Peoria Standard

State Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) believes that the current redistricting process is unfair to residents that he says is done in a method to benefit "the majority party's interest."

Republicans, who are in the minority in the Senate and House for the required legislative redistricting process, have been pushing to remove the power from lawmakers in favor of an independent body.

"I think it's a bit more than irony that the first redistricting committee hearing takes place on April Fool's Day because once again the citizens of Illinois are being fooled with the redistricting process, which looks more and more like the same old insiders game of taking care of the majority party's interests," Butler recently told lawmakers at a House Redistricting Committee hearing. "It's past time to change how we draw our political boundaries, and it's time to take it out of the hands of legislators who look after their own political self-interest."

Butler said voters have long supported such a change, pointing to a petition of nearly 600,000 signatures previously signed in favor of putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would pave the way for Illinoisans to make fair map drawing part of the state constitution.

With the debate now raging again, this time around, Republicans proposed the People's Independent Maps Act as the answer.

With Census Bureau data typically used to draw the maps not expected to be available before a June 30 deadline, the measure would give the state Supreme Court the power to appoint 16 independent citizen commissioners to a redistricting commission within 30 days of passage. The members would be equally split politically.

"It's time to let the will of the people finally take hold in Illinois," Butler said. "I look forward to these hearings, and I certainly hope there's a lot of public input."

In hearings up to date, Butler said residents have been as clear as they ever have been about what they want to see happening.

"What I've heard from the Senate hearings is not Republicans leading witnesses about their concerns on the data, it's witnesses across the state representing a broad variety of groups who are questioning the use of the data that is potentially going to be used if the majority moves forward with maps by the end of June," he said. "I think a commission such as this one would be a good thing because maybe we could finally get to a place where we create fair maps. However, those are drawn, to actually have citizens involved in a good process."