On Monday, the Illinois Senate’s Redistricting Committee will consider competing proposals to change the way the state’s legislative maps are drawn. If things go as they usually do, the Democratic measure will be voted out of committee and the Republican measure will go nowhere.
And that, dear citizen, is an apt illustration of what’s wrong with the Democrats’ redistricting proposal.
Democrats currently control both houses, and they’d like it to stay that way. So it’s no accident that their Citizens First Amendment would actually put incumbents first. It would continue to give lawmakers first crack at drawing the new maps, which could be passed by a simple majority—shutting the minority party out of the game altogether.
The Republican proposal mirrors a citizen initiative called the Fair Map Amendment that is being pushed by the League of Women Voters of Illinois and other government watchdogs. It would take the job of redistricting away from lawmakers and put it in the hands of a nine-member commission. Eight of those members — four from each party — would be appointed by legislative leaders, and together they’d choose a ninth to serve as chair. Public officials, lobbyists and state employees need not apply.
The Fair Map process is nice and clean. If the commission can’t reach an agreement — and hey, we have doubts that four Democrats and four Republicans can even agree on a ninth member — then Plan B is for a special master appointed by two ranking Supreme Court justices to finish the job.
That’s Plan D for the Democrats, though there would be separate special masters for the House and Senate maps. That provision would kick in only after the failure of Plan B (each house tries to pass its own map by resolution, requiring a three-fifths vote) and Plan C (separate 10-member commissions in each house take a whack at the maps).
Got that?
We’re leaving out a lot of the details because frankly, the Democrats’ Plan A is the deal-breaker. Hand the crayon to lawmakers, and they’re going to carve out districts that protect their interests, not yours. It’s as simple as that.
Either plan would eliminate the embarrassingly random tie-breaker system that gave us the last three remaps. Under current law, lawmakers pass the maps by a simple majority and send them to the governor. When the political planets aren’t aligned as neatly as they now are, the job passes to an eight-member bipartisan commission, which inevitably deadlocks 4-4, and the winning map is then drawn from a hat. It’s a ridiculous solution, and it has to go. But that won’t fix the whole system.
We still think Iowa, which leaves the job largely up to a computer, is onto something.
Of the proposals in play in Illinois, the Fair Map Amendment is far more likely to produce a bipartisan map with competitive legislative districts. That’s why we like it — and the power brokers don’t.
