With the Wisconsin Senate’s Democratic caucus in the news recently, I thought I would look at its composition and, since the chamber flipped in 2010, what the “lost” seats looked like geographically/demographically.
Wisconsin has 8 Congressional districts and 33 Senate districts, each of which contains 3 Assembly districts. That works out to about 4 Senate districts per Congressional districts, and that’s how I’m going to loosely divide them up, although it will be rougher in places than others.
The Congressional districts: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lts…
and the Senate districts:
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lts…
Gwen Moore’s Milwaukee Congressional district corresponds to state Senate districts 3, 4, 6, and 7. All are Democratic-held, although Ballotpedia points out that District 7’s Chris Larson was one of a small handful of candidates to beat an incumbent state Senator in a primary. (District 7 snakes around covering coastal Milwaukee). A number of Assembly districts in these Senate districts are actually Republican-held, and some seem to be suburban, but I’m going to look at that in another diary.
Jim Sensenbrenner’s affluent suburban Milwaukee district can correspond to state Senate districts 5, 8, 33, and 20 (as well as some of 13). All are Republican-held, and District 5 flipped in 2010. From its appearance I guessed that it was a classic ritzy inner-ring suburban district, and so it appears to be (although one of its assembly districts is actually in Milwaukee proper). Check out the median income map: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb…
Paul Ryan’s district in the southeast corner of the state can correspond to districts 11, 21, 22, and 28 (as well as some of 15). All are Republican-held except for District 22, more or less coterminous with Kenosha County. According to Wiki, it’s actually considered part of the Chicago metro area. District 21, right above it, flipped in 2010. It also appears affluent, although less so than District 22.
Tammy Baldwin’s Madison-area district can correspond to districts 15, 16, 26, and 27 (as well as some of 13 and 14). All are Democratic-held. Interesting note: District 26, covering Madison proper, is represented by Fred Risser. As per Ballotpedia, he is the longest-serving state legislator in the United States, having first been elected in 1963.
The northern, Green Bay-ish district formerly represented by Steve Kagen and now by Reid Riggle can correspond loosely to districts 1, 2, 30, and 12 (it also has some of 14, at least). 30 and 12 are Democratic (30 seems to correspond to the city of Green Bay, while 12 is very large and rural) while 1 and 2 are Republican–perhaps why it is such a swingy district.
Tom Petri’s district stretches, presumably, between the Milwaukee and Madison suburbs. It is the hardest to fit into Senate districts, covering parts of 9, 13, 14, 18, 19, and 20. Anyway, all are Republican, and none flipped in 2010.
Ron Kind represents a district with a reputation for a rare combination of ruralness and Democratic-friendlishness. I’m going to call it more or less Districts 17, 23, 31, and 32, it also has part of 10. Districts 31 is held by a Democrat, and Districts 10, 17, 23, and 32 by Republicans. Doesn’t make Kind’s district look like very friendly territory, but then District 23 just flipped in 2010. It contains some of Eau Claire, but I can’t tell too much interesting about it. I would be interested to know what explains the state/fed difference here.
Finally, Dave Obey’s old district, now represented by Sean Duffy, covers Districts 24, 25, and 29, as well as the rest of District 10 and some of Districts 23 and 12. This Congressional district, of course, flipped in 2010, and so did one of its parts, Senate District 29 (and 23). District 29 contains some wealthy areas, amusingly, they seem to correspond to the village of Rothschild(!). Districts 24 and 25 remain in the D fold; District 24 is represented by unsuccessful 2010 Congressional nominee Julie Lassa.
In short, the Wisconsin Senate Dem caucus seems to unsurprisingly mirror its Congressional delegation. Of its 14 seats, 8 more or less line up with the Milwaukee and Madison areas represented by Moore and Baldwin. Of the remaining 6, one is in Chicagoland, one covers Green Bay, one includes much of Eau Claire, and the remaining three include two large, Canada-bordering rural districts and Lassa’s 24th. Of note, only odd-numbered seats were up in 2010, so it is possible that 12 and 24, two of these last three, got spared by chance while the adjacent 23 and 29 flipped.
Anyway, I am always wondering where state-level Dems are, so I thought I would summarize it up for y’all. I welcome corrections and comments from more Wi-knowledgeable readers.