Don't let this redistricting idea die without a debate
There's an idea floating around the Illinois Capitol that aims to empower the people, legitimately reform the way we choose our representatives and create competition in a system that too often guarantees incumbents re-election.
Right now, state Rep. Mike Fortner, a West Chicago Republican, is its lone advocate.
We urge other suburban lawmakers to look at the proposal, HJRCA32, and embrace its goals. Without co-sponsors and without bipartisan support, we fear this model for fixing the way Illinois draws its state and congressional districts will not get a proper debate.
It is based on a model pushed by Ohio's League of Women Voters and tested in a competition that allowed anyone to try reworking the state's congressional district boundaries.
Fortner's constitutional amendment would give people the tools and information to map the districts that determine who is elected to the state legislature and Congress. The maps would be judged using objective criteria. The legislature, with a three-fifths vote, would have to pick one of the three top scorers. Sounds far-fetched, right?
It's not. And Fortner knows that firsthand.
Ohio's secretary of state, working with the League and other public interest groups, uploaded the data from the 2000 census into a computer and offered access to anyone. There were 100 takers. Of those, 14 worked to create maps that would meet the goals of being compact, contiguous, representative and, most importantly, competitive. A scoring system ranked each based on those qualities, and the best three maps were declared winners. Fortner participated, and his map is one of the top three. You can find it at ohioredistricting.org.
Ohio's existing map based on the 2000 census numbers - the one approved by lawmakers and used for several elections - also went through the scoring system. It fell dead last.
"The idea was to show that this kind of process - an objective, transparent process, can work," said Jeff Ortega, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. "It demonstrates that this kind of approach is more representative, more fair."
The experience convinced Fortner this is the best way for Illinois to take politics out of this very important process that will determine who will address the state's toughest problems for the next 10 years. As it stands, Illinois uses a terrible system that ultimately resorts to a tiebreaker - picking a name out of a hat - that gives one party power to manipulate the map.
Creating more competitive districts is the most important part of Fortner's idea. This is also what sets it apart from other proposals. Without competitive districts, any map approved by lawmakers ultimately becomes an incumbent protection plan. This is why November elections barely count in Illinois, where districts are mapped to include an overwhelming number of voters who favor one party or another.
Each party and special interests would be able to draft maps they like. But they wouldn't have a chance unless they met the criteria. Of course, there still would be Democratic and Republican strongholds. But they wouldn't be the result of gerrymandering.
More competition means more accountability to the people.
If you think that sounds good, urge your state representative and state senator to look at this proposal, which aims to shift power away from political parties and back to the voters.