Peoria Standard

The battle between state lawmakers over whether the once-a-decade redrawing of Illinois' legislative districts should be done now by the Democrat-controlled legislature or referred to an independent committee of residents continues. 

By law, legislators have until June 30 to finalize the new maps, but the COVID-19 pandemic and delays in receiving the U.S. Census data needed for redistricting have made meeting that deadline seem unattainable. Additionally, state Republicans argue that the remapping is less of a civic duty and more of a political chess game for their Democrat counterparts.

"We've seen that happen," Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) said in an April 13 WTTW Chicago report. "We’ve seen that happen with the supermajorities in the General Assembly. We’ve seen that happen in Congress where they’ve sliced and diced up districts as well. And we’ve got fewer Republican congressmen than we had a decade ago and two decades ago. And that is all because of the fact they use political data to slice and dice these districts for political gain."

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during his campaign that he would veto an unfair map proposal for this decade's redistricting. However, WCIA News reported on April 12 that the governor signaled his support for the new maps drawn by Democrats before the Illinois census data was available. The news station called this change of heart "the biggest flip-flop of [Pritzker's] political career."

Republicans are calling for the governor to stick to his original pledge to veto a map drawn by legislators as Democrats continue to storm forward with committee meetings and hearings to complete the redistricting. 

If the June 30 deadline isn't met, the remapping duty will be handed off to an independent legislative committee and incumbents who want to campaign for re-election plus emerging new candidates will be unable to file for the primary or prepare their campaign because their new district may be unknown. 

Over three-quarters of the state's voters support the idea of an independent group of citizens deciding how the borders should fall in Illinois' legislative map. State Republicans advocate for the Fair Map Bill, which would place the remapping duty in the hands of an independent committee of Illinois citizens. 

"When asked, Illinoisians overwhelmingly favor an independent redistricting solution over the current hyper-partisan, power-play process currently in place," said political columnist Marko Zukovic in an April 5 article on Medium. "Realizing this, certain high-profile Illinois Democrats, running in relatively competitive districts, have made public proclamations voicing their support for redistricting reform that puts an end to partisan gerrymandering and maps drawn with the sole purpose of protecting incumbents."