Name: Illinois legislators begin redistricting process amid census delays that complicate an already raucously partisan event
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Illinois legislators begin redistricting process amid census delays that complicate an already raucously partisan event

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AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneMar 17, 2021 at 5:00 amIllinois lawmakers are set to formally begin the once-a-decade task of redrawing the state’s legislative and congressional districts, a raucously partisan exercise complicated even further this time around by federal census delays.Another complicating factor: pending federal legislation that would put congressional redistricting in the hands of independent commissions.AdvertisementThe Illinois Senate’s redistricting committee meets for the first time Wednesday, while the House redistricting committee convenes April 1 with plans for hearings across the state to follow.In play are maps for the state’s 118 state House and 59 state Senate districts as well as the state’s congressional districts, which number 18 but are expected to decrease by one or two due to population losses in Illinois and growth in southern states.AdvertisementIt’s a process marked by blatant self-interest, with lawmakers looking for politically favorable district boundaries, and partisan power. Since Democrats control both chambers in the legislature as well as the governor’s office, they have the ability to draw new maps without any Republican input.The only requirement is that the mapmakers follow federal and state legal requirements involving racial and ethnic representation, seek to maintain “communities of interest” and design districts that are “compact, contiguous and substantially equal in population.”Ideally, the remapping process is guided by the results of the federal census, reflecting population shifts as well as racial and ethnic makeup.But a delay by the Census Bureau in reporting the granular numbers to states and the Illinois Constitution’s June 30 deadline for new state legislative maps is expected to force majority Democrats in the General Assembly to turn to other population data.If the legislature fails to meet the deadline, an eight-member bipartisan commission is appointed to try to draw an acceptable map. After Aug. 10, a tiebreaking winner-take-all ninth member is appointed through a drawing to produce the map.The state constitution’s authors saw the tiebreaker provision as a means to force compromise, figuring neither political party would risk leaving a decade’s worth of legislative control up to a name drawn out of a hat.But while legislators have regularly not met the June 30 deadline, the eight-member commission hasn’t produced a map since 1971. Instead the tiebreaker has come into play in 1981, 1991 and 2001.Census officials have said they will release the state’s total population, the figure used to determine how many congressional seats Illinois will have, on April 1.AdvertisementBut census officials say it will not release the more granular block-by-block data generally used for redistricting, usually in at the end of March, until Sept. 30.The census delay is causing havoc for several states, with some shifting map deadlines or election dates, or even suing the Census Bureau in an effort to get data earlier. But the Illinois Constitution’s deadline could not be changed in time to affect the mapmaking process this year.The state constitution does not really hamper legislators from moving forward despite the census delays, however, because it does not require the use of federal census data in drawing maps, stating only that redistricting occur “following each federal decennial census year.”That leaves an opening for Democrats to use other sources of population data, including estimates from the federal census’ American Community Survey or private vendor data, to draw map lines.“It’s pretty clear that you can use estimates and I think if you were to look at case law from other states, you can see that,” said state Rep. Jay Hoffman, a member of both Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s leadership team and the House remap panel.“You have to lay the groundwork that the estimates are accurate and I would venture to guess that the technology that exists today makes it much more sophisticated and accurate whether using the actual census tract or estimates in maps in the past that have been found constitutional,” said Hoffman, of downstate Swansea.AdvertisementHoffman said Democrats have yet to decide what data sources they’ll use for moving forward.Republicans said they plan to use the legislative hearings to advocate for the creation of an independent commission to draw boundaries in an effort to remove the influence of partisan politics from the process.Citizen-driven attempts to amend the state constitution to create such a commission have been rejected by the state Supreme Court, which has ruled along partisan lines of a Democratic majority.But absent a structural change in how the legislature draws maps, an unlikely occurrence since Democrats are in control, Republicans’ best hopes for having any say in the maps lie in getting to the tiebreaker process.Perhaps to that end, GOP legislators have been quick to decry the use of population estimates to draw new boundaries.Advertisement“I think this year really gives us an opportunity to change the dynamic in how we draw maps in Illinois and get away from the hyper-partisanship that we use to draw maps. The delay in the data gives us an opportunity to drive change,” said state Rep. Tim Butler of Springfield, a Republican member of the House remap panel.“I think what we’re getting set up for is another dog and pony show around the state where it’s really not going to drive any change and the maps are going to be drawn in backrooms by the Democrats. That’s the last thing people want right now,” Butler said.Butler said using the census’ American Community Survey or outside data or estimates will make it hard to produce good maps.“I would certainly argue, and I’m sure lawyers can argue it more, that drawing maps without the data coming in from the census, the 2020 data, makes it very difficult to draw the maps that we need to draw this year,” Butler said.Democratic Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park said it’s his intention to have the legislative maps redrawn by the June 30 deadline. He argued that going to the tiebreaking commission leaves the decisions with a small group of political insiders, instead of putting the maps up to a vote of all 177 legislators.“I believe our process will give voices to people all over,” Harmon said of the hearing process. “We’re really focused on inclusion and making sure that this is an open and transparent process.”AdvertisementAmong new initiatives, Senate Democrats are rolling out an online portal allowing citizens to draw their own maps and submit them to the redistricting committee,Harmon said “the end product is better off when there are more people at the table and more voices are heard.”Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he would veto a map he does not believe is fair. But Democrats have a veto-proof majority in the state House and Senate, and could enact a map after the General Assembly’s scheduled May 31 adjournment, and also could override any move by Pritzker to reject the new map.Like House Speaker Welch, Harmon said “a fair map is one that reflects the diversity of our state” and “provides for fair and equal representation of all communities.”Any map is certain to draw a legal challenge and the accuracy of the data used would likely provide a new avenue to contest the final product.Kimball Brace, a national redistricting expert who has worked generally for Democrats, including in Illinois, called redistricting the process of “the nonstop hiring of lawyers and expert witnesses” in court challenges.AdvertisementBut Brace also notes that questions about the accuracy of the census results are legal fodder in defending the use of other data to draw the maps.“There is an added dimension to this data question. And that is the question of how good is the census anyway?” Brace said. “Did the Trump administration do a good job or not a good job? That is … what is starting to get talked about and argued back and forth, but it certainly is a realistic question mark right now.”Harmon said state legislators would work to finish a legislative map first before working on a new congressional map. The congressional map does not have the same constitutional process or deadlines as the legislative map.Democrats hold a 13-5 edge in the current delegation and expectations are that if Illinois loses a seat, it will likely come from downstate, where Republicans dominate and rural areas have seen population losses.But there is a congressional wrinkle in the federal mapmaking. Legislation aimed at combating efforts in the states to curtail voting rights also would require states to adopt independent commissions to draw their congressional districts.While widely viewed as an effort by majority Democrats in the U.S. House to curtail gerrymandering by Republican-controlled state legislatures across the nation, it could have the opposite effect in Democratic-run Illinois. That makes redrawing the congressional boundaries a bit of a moving target.Advertisementrap30@aol.com Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Chicago TribuneMar 17, 2021 at 5:00 amIllinois lawmakers are set to formally begin the once-a-decade task of redrawing the state’s legislative and congressional districts, a raucously partisan exercise complicated even further this time around by federal census delays.Another complicating factor: pending federal legislation that would put congressional redistricting in the hands of independent commissions.AdvertisementThe Illinois Senate’s redistricting committee meets for the first time Wednesday, while the House redistricting committee convenes April 1 with plans for...

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Rick Pearson

The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the 6th highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.

Illinois legislators begin redistricting process amid census delays that complicate an already raucously partisan event

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