iuscely Flores on Fair Maps, Redistricting & Wisconsin’s Political Future (Hour 1)

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You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.

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Yeah,

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Here's Pete Schwabba.

Dude.

And Greg Bach.

Dude.

Welcome to Nightlight, everybody.

Welcome.

Welcome.

I am Pete Schwabba sitting opposite and when I say opposite I mean just up the coast from Mr. Greg Bach.

It is a beautiful Monday in the state of Wisconsin and we are so glad you're here because we have an outstanding jam-packed show for you.

Would you say that's accurate, Greg?

It is

so

jam-packed.

It's yam-packed.

Oh, I didn't know you were bilingual.

I am.

That's really impressive.

Ola.

That is Greg Bach.

He is coming to you live from Radio Park in Racine.

I am in Marinette, Wisconsin also known as Christmas City around my house and Dom Lee joins us from Madison where he is running the board and producing the show gentlemen How was your weekend?

It was great.

I would say it was great.

I watched another horror movie another another blockbuster So there was nothing there was no there was no elves to this weekend no elves

Was it back rooms?

It was yes.

It was it was that good?

I yes, I thought it was really really good because I know a lot about the lore so I thought it was I thought it was really good Okay,

were you following it on YouTube and that's how you were familiar with it?

Yeah, I was following on YouTube Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That is a new Phenomenon semi new that we'll talk to our second-hour guest about because YouTube apparently Greg has is fueling

You know, everybody's like, oh, you just watch your phone.

Dom's generation doesn't go to the movies, but apparently YouTube has given the box off a huge boost this weekend with back rooms and obsessions.

So good for you, Dom.

Obsession was so good, too.

Obsession was great.

I can't, I gotta stop.

Yeah, you said that.

I'm anxious to see it now.

So we'll talk about that a little more.

We'll elaborate in hour number two when our guest Milwaukee film critic Matt Miller joins us.

Matt joins us periodically to talk movies in the box office and summer blockbusters coming our way.

It'll be good to catch up with Matt.

And then in hour number one, we've got Yuseli Flores joining us.

She was really fun to talk to, Greg.

She

is the organizing director of the Wisconsin.

Fair Maps Coalition and she joined us to talk about a great event, some rallies coming up here in Wisconsin to increase awareness about Fair Maps.

So that'll be fun too.

Absolutely,

absolutely.

And that's just like the beginning of the show.

We've got so much, so many other things to talk about this evening as well, including a keyword.

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Is that, I

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There couldn't possibly be more.

No.

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Well said.

Hey guys, I had, as these texts roll in, I just want to tell you, here's how I ended my weekend.

Okay, so I do these Hollywood beats every day here at Civic Media.

Talk about show business news, they play at the bottom of the hour.

So I did this joke about people pulling out of Freedom 250, this big celebration that the Trump administration put together, and all these artists are bailing.

And I said at the end of one of the beats I saw, well, at least there's a Ferris wheel.

Oh, nope.

This just in.

The Ferris wheel has pulled out of Freedom 250 as well.

That's a great joke.

That's funny.

Thank you, Greg.

So I'm watching this week tonight with John Oliver last night.

Same exact joke.

Almost verbatim.

Sorry.

Are you going to be consulting your lawyers?

lawyers, you think I have lawyers, lawyers plural?

What do you think?

What kind of money you think I got?

I mean, you've written and directed movies, you know Hollywood.

I mean, you're a fast guy in the Hollywood world.

So

this is where my brain went last night.

Someone on the staff heard civic media over the weekend or something and stole the joke.

Then I'm like, you know what?

I'm at the age right now.

I've been around long enough.

I don't even care.

Take the joke.

It's one joke.

I write jokes every day.

Take it.

I'm glad it's on the John Stuart, the John Oliver show.

It's such a great show.

And I'm

like, all right, well, at least I'm thinking about good jokes, because I love that show.

Well, I have this whenever I come up with jokes either in my head or when I post on social media, if any of the late night shows ever do something that's similar, I just think to myself, well, I know that I, you know,

I could apply maybe and be like, Hey guys, I write the same jokes you do.

Just trust me.

Look at my social media.

I'm right there.

Right there.

Exactly.

Great minds, right?

That's kind of how I was.

I was like, wait a minute.

He got to air his joke first.

I recorded mine on Friday though, but I have no proof.

But then I realized the beats run all weekend.

So technically I was on the year first.

So

I've got

technically actually, actually correct.

So, so

that's what I was working with.

I went to a concert on Friday, very fun concert.

Went to the Argo and Whitefish Bay, which is for folks who don't, who are not in the area of southeastern Wisconsin.

That is a little bit north of Milwaukee city.

It's beautiful space.

Used to be a movie theater, the Fox Bay movie theater, but they've converted it into a concert venue where they have all sorts of great stuff going on.

And I saw Mr. Dan Tominsky.

And if you don't know that name, you know his voice because it came out of the mouth of George Clooney.

When he sings man of constant sorrow in the film.

Oh brother, where art thou?

He is a former member of Allison Krauss and Union Station.

He's, he decided to go like severely solo, I should say severely.

He's focusing on his solo work for about, for quite a while now, but he was great.

And here's the best part of the show that I felt, you know, I can't speak for anybody else is that the concert started at eight.

He walked on stage with his band about 810.

They played until 945 and they said, we're not going to do like an encore, encore.

We're going to play our last song.

And he said, if I hear a breath, we'll play our encore song and then we'll be done.

And they were done by 945.

And it was a bluegrass band.

So there were six members.

There were no drum sets.

There were no big amplifiers.

Everybody

had

their instruments right up to a microphone.

So it was got on stage.

Started playing did amazing music and then they're like good night done and then we were That was it.

It was it was so good.

It was so fun

That sounds like a really like a tight show, you know,

I'm

like I when I went the last concert I went to was two years ago I went and saw Springsteen three plus hours

if it's

anyone other than Springsteen, maybe you too

That's the perfect concert.

I don't want to, I typically don't want to see a concert that lasts three hours.

I want to go home, you know, but an hour and a half with a

musician you love, fantastic.

Yeah, it was very, very fun.

We had a really good time.

And then, you know, hung out with my buddy and, and yeah, it was a great, it was a great weekend.

Not relaxing, but not busy.

It was sort of like

in

between where we had like, you know, I had Saturday and then Sunday, there was stuff going on, but it was a good time.

And I would, if you

Check out the website.

I'm not paid by them.

We're, you know, but if you want to see a good show, that's a great venue to see one.

Very intimate.

Very

intimate.

What

about you,

Dom?

Your cut still looks great, buddy.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

My barber did say, come back in a month.

It might be a little weirdly shaped after a while, but yeah.

But for now, I'm just going to go with it.

I'm going to rock and roll with it.

I love it.

I think it's time, guys, without further ado, since we've got so much to get to, we get to our question.

We do not need any more ado.

Let's talk about the question question question question question question question this question Okay,

so tonight's question is sponsored not sponsored inspired I should say by a gentleman named Jared Horvath who wrote a book called the digital delusion and

The book is making its way through schools and it deals with screen time and should kids have limited screen time in schools.

So I kind of like took an off ramp for tonight's question, which is how, what is the limitation?

How young or what is the minimum age a child should be before they can access social media?

What is the minimum age a child should be before they can access social media inspired by the book, the digital.

So let us know I have my thoughts on this Greg.

I might seem like an old fogey when I give you my opinion later It's a good question and I think

it has

changed people's lives social media sometimes for the better and I would say more often for the worse

Yeah, I mean it's That's a conversation we'll definitely having in the second hour when we're talking about this question itself, but I think that

I think there's still some base ideas where social media can be a great, great valuable tool, but there's definitely plenty of examples where you're like, oh, this is not good.

This is, you know, this is not good at all.

Let's, let's rethink this whole 24 seven, 365 access to everything all

at once.

I mean, just the fact I see people like.

I saw a lady the other day driving.

She had her hand up holding a piece of food and her other in our other hand was holding her phone looking down while driving while driving.

And so she's working the wheel with the knee.

Yeah, exactly.

So I mean, and I can't tell you she was on social media, but I can tell you that screen time has gotten out of control and it's not just for kids, but kids.

It's very important for their brain development.

So.

For sure.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.

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Be part of the fun, folks.

We got a big show tonight.

We're going to talk about some current events coming up after the break.

Then we've got Yuseli Flores, who will be here after the bottom of the hour after the news.

She is the organizing director of Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition.

Our pal Matt Miller will join us all the way from Milwaukee.

That's a suburb of Racine.

Did you know that,

Greg?

Yes, it is.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Thank you for recognizing.

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Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

I am coming to you live from beautiful northeast Wisconsin.

Greg is coming to you from southeast Wisconsin.

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You know, you were talking about your, your fantastic joke that you wrote for your beats that you do every, every day here in civic media.

And I just want to say a couple of two things.

One, Mark from prayer to sack texting in saying the, what we're all thinking, they should at least give you credit.

I want to taste true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What is, what

is big, especially before that, before any of those mergers, maybe a pre-merger taste there, but also with regard to the big

250th celebration on the National Mall.

There is Venice.

So we were talking about this last week and a lot of the artists have dropped out all, but I think vanilla ice is going to be there or it's not going to be there.

They've all dropped off for various reasons, citing specifically not knowing that this was going to be put on by a political entity, essentially.

So the freedom to 50 people is a mega group.

And they didn't know that.

So a bunch of people dropped out and clean Martina McBride, young emcee, the common doors.

Well, our president, Donald Donald Trump has a solution.

He's just going to hold a rally instead where he gets up there and talks to the people.

It's just he's going to take care of it himself.

When others fail, he

succeeds.

He is the headliner, Greg.

And he also said he can put butts in the seats better than Elvis could.

That is what he said.

And I'm like, yeah, maybe because AI wasn't around when Elvis was alive.

And maybe he thinks Elvis is still alive.

I have no idea, but this is just insane.

You lose Martina McBride, Brett Michaels, the Commodores, you know, a fine lineup, but I was looking at what they did in 1976, the 200th.

And it was like the Beatles and the Who and all these acts like, Martina McBride's great in the country world.

Brett Michaels, I guess, if you like the hair bands and the Commodores are great, but

That's your A-list lineup?

But

the problem is, you know who doesn't like that lineup there, Pete?

President Donald Trump.

He said in a statement that these folks were, that he was going to hold a rally to quote, take the place of these highly paid third rate artists.

That he booked initially.

So,

you

willingly booked third-rate artists, but it's insanity.

He's gonna do his village people dance, I guess, for two hours.

That's gonna be the headlining act.

He called

him overpriced singers who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.

I

kind of feel bad for the

freedom to 50 people.

Because they have a bunch of statements saying, we're sorry they did that.

We want to go forward.

And here he's just going, the Commodores suck.

Where's his where's his where's a kid rock?

He could lip unsync like he did at the Super Bowl Super Bowl alternative half-time show Hey, I just want to get this into Greg

before

we have to get to the news.

Yeah, what I am so confused with what is going on with the war It seems like every day we're in a ceasefire Then Iran breaks it or the US breaks it or they didn't know they were in a ceasefire or we didn't know ABC news or maybe it was NBC News reported that Iran

on Monday suspended high stakes negotiation with the U.S.

to protest Israel's expanding military offensive.

You're probably more informed about this than I am.

I don't know what is happening with the war.

I honestly don't, and I think that's by design.

I think it's chaotic and that's just how they want it.

Well, I think it's chaotic because it's involving the, once again, the administration of one Donald, Donald Trump, which is

It's more about the imaging and optics and how they present it versus what's actually happening.

They've been going back and forth and talks for a while.

And last week, they were saying they were getting close to an agreement, but it had to be finalized and approved by Donald, Donald Trump.

I'm just going to keep calling him that.

And now we're at a point where it seems that it has fallen apart yet again, but makes me beg the question, was it actually strong in the first place?

and and the the Iranian team the Iranian negotiation team is suspending it because they're upset about Israel bombing Lebanon like so like when it started this was Israel bombing Iran and then now we're doing the Lebanon bombing like it just feels like

The the worst communication ever like what's going on who's doing what you bombed where we're trying to talk and then Donald Donald Trump gets on social media and says that he doesn't even want to talk anymore.

He's done with talking we talked too much and It just makes it seem like this is to once again distract us from everything going on including the big bill for billionaires the fact that he's gonna be having a big old fist fight on his lawn and

Let's not forget the Epstein files, or as Jimmy Kimmel calls them, the Trump Epstein files.

Ding.

Epstein files?

What happened?

Um, you can Google that one, folks.

Yeah, that UFC finger building is such a monstrosity.

I was looking at the picture today, it's like bigger than the White House.

This is insanity.

I just expect to see like trucks up on blocks with no wheels too.

Like he's just turning it into every party my cousins threw back when I was a kid.

All the fighters will pull up in monster trucks and hop out and parachute down onto the south lawn.

And

they'll

sing the songs of Martina McBride and Young MC.

And hopefully Kid Rock, fingers crossed.

Folks, we're going to break for the news.

And when we come back, we'll give you the keyword once again.

And we will welcome our pal, Yuseli Flores, who's going to talk to us about voting and maps.

You do not want to miss this.

She is in the know, and she'll keep us informed.

This is Nightlight with Pete and Greg coming

back.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Happy to have you with us on this beautiful.

Monday evening here on June 1st, kicking off.

Now it feels a little more like summer.

It kind of felt like that after Memorial Day.

Now it's June 1st, even though it's not officially summer.

I think it's safe to say, Greg, that summer is here.

Summer is here.

Happy Pride.

Let's get a roll in,

my friends.

That's what I say.

Let's roll.

Let's roll, baby.

A quick reminder that this hour's a key word in our civic media, accelerate your summer multi-state tax to win contest, which you have to have the app

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And our question of the night is, what is the minimum age a child should be allowed on social media?

Fire away your answers.

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It's always more fun when you guys participate.

All right, it is time to welcome our first guest of the evening.

Yusele Flores is the organizing director for Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition here in Wisconsin.

She joins us now over the stream to discuss an upcoming rally or rallies, I should say, on voter maps in Wisconsin.

Yusele, welcome.

Hi, thank you so much for having me on.

I'm so excited to be here.

Well, it's our pleasure.

And you've got a lot of exciting things happening coming up in just the next couple of days.

You're trying to make some great things happen here to make voting easier and more fair in Wisconsin.

But tell us about these, our maps, our say rallies happening all across the state on Thursday, June 4th.

Yeah, sure.

So in light of the CalA decision, the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition is firing up our demand for an independent redistricting commission that would empower citizens versus empowering political parties.

We are hosting rallies, like you mentioned, across the state, including Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Menominee IE, which is 30 minutes away from Minnesota, not Menominee and Menominee Falls in Milwaukee, James Milk and NOSHA.

Monroe and Green County and was amongst others.

You know, for the past year, we've built public support for a draft proposal that came out of a volunteer group of the League of Women Voters.

They basically Frankenstein the Wisconsin model based off of like the best

examples that we have across the state to develop something that could work for our state here in Wisconsin.

And June marks one year since we've been giving this tour across the state, we've presented in over 50 cities in Wisconsin.

getting public feedback and we check it like clockwork.

If folks have any feedback to give us on our website, they can also give us feedback there.

And every Monday for two and a half hours, we meet as a volunteer group and review the feedback that we got after people read our proposal.

So we really take it literal that this is a people-powered movement and this is a people-powered proposal.

And we hope to have folks join us June 4th on Thursday.

but in Milwaukee, it'll be at 530 and Madison as well.

We'll be at City Hall in Milwaukee and at the State Capitol off State Street in Madison and so on.

And we're really excited, ultimately.

And in these comments and these conversations you've been having for the past year, what are you hearing from the people with regard to this topic specifically, especially in light of the decision from the Supreme Court?

Yeah, you know, I think...

Fundamentally, gerrymandering is just an issue, right?

1810, Elbridge Gary, gerrymandered the first map.

You have the New York Times comedian, draw out a salamander, then you got the gerrymander.

That's 1810.

So you're telling me that since 1810, the entire nation has manipulated voting rights, voting maps, and has gotten away with it because they were able to

commercialize the word gerrymander right in spanish when we give these presentations in spanish we have to translate gerrymander there isn't a word for it in spanish it's a sentence it's manipulating electoral maps after the census and so this issue is is um 100 you know over it's 250 years old you know it's almost as old as this nation 220 years old and so we really believe that the only way we can get it right is to fix those broken

pieces in democracy in our country.

Yusele, we've had new districting maps since 2024, but they're temporary.

Let's say your coalition is successful.

How long is this process before we have something more permanent?

In a best case scenario, and realistically, the court leans left, but the legislature doesn't right now.

So what are we looking at here in a timeline?

you know 2030 feels so far away but in a blink of an eye politically it's like it's right around the corner it's tomorrow and so because Wisconsin doesn't have a valid initiative process like our neighbors in Michigan who were able to

you know, through public support and public outcry, we're able to initiate an independent redistricting commission in their state.

We don't have that.

So we have to go through two consecutive sessions in the legislature.

So lawmakers will have to pass a joint resolution in two consecutive sessions and then placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot and then voters will approve it.

So this is, we have to get this done before 2030.

And it's really difficult right now because between then and now, we have to demand that legislators on both sides pass legislation to establish an IRC.

You mentioned fairer maps.

I think people get so confused with the map drawing process unless they're any deep in the game.

And we have fairer maps, but that'll only secure

secure us into 2030.

If we want anything more serious or not anything more serious, but anything established, we really need an IRC or something similar to take the political mad drawing power away from whoever's in a position of power come 2030.

And I'm only saying this as a statement to our audience.

We all know that we are in an election year both nationally and very importantly statewide as well.

We're seeing a lot of folks not

standing for reelection, but the folks who are either running or trying to get the job again on both sides, what are you hearing from them on this topic as far as the IRC goes and whether or not it is a feasible process for them to vote upon?

You know, I think they recognize that they have no choice but to support something that the voters want.

We do have some folks across both sides that

recognize that something needs to be cemented in order to create some friendlier competition.

There are current folks that are running on a post in some places in Wisconsin because there isn't that...

competition and people don't feel represented.

And I think if people really want to win this election cycle and next election cycle, they really have to listen to what Wisconsinites want.

And right before we hopped on, we were joking around how the word of the day was green or G R E N. And we talked about, you know, legalize it or, or what Wisconsin wants.

And we did do it.

We interviewed all across Wisconsin.

We had a couple polls out the market poll, we lean on that a lot.

And 60

97% of those folks want to legalize weed, 90% want affordable, high quality child care to be more accessible.

And so when talking to people just like legislators, like, yeah, they can try to pass.

that might legalize marijuana.

They might try to pass laws that will create quality accessible childcare, but in that might is where you get stuck with the termites of gerrymandering and gerrymanders who will make sure that those things don't pass.

And which is why we're pushing for an IRC to kind of give people some of that autonomy back.

82% of Americans nationally want maps that are drawn by independent commissions, according to an NBC poll.

So we're trying

doing what the people want and they're doing whatever people in power want and I'm broke like I have no money so I feel like I've never represented in politics as a working class person.

You Sally will you take an out-of-state three-party bad check I'm happy to loan you some money if you see

that money in politics yeah.

I

would just

also like to give you an award.

I don't have a crown or even a piece of paper, but the use of the might to termite was just beautiful.

That was just a beautiful play on where it's right there.

Oh, man.

You Sally Flores is an organizing director for the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition here in Wisconsin.

She joins us to talk about rallies happening across the state on Thursday.

Our maps are say rallies to be more specific.

Let's talk about, you just said what the voters want.

Not that it's totally inside baseball.

I think people have a general sense of what redistricting or gerrymandering is, but what is your biggest challenge in terms of educating those voters to have them fully comprehend how this affects our political system so that they vote in your favor or our favor?

Yeah, you know, it's one of those things that you kind of start with an issue.

So what like, what things people care about kids?

people care about healthcare, people care about so many things, universal background checks for gun purchases, like you can, we can start on a topic and then we know why we are not getting it.

And so we can start on the 70% of folks in Wisconsin that want a major increase on state aid for special education.

And we're not getting it because we don't have politicians that care about it because of gerrymandered maps.

So, you know, there's

there we're a coalition and we have organizations kind of stopping little fires everywhere but the big fire pit is the gerrymandering issue and so we're not going to get more money for special education we're not going to get money to fund public schools we're not going to get support increasing the minimum wage if we don't solve the issue of political gerrymandering so once you kind of start

an issue like just anything anybody cares about you ask them what they care about they have kids the expensive child care costs like we we find the source and then we all will always get to the root and the root is always going to be uprooting uh gerrymandering and establishing an independent redistricting commission so we don't have these issues anymore and again this root is like 1810 like this root is hundreds of years old so we have to like start pulling at the weed like pulling at the root up

And these conversations I've had regarding this topic, what I referenced earlier, the fact that so many politicians, and calling it fact to fact, they're the GOP members, the fact that they're stepping down to me says they don't want to have to knock on the doors and have the conversations.

We see politicians avoiding town halls or trying to control the narrative or getting booed off the stage.

because of gerrymandered maps guaranteed them their jobs.

So now that they actually have to work for it, they're saying, you know what, I got to spend more time with my family.

And we all know what that means.

And I think that that right there is probably the biggest example for not just the left-leaning folks, but for all folks here in Wisconsin, because I guarantee you, you say you're broke, you selly.

There are broke people across Wisconsin who voted.

voted for Trump, voted for Robin Voss, those kinds of things.

And it's important to make this conversation known that we need to have these maps fair so we have leaders who are actually working for us instead of, you know, for their next election that they don't have to actually run for.

So.

Great points,

Yussele.

It is great to have you here.

We are going to take a very short break and then we will come back with our guest Yussele Flores.

She is one of the organizing director for the Wisconsin.

Fair Maps Coalition, and she is speaking some truths here.

You won't want to miss what she has to say.

We'll have a few more minutes with her on the other side of this break, and I'll remind you of what this hour's keyword is in our Civic Media Accelerate Your Summer of Multi-State Text-to-Win Contest.

That is all coming up next.

It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media

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Welcome back to Nightlight.

Great to have you here on this Monday, June 1st.

We are jamming through hour number one here.

I'm Pete Schwabba sitting just downstate for me, just down the coast.

That sounds more exotic.

Yes.

In Radio Park.

Sounds fancier.

Greg Bach.

It's much fancier.

Let's be honest.

We have boats.

Racine, and where I am, Marinette, very blue collar kind of reps, but we're making it sound very sexy.

And Dom Lee is here in Madison.

Speaking of sexy, we're still rocking that new haircut.

Dom, I swear you had a touch up over the weekend, but it still looks good.

Oh, thank

you.

You got to crisp up the lines.

You got to crisp up those lines on the temple, especially those things growing

fast.

Okay, noted.

Just a quick reminder, folks, our civic media accelerate your summer multi-stay text to win contest is now officially in full swing as of today.

And this hour's keyword that you have to text in on the app to be eligible for a hundred bucks.

That's your daily prize.

and we've got some great grand prizes too that we mentioned earlier, but our keyword is, for this hour, is green.

G-R-E-E-N, green, and we'll give more details throughout the next couple of weeks.

So good luck, everybody.

Play the contest.

Great fun.

Our guest right now is Yusele Flores.

We're talking to her about redistricting and maps and a great, several rallies that are happening on Thursday, June 4th.

Speaking of those rallies, Yusele,

I noticed some of the cities kind of lean left and some of the cities or areas, I say, lean right.

Were these picked?

Were these targeted in any way?

I mean, you want to reach all people.

You're speaking to everybody, but were

those

chosen tactfully?

You know they weren't.

We have

volunteers all over the state.

And those were just the folks that had the capacity to help us put rallies together.

In 2023, we hosted a rally on the same day in 17 different cities.

And in 2024, we did eight cities.

So this is sort of like a yearly attempt to remind people that it's our maps and it's our say.

And thankfully, we do have amazing volunteers in all those cities.

Something I saw after the Cali decision came down was, I mean, we all saw this scramble from various states to try to redraw their maps based on that decision.

I'll just leave it like that and stay FCC compliant.

But also what we saw was all the folks saying, well, let's get rid of our own IRCs because now we can gerrymander.

And not just from Republican states too, because people are fearful that things might happen.

What do you say to folks who

discuss that point with regard to this topic and the work you're doing instead of just saying, well, let's just let this party win the Senate and the Assembly and the governorship.

And then we can do whatever we want, which never works out.

But what are you hearing in that point of the conversation?

Yeah, both parties want to gerrymander.

I think it's a...

It's an unfortunate thing that both parties want to gerrymander, but it's also the control of power.

Like once anybody gets a taste of power, it feels really nice.

And so we recognize that whatever political party is attempting to gerrymandering, like it's just a power hoarding.

It's a power thing that they want to keep control of.

And we need to like, for me, remind ourselves that we're looking towards like what liberation, what North Star, we're like all looking towards sort of

for a process in Wisconsin that won't include politicians in the map drawing process and give voters some of their power back.

I'm fully in support of an IRC and we do have some, as a coalition, some organizations that are waiting for maybe reform at the federal level.

And I have to remind them that we've been waiting for reforms at the federal level for decades.

Like, I'm undocumented, I've been waiting for immigration reform for 27 years, and

just telling folks like you really want to leave it up to those guys like you want to leave the ball in that like it's going to get dusty you're going to need to put air on that in that ball before you know before they can do anything else and so I think that at the state level an IRC is like kind of like a quilt right it's patchwork like if each state has its own sort of patch to solve this issue you're you're creating a huge quilt that is like going to drape over the

the country to solve the gerrymandering arms race, as it's been quoted nationally, with nonpartisan redistricting reform at the state level.

And then instead of trickle down, it'll sort of kind of tornado, not tornado, kind of volcano upwards.

And hopefully we'll get some reform.

And starting at the state level will always make more sense to me.

That's my argument.

You know, I'm a Fair Maps Coalition director, so that's my job.

Like I am putting all my eggs in that basket because we have no time to crack any eggs, just like we don't have time for cracking and packing politically.

Yeah.

That's Yuseli Flores.

She joins us to talk about our maps are say seven rallies happening around the state of Wisconsin on Thursday to promote fair maps and independent redistricting committees.

Let's, we have about a minute and a half left, you Sally, and I'm sorry to throw this at you, but I was curious, I didn't really understand some of this too, so I'm thinking maybe Listers don't either, but in terms of a bipartisan group of legislators redrawing the maps and an independent, well an IRC, what's the difference?

Why is it more important to have the IRC do it and have actual citizens do it than even if it is a bipartisan group in the government?

Well, you know IRCs are meant to make the redistricting process more transparent and impartial because they'll be establishing standards for who Well the IRC right will have standards for who can join the commission We're not just gathering Republicans.

We're not just gathering Democrats.

We're gathering independence.

We're gathering folks who You know sometimes switch their political alignment or parties based on like their beliefs and Wisconsin is in a state that like

will ask you personally who your political party or who you affiliate with.

And so the goal is to create a safeguard across the state that is impartial that supports voters regardless of political identity.

Wow, that was great.

I know that was kind of a big question here with the clock ticking.

I appreciate that.

Great answer.

Yusele, congrats on the rallies.

Enjoy them, but pace yourself.

Don't rally too hard.

It's a long process, but have a great time on Thursday.

I hope the turnout is great, and thank you so much for joining us here today on Nightlight.

Thanks so much.

All right, we are coming right back for hour number two of this Monday night edition of Nightlight.

I'm Pete Schwabbe.

He's Greg Bach.

Oh, Greg.

It's cool.

I'm just Greg.

Greg.

Now I'm just Greg.

Yeah, that's it.

We'll break this

down in hour number two.

Greg's not gonna let me forget this.

All right, we're coming back to read your texts and talk to Matt Miller about movies.

It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

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