DuPage incumbents pushing competition off the map?

A Lombard village trustee who competed for a spot on the DuPage County Board three years ago could find herself remapped out of the county district she once sought to represent.

County board member Pat O'Shea is calling the possible removal of Laura Fitzpatrick and thousands of her neighbors from District 2 a blatant case of gerrymandering. The county is finishing up its once-a-decade process to remap boundaries for the county board's six districts.

O'Shea, chairman of the redistricting committee, is urging the panel to revise a proposed map so it doesn't put the Lombard residents into District 4, which encompasses predominately Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights and Wheaton.

“I think the map obviously is an attempt to redistrict Laura Fitzpatrick — who is competition for Jeff Redick, myself and Brien Sheahan — out of the district so that she could not be competition,” O'Shea said. “I think that's bad government. It's not the way that the map is supposed to be drawn.”

Committee members gave preliminary support to the map Tuesday after Sheahan presented it to them. The full county board is expected to vote on a new map in June in order to meet a July 1 deadline. DuPage is divided into six districts, with three board members per district.

Redick said he didn't see the map until Sheahan handed out copies of it during Tuesday's meeting, and he wasn't involved in any of the discussions to draft the map. He also said he's not worried about the possibility of facing Fitzpatrick during the 2012 Republican primary.

Sheahan insists the proposed map's boundaries between District 2 and District 4 have nothing to do with Fitzpatrick, whom he defeated by several hundred votes during the 2008 Republican primary.

He said the lines needed to be changed to prevent District 4 from having to expand south farther into Lisle Township.

“Redistricting is a lot like a water balloon,” Sheahan said. “If you push the water balloon on one side, the other side has got to come out more.”

Fitzpatrick isn't buying it.

She said in an emailed statement that it's “unfortunate” that one of the largest communities in DuPage needs to be “diced up” for political gain. “The gerrymandering and disenfranchising is patently unfair to Lombard,” the email read.

Meanwhile, county board Chairman Dan Cronin said residents deserve a map that reflects their best interests — not the interests of politicians or incumbent office holders. He said he wants a map “devoid of either a benefit or disadvantage to any particular individual, political party or a community.”

Cronin said he wants public hearings to be held so residents have an opportunity to carefully review the proposed map. “I think it's important that we invite the public to scrutinize it,” he said.

Map: Cronin calls for public hearings