A new report by a nonprofit that advocates for government transparency found that 1 in 10 of Wisconsin’s legislative districts had competitive elections last year.
Common Cause Wisconsin Executive Director Jay Heck noted the report used "generous" parameters when defining "competitive" to mean any race that saw a 10 percent margin of victory or less.
"It’s pretty pathetic, isn't it? It’s hardly what you would expect in a vibrant democracy," Heck said.
The analysis also found that electoral competition is on the decline: In 2010, the year before the redistricting, about 25 percent of all state legislative seats were competitive. Competitive elections dropped down to 15 percent in 2012.
Heck said the decline in large part has to do with Republican-led redistricting efforts in 2011. Because of that gerrymandering, he said, there was a good chance that a given legislative race had already been decided even before an average voter had cast their ballot in the 2014 election.
"The lines were rigged in such a way that there really aren't contests in the general election," said Heck. "Legislators have chosen who their voters are, rather than the voters being able to choose who their state legislators are."
The non-competitive races, said Heck, have led to a largely unresponsive and gridlocked legislature.
"Because if you have a safe seat and you don't have to worry about your re-election chances, then you’re going to ignore a lot of the concerns of many of the constituents that you may have," he said.
He added that the "gerrymandered" districts produces hardcore candidates who represent fringes of their respective party.
"So what you have is less tendency and less ability for legislators of differing views to come together to forge a compromise," Heck said.