Do-or-die year for Republicans

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online.  It’s called “Do-or-die year for Republicans.”  

The reason that 2008 is the most important election year in decades has nothing to do with taxes, socialized medicine, education or anything else that you might have been told. The reason that this year is so important has to do with redistricting.

In 2010, the federal government will release the latest census data. The release of this information obligates the state legislatures to redraw the district lines based on the newest population data. If the Democrats control the Assembly, Senate and governor, those lines will be drawn to ensure a Democrat majority for the next decade.

It is widely assumed that Wisconsin will lose one seat in the House of Representatives after the next census. If the Democrats completely control the apparatus of government, the scuttlebutt is that they will redraw the districts in southeastern Wisconsin to eliminate a powerful Republican. They will do this by extending Rep. Gwen Moore’s district down the coast and combining Rep. Paul Ryan’s and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner’s districts into a single district. By doing so, The Democrats would write either Ryan or Sensenbrenner out of the Congress.

Beyond that, the Democrats would redraw the Assembly and Senate districts to guarantee a generational domination of the Legislature.

This is why the Republicans must retain control of the Assembly. The alternative is to surrender the state of Wisconsin to the Democrats for a generation.

Despite my frustrations with the Republicans, Conservatives should remember that a decade of liberal rule would be much, much worse.