Documents revealed under court order Thursday showed that private attorneys hired to help Republican legislators with redistricting broke down Hispanic voting districts, scripted favorable testimony and more.
The 63 pages of communications released Thursday suggest attorneys strategically designed the new maps to maintain the Republican majority.
"We will want to make sure that those districts that may be most questioned meet Population criteria as closely as possible," attorney Jim Troupis cautioned in one memo.
GOP leaders hired attorneys from the Michael Best & Friedrich and Troupis Law offices to aid in redistricting, a once-a-decade process of redrawing voting district lines to account for the latest census data.
In a unanimous ruling, federal judges ordered Republicans to release the email exchange, lambasting their "all but shameful" attempts to keep the documents private. GOP leaders tried to prevent publication of the emails by claiming attorney-client privilege.
While partisan redrawing itself is legal, several of the documents could give weight to Democrats' contentions that the new maps discriminate against minorities, particularly in Latino-dominated Milwaukee districts.
In one email, Troupis touted the support from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, stressing the importance of getting a member of the group to provide favorable testimony.
"This will take the largest legal fund for the Latino community off the table in any later court battle," Troupis wrote.
The emails also show attorneys gave talking points and at least one word-for-word draft to those publicly testifying in favor of specific maps, among them Dane County Supervisor Eileen Bruskewitz.
Emails show that Bruskewitz, a Republican who lost the race for Dane County executive last spring, was given a draft testimony designed to prevent "Liberal Supervisors" from "reach[ing] into non-Madison areas to complete districts dominated by Madison liberals."
Additionally, lawyers recommended ways to "tell the best story" once the maps debuted.
In February of 2011, attorney Eric McLeod recommended replacing certain words, "so as not to give the impression that any particular strategy has been reached on timing as it relates to the legislative process"; he recommended keeping language "sufficiently ambiguous."
Republican Party representatives were unavailable for comment by the time of publication.
