Illinois Democrats charged with drawing new legislative boundaries were presented the equivalent of a blank check this year, and they took full advantage. The maps, drawn by Democrats and passed by Democrats, are headed to the Democratic governor’s desk.
If Gov. Pat Quinn means a word of what he says about wanting fair maps, he’ll send them back.
The maps are rigged to target Republican incumbents while protecting Democrats. They shortchange minority communities and disenfranchise suburban voters. They overrule the will of Illinois voters as expressed clearly in the most recent congressional election.
In short, they’re exactly what Quinn has been railing about for decades, as crusading citizen, state treasurer, lieutenant governor and governor. All the while, the politicians have sabotaged every effort to reform the state’s disgracefully partisan redistricting process. But if this year’s power grab succeeds, it will be because of Quinn, not despite him.
“My job is to make sure it’s fair and competitive,” the governor said in April, as the maps were taking shape in private.
“Having a fair mapping of the districts of Illinois is as American as apple pie,” he said later.
“I’ve said it over and over,” he said before last week’s votes. “It’s got to be fair.”
Or else?
Because they control both chambers and the governor’s chair, Democrats saw no reason to hold back. Behind locked doors, they drew at least a dozen Statehouse districts in which two or even three Republican incumbents are corralled together, forcing Republicans to run against each other while Democrats coast to victory in friendly districts drawn especially for them. The congressional map, meanwhile, has been rearranged with an eye to unseating Republican freshmen elected in November.
Feigning umbrage when their victims cried foul, the Democrats invited amendments, then killed them in committee. They passed the maps with the required simple majority and sent them to Quinn for what is presumed to be a perfunctory signature.
Governor, we repeat: Send them back. Force lawmakers to draw a fair map. June is a new month, with new rules. It takes a supermajority to pass a bill, and that means bipartisan cooperation.
It might not work. It never has. The current process has been in place since the state constitution was rewritten in 1970, and every map since then has been drawn by the party that won the ridiculous draw-from-a-hat tiebreaker. Yes, that system is a disgrace. But you’re not a helpless bystander. You’re not — what’s the word the Senate president used? — irrelevant.
These maps aren’t fair, governor. Not by your definition. Not by anybody’s. Veto them.
