House Dems send redistricting plan to Senate

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Chicago Tribune

House Dems send redistricting plan to Senate
11:28 a.m. CDT, May 27, 2011

Democrats in the Illinois House today sent the Senate a measure to redraw the state’s General Assembly boundaries, a map that seeks to extend their power over Republicans for another decade while it tries to satisfy minority groups seeking influence at the Statehouse.

Republicans, who were knocked out of power in the legislature under a Democratic-drawn map a decade ago, contended the current plan would pit 19 House Republicans against an incumbent while only six Democrats would face a current incumbent.

Even worse, they contend, eight Republican Senate incumbents would face each other while no Senate Democrats would. The plan passed on a 64-52 vote along partisan lines.






Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-house-dems-send-redistricting-plan-to-senate-20110527,0,1632821.story

[Drale]

1. Give the Repukes a taste of their own damn medicine

drawn them completely out of the state.

[murielm99]

3. Yes!

Especially my Congressman: That Stupid Manzullo!

[cstanleytech]

6. I do not agree.

Mind you I understand the emotions behind it because they have gerrymandered alot of states but them committing something immoral, unethical or illegal doesnt make it ok to do it ourselves, thats just how it is imo.
What needs to really be done here an in other cases of redistricting is a method needs to be setup so the politicians have little to no say in how the districts are drawn, the majority of them (both democrat and republican) have imo atleast shown themselves unable to be honorable in drawing them.

[murielm99]

2. I googled around and could not find a good picture

of this map. Do you have one?

[harmonicon]

4. This shit pisses me off.

If the Democratic party were true to its name, they would push for blind non-political congressional districts based on fairly simple algorithms and get such systems into law, if not state constitutions.

[murielm99]

5. It's not that simple.

They can use computer models in Iowa. But in Illinois, we have to consider many minority districts, and make sure their votes are not diluted out of existence. They are entitled to representation. The Hispanic-dominated districts are already complaining about lack of representation in the newly drawn maps.

There has been massive demographic change in this state. I believe that the Democrats have been far more receptive to recognizing that than the repubbies. A good example is the 17th District. It is largely Democratic, due to the large number of union workers in the Quad Cities, and a rise in minority population. It was embarrassingly gerrymandered by the Democrats the last time. From the proposed maps I have seen, they are making an effort to correct that, to be more fair. I spoke to Cullerton, president of the Illinois Senate, in a conference call last spring. That was one of the things he mentioned.

Also, I remember how the repubs dominated state politics here for years, even though this is not a swing state.

We are very much a blue state. I am glad we are going to get our way on this one. Obama may cave and talk about bipartisanship on the federal level. We have seen what that has done. We are going to use our clout here to get the representation we need, both state and federal. And it will only help Obama if we send a few more Democrats to Washington.

[harmonicon]

7. So two wrongs make a right? It's ok because the Republicans did it before?

It may not be a popular position, but I simply don't care about the demographics of a district if every district has lines that are drawn blindly, based on population.

[murielm99]

8. Yeah, things are soooo black and white in politics.

And who says it is wrong? If minorities are represented, how is that wrong? The map does take into consideration the recent census and the population shifts. This state has lost population.

If it gives Democrats an advantage, a lot of that is due to they types of population change that have taken place here. There is nothing illegal or dishonest about what we are doing. It may end up in court anyway. I think we would win anyway. Grow up. Look at the real corruption in politics, not the chess moves. This is part of the process.

[harmonicon]

9. Grow up? I think mine is the grown up position.

This could be something which simply happens automatically every ten years and would - rightly, I feel - be completely removed from the political process. I don't think I've ever suggested that what is being done is corrupt or illegal, but simply that I disagree with the process on principle.

.... or are grown ups supposed to stop giving a shit about principles? Is that the grown up thing to do? Fuck it. I'll just not vote, because that's the grown up thing to do.