By Rob Thomas
The image is familiar to even the most casual observer of Wisconsin politics. Thousands of marchers crowding the Capitol Square in early 2011, protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 bill that stripped most public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights.
But in the new documentary “Slay the Dragon,” the camera moves off of the protesters and focuses instead on the glass walls of U.S. Bank Place on Pinckney Street. There, in the law offices of Michael Best & Friedrich, attorneys worked on redistricting maps that would help ensure that the GOP retained control of the Legislature for the next decade.
That meant that, no matter how loud the protesters got in the streets, GOP legislators could be reassured that voting for Act 10 wouldn’t hurt them at the ballot box, filmmakers Chris Durrance and Barak Goodman said.