JOHN NICHOLS: GOP maps warp state democracy

Gov. Scott Walker started his political career as a loser.

A big loser.

In 1990, at the age of 23, Walker waded into state politics as the Republican nominee against first-term state Rep. Gwen Moore in Milwaukee County’s old 7th District.

Walker ran an aggressive campaign that highlighted his strengths and drew support from Republicans who even then saw him as a rising star.

But when the votes were counted on election night — which saw Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson secure a landslide victory — Walker had been pummeled.

Moore (now a progressive Democratic congresswoman) got 69 percent of the vote to Walker’s 31 percent.

Was Walker really that inept? That unappealing?

No. He was running in a district that had in the previous redistricting process been drawn to favor a Democrat, and it did.

Three years later, in a district that had been drawn to be more favorable to a Republican, Walker won a special election with ease. And he went on to hold the seat with percentages as high as Moore’s in 1990.

This is the reality of redistricting when the process is controlled by politicians seeking partisan advantage. It denies voters options and prevents capable candidates from even being competitive.

Walker knows this.

He also knows that the new congressional and legislative district maps drawn up by the Fitzgerald brothers and their highly paid lawyers are the most partisan — and least competitive — in Wisconsin history. No one expects Senate Majority Leader Scott or Assembly Speaker Jeff to act responsibly; they are determined to “Fitzgermander” Wisconsin to serve their own political ends.

Walker should provide some adult supervision. The governor can do that by embracing Rep. Mark Pocan’s call for a redistricting intervention.

Expressing the general outrage over the Fitzgeralds’ determination to fast-track the redrawing of legislative districts, the Madison Democrat noted, “The Republican proposal is highly partisan, intentionally drawn not with Wisconsin’s best interest in mind, but rather their own special interests in mind.”

“Redistricting isn’t something to be rushed through the Legislature without adequate public input,” noted Pocan, who addressed an appeal to Walker that was appropriately blunt: “Governor Walker, your fear of losing the majority in the Senate after the recall elections is no justification for rushing through a bill the Legislature only takes up once every decade. I fear in your rush to change Wisconsin, you are not weighing the damage you are doing to our state.”

There are those who will dismiss the prospect that Walker might ever put the interests of Wisconsin ahead of his personal ambitions. Perhaps they are right. But this is a moment where the governor could prove his critics wrong. Announcing that he will not participate in the fast-tracking of redistricting, and that he will work with the Legislature as it stands after the recalls, would allow Walker to rise above the petty partisanship of the Fitzgeralds.

Failing to do the right thing would simply suggest that Walker is still a loser who wants to “win” by gaming the system and undermining democracy.