Wisconsin state senators who could face recall elections next year might be campaigning to new constituents if the legislature passes an amendment pushing forward the date new district lines are applied to elections.
State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, authored an amendment on Friday to Act 43, the new state law that changes legislative district lines.
Senators of even-numbered senate districts and Assembly representatives have regular elections on Nov. 6, 2012, but senators from odd-numbered districts, to which the amendment would directly apply, do not have general elections until 2014.
There could be special elections before the Nov. 6 date for senators from odd-numbered districts eligible for recall next year, in which, under the GAB's interpretation, constituents from the old districts would vote.
Lazich's amendment would move the date the new districts will apply to elections up to November 9, 2011 for Senate districts so constituents of new Senate districts would vote in recall elections.
Lazich said in a statement if old districts were used for recall elections, voters would be recalling and electing a senator from another district.
"With the new landscape of recalls, the legislature must take steps not to disenfranchise voters living in odd numbered districts," Lazich said.
But Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, sees the amendment as an "unconstitutional" Republican effort to save their jobs and the GOP state majority.
"[The legislation ensures] that Republicans facing recall can run in their new, gerrymandered districts rather than the districts that elected them to office," Larson said in a statement.
The amendment is in response to Government Accountability Board Director Kevin Kennedy's opinion that any recall election occurring before Nov. 6, 2012 would be held in the district that legislator represented before Aug. 24, 2011, the day redistricting took effect.
Kennedy said an election occurring on or after that date would use the new district lines.
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