strategist and dark money organizer has worked to place ideologically sympathetic judges at state level and all the way up to the US supreme court

Andrea Bernstein and Andy Kroll for ProPublica

Mon 23 Oct 2023 06.00 EDT

In July 2015, Wisconsin’s supreme court shielded 

Governor Scott Walker, then a rising Republican 

star with aspirations to the presidency, from a criminal 

investigation.

The court’s conservative majority halted the investigation 

into what prosecutors suspected were campaign finance 

violations. One of the deciding votes was cast by Justice 

David Prosser, a conservative who had won re-election a 

few years earlier in a heavily contested race. ...

Use the link to read more ...

Leonard #Leo ’s - reshape US #judiciary - start in # Wisconsin 

and SCOTUS

What does this 2022 map of Wisconsin tell you? Got any guesses? Ward data => 50% - which race?

What does this #2022 map of #Wisconsin tell you? Got any guesses?What does this 2022 map of Wisconsin tell you? Got any guesses? Ward data => 50% - which race?

See how WI Schools are spread around by Senate District 2022 and $?

 WI Schools by Senate District 2022 interactive map via ARCGIS

Where and what kind? Click the link above!

Below ... past estimates of where the money went?

State Support Dashboard for Public School Districts based on the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau's 2019 - 2020 Estimates

#WISchools by #Senate District 2022 Public, Private, Charter

#WISchools by #Senate District 2022 Public, Private, Charter - Where did $ go?

Why is the RIGHT Wing (especially the media) so Wrong??

 

This has been a mystery to me for so long and then I heard a plausible explanation.

In simple terms it is called misdirection.  Don't look here look over there.  That's where your problem is coming from.  Them not us!

If you have a lot of money and you are afraid somebody might start wondering why?  What can you do?

Create a "media/ propaganda" enterprise to distract attention from you.  It is sort of like blaming your sister or brother for the mess you made.  If you do it right you get even wealthier while you do it.

Face it, at least 33% of the adult population, for one reason or another, think they are not getting their fair share of "the good life".

The 1% definitely don't want you looking at them ... so they give you some other group to blame. So they create and support media organizations with an agenda that equality of access and opportunity is somehow going to destroy U.S.  They promote demonizing the already disadvantaged.

What should be addressed in a democracy by policy instead gets addressed by prejudice, hatred and bias.

A most astute observer...Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathic than bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral.

 — Frans de Waal (Primatologist)

1% strategy fits into the misdirection plan ---

SCOTUS and "Weaponized Wealth" $1.6 Billion ... see Jane Mayer, Prof. Brooke Harrington

More Dark Money - Jane Mayer : The Koch Brothers

Why is the #RIGHT Wing (especially the #media) so Wrong?? #GOP #1% #FOX

Why is the #MAGA Wing (especially the #media) so Wrong?? #GOP #1% #FOX 

Congressional Gerrymandering In Wisconsin -- One view of the ANALYTICS with maps

Wisconsin has 8 congressional districts and as of now 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats (2023). 

Harvard ALARM project ...

The ALARM Project is a research team at Harvard University led by Kosuke Imai. It conducts research into redistricting sampling algorithms, best practices and workflows for redistricting analysis, and tools to visualize, explore, and understand redistricting plans. ALARM Project researchers develop redist, an open-source R package for redistricting simulation and analysis which implements state-of-the-art MCMC and SMC redistricting sampling algorithms. The package allows for the implementation of various constraints in the redistricting process such as geographic compactness and population parity requirements, and includes tools to compute various summary statistics and create useful plots.

The link takes you to some congressional maps and alternatives for Wisconsin generated in 2022.  You can see all the states, etc. and get a good overall impression.  It does not show you how state/local assembly and senate districts have been configured to give the GOP super majorities and control the state legislature even though the state is an even split republican/democrat from statewide turnout ... which is not even close to 100%.  I think I read that the April 2022 State Supreme Court Justice was just 39% voter turnout.

See Wisconsin ...  (you can see Alabama too ... follow the link)

50-State Redistricting Simulations Comprehensive project to simulate alternative congressional redistricting plans for all fifty states in the 2022 redistricting cycle. Explore the project and data »

See the link for interpretation and a legend.

Enacted Congressional Districts (per ALARM) -

Three example plans after 5000 simulations -

In Wisconsin, Democrats win about 51% of the vote in a typical statewide election. Proportionally, that would translate to 4.1 Democratic seats out of 8 total.

See the link above for interpretation.

#Congressional #Gerrymandering In #Wisconsin -- One view of the ANALYTICS with #maps

#Congressional #Gerrymandering In #Wisconsin -- One view of the ANALYTICS with #maps - the #ALARM project at HARVARD

Wisconsin has 8 congressional districts and as of now 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats (2023). Gerrymander?

#Congressional #Gerrymandering In #Wisconsin -- One view of the ANALYTICS with #maps - see #Alabama #SCOTUS 

So you wanna be a Journalist! Wisconsin to Miami! Support your local newspaper!

Starving the Watchdog - Hidden Brain - NPR - Dec. 2018 

Sarah Blaskey: Investigative Journalist / Author

SARAH BLASKEY is an investigative journalist for the Miami Herald, where she was part of the team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the collapse of a residential condo building in Surfside, FL. Her work has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Awards for excellence in local investigative reporting, the George Polk Award for political reporting and the Webby Awards for feature reporting. She is the lead author of “The Grifter’s Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency.” She joined the Herald in 2018.  She holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism.

So you wanna be a #Journalist! #Wisconsin to #Miami! #MiamiHerald (2022-2023)

Starving the #Watchdog - #HiddenBrain - #NPR - Dec. 2018 So you wanna be a #Journalist! #Wisconsin to #Miami! #MiamiHerald (2022-2023) 

SCOTUS : Thomas and Walmart in Indonesia - Must have a lot of bridges to get from one parking lot to the next in this island nation.

 I never saw the documentary where Justice Thomas declared himself a regular person who preferred to stay at RV camps or Walmart "all free to RVs" parking lots.

I have not verified but a cable news source reported that the Thomas Documentary was funded by a group funded by the Billionaire who funded a lot of the vacations?

True?

#SCOTUS : #Thomas and #Walmart in #Indonesia - Must have a lot of bridges to get from one parking lot to the next in this island nation. 

#GOP #Republican are 'Hoist with his own petard' : #Gerrymander #Trumpster

With the 'Donald Trump base' being blindly loyal to him the GOP can only nominate wackos that can't get elected or if they are elected they can only be obstructionist.

Ironically only a blue wave may save the GOP and a "petard" is a small bomb :) 

The generational GOP strategy to gerrymander locally and nationally compounds the GOP problem by locking in Donald Trump's blind base and preventing the GOP from being more moderate.

1) So make primaries open - anyone can vote for anybody.

2) Create objective grass-roots political boundaries - independently of 'party'.

#GOP #Republican are 'Hoist with his own petard' : #Gerrymander #Trumpster - need a bigger #BlueWave 

#GOP #Republican are 'Hoist with his own petard' : #Gerrymander #Trumpster - open primary and end Gerrymandering #BlueWave 

#NationalDebt - How to handle it? #Layoffs #Unemployment, Cancel #SocialSecurity ? OR Let people loan US money (or raise #taxes) !

So many bad options ... hahaha ... terminate all federal contractors ... who does that hurt!

Raise taxes ... do you know what "progressive tax rate" means?  

Cancel Social Security ... who does that hurt ... imagine the cascade ... mortgages, food, local property taxes, close schools, collapse of credit cards and credit ... better get ready for a cash society only - provided the dollar is worth anything?

I forgot to buy GOLD ... what am I going to do?  

Kind of hard to game out all the unintended consequences .... !!!!!

In part ... from the Washington Post ... of course they want you to subscribe but there will be other sources ... six (GOP ?) leakers and they probably are the sane ones

GOP takes the cliff dive ...

House Democrats Move to Force a #Debt-Limit Increase as #Default Date Looms - #NYTimes

Extreme #GOP debt changes will have extreme impacts simply because of the interconnections of all of us and our #economic activity 

#NationalDebt - How to handle it? #Layoffs #Unemployment, Cancel #SocialSecurity ? OR Let people loan US money (or raise #taxes) ! 

#GOP changes acronym to #GOPPP - Grand OLD Pennywise & Pound Foolish Party

 Who needs INFRASTRUCTURE ... not the #FAA ... take a flying leap !

What does SMALL-Government mean?

Atticus, Fiona - The existence of FEMA is INFRASTRUCTURE ... in these times of tornadoes, hurricanes and unseasonal storms - rivers of air/rain in California

#GOP changes acronym to #GOPPP - Grand OLD Pennywise & Pound Foolish Party - Who needs INFRASTRUCTURE ... not the #FAA ... nationwide failure