Senate President Susan Wagle Embraces Gerrymandering To Benefit GOP In Kansas

From the Kansas Reflector:

By Sherman Smith| Tim Carpenter, The Kansas Reflector
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Oct. 9, 2020

TOPEKA — Democrats blasted Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle on Friday for recent comments she made about the desire to redraw legislative and congressional district boundaries in Kansas to favor Republicans.

Wagle, a Republican from Wichita who is retiring from the Legislature after losing a race for U.S. Senate, told a gathering of Republicans last month that the party needs to secure a supermajority in the Legislature to craft new maps in 2022 that would keep her seat in GOP hands and prevent Democrats from maintaining a foothold in the 3rd congressional district.

The comments enflamed Democrats who have accused Republicans of exploiting their political power to gerrymander political boundaries.

Wagle said recasting the congressional districts would inhibit the ability of Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids to retain her seat. Additionally, Wagle’s own district has shifted to the left, the senate president explained. If Republican state Rep. Renee Erickson can defeat Democrat Melissa Gregory for Wagle’s seat, Wagle said, the Republican will need help to hang onto it.

“During redistricting, I need to give her some more Republican neighborhoods in order to make sure she stays elected,” Wagle said. “So redistricting, it’s right around the corner. And if Governor Kelly can veto a Republican bill that gives us four Republican congressmen, that takes out Sharice Davids up in the 3rd — we can do that. I guarantee you we can draw four Republican congressional maps. But we can’t do it unless we have a two-thirds majority in the Senate and House.”

Davis Hammet, a voting rights activist, published on social media Friday a video of Wagle’s comments, which were made during a Sept. 25 speech at the Pachyderm Club in Wichita.

Vicki Hiatt, chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party, called the video “a cynical and extremely disappointing display of the extremist, obstructionist politics that have marked Republican leadership in the Kansas Legislature.”

“Susan Wagle just said the quiet part of Republicans’ strategy to manipulate our districts out loud,” Hiatt said. “By promising to gerrymander districts in the Kansas Legislature and write Rep. Sharice Davids out of office, Republican leadership just made it clear they intend to undermine the voices of hardworking Kansans.”

Redistricting is performed each decade following completion of the U.S. Census. The population count is relied upon to set boundaries of U.S. House districts, which there are four in Kansas, as well as the 165 state legislative districts and the 10 state Board of Education districts.

Members of the Kansas Legislature draw the maps, which are subject to veto by the state’s governor.

In 2012, the House and Senate in Kansas failed to adopt a new district maps. Conflict between moderate and conservative Republicans in the Senate led to stalemate that triggered a lawsuit.

A three-judge panel in U.S. District Court intervened to draw the congressional and state legislative districts in June 2012. The federal judges wrote in an unsigned order they redrew the maps after weighing the proposals of 27 individuals allowed to intervene in the case.

“Most of the interveners have unabashedly political reasons for intervening and they seek to advance their respective political agendas,” the judges wrote.

Hammet said the U.S. Supreme Court recognized last year that political gerrymandering is unjust but deferred to Congress and the states to fix the problem. Wagle’s comments, Hammet said, make it clear that “some Kansas leaders plan to exploit the problem.”

“Everyone knows that gerrymandering goes against the core values of the United States,” Hammet said. “It’s a dirty trick to circumvent and undermine the will of voters.”

The Kansas Reflector seeks to increase people's awareness of how decisions made by elected representatives and other public servants affect our day-to-day lives. We hope to empower and inspire greater participation in democracy throughout Kansas.