Illinois Republicans on Thursday unveiled their own version of a map for new legislative district boundaries, knowing they lack the votes on a Democratic-dominated panel to make it become law.
But the Republican map is more than just an act of futility before the Legislative Redistricting Commission. It is intended to help guide the federal courts, where the GOP is contesting the remap process and is asking a three-judge panel to redraw General Assembly boundaries.
The redistricting commission, dominated 5-4 by Democrats, is expected to vote Friday on a Democrat-authored map that reflects population shifts in the 2000 census. It also shifts map lines to maximize Democratic voting strength.
Republicans maintain the map unfairly dilutes their power, pitting dozens of their incumbents against each other, and it would likely relegate them to minority status in the legislature for the next decade.
Republicans argued that under their map, the state’s burgeoning Latino population would be virtually guaranteed eight House seats and four Senate seats in contrast to the Democratic map, in which an eighth House seat is less assured.
The Republican map would pit 14 Democratic incumbents against each other in House races compared with only two Republicans who would be forced to face off. In the Senate, six incumbent Republicans would be paired off for three seats under the GOP map, while no Democrats would be pitted against each other.
Also, Democrats rejected GOP bids to force settlement talks, supervised by the federal court, over new district borders.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard in Rockford, Democratic attorney William Harte said such talks would not be appropriate while the remap commission is meeting. Harte said the Illinois Supreme Court was a more appropriate forum for reviewing a new map.
