Daily Herald opinion: The fight continues: Illinois GOP lawsuit over House map the latest salvo in long-running battle against gerrymandering
A lawsuit filed this week with the Illinois Supreme Court aims to do what years of reform pleas, a previous lawsuit and a proposed referendum that never made it to the ballot have all failed to accomplish: create a House legislative map that is not “rigged” to favor Democrats.
Illinois House Republicans want the court to toss out the current map, arguing it fails to meet state constitutional requirements for “compact” districts and “free and equal” elections. And you don’t have to be a legal expert to see that districts snaking through a number of Illinois counties are in no way compact.
After the last map, drawn in 2021, House Republicans lost five seats in the 2022 election and failed to reclaim any two years later. The result? Democrats hold 78 of 118 seats in the Illinois House.
We’ve long argued that fair maps are a key component to ethics reform in Illinois. Sprawling, oddly shaped districts have been designed to protect state Democrats, making it nearly impossible for Republicans to succeed in certain parts of the state.
Illinois lawmakers had a chance to fix that by letting state residents, who polls show strongly favor reform, vote on a Fair Maps referendum in 2020. But the deadline for them to put the issue on the ballot came and went, despite support from some courageous suburban Democrats at the time, including Rep. Terra Costa Howard of Glen Ellyn and former state Sen. Melinda Bush of Grayslake.
Back then, we emphasized the public deserves boundaries that are sensible and responsive to changes within communities. Lawmakers could create an advisory committee with a nonpartisan vision for redistricting. That, of course, has not happened.
Now, once again, the judicial system will have a say. Republicans have turned to the state court after previously failing to stop the maps in federal court. Republicans believe new data and expert witness Jowei Chen make this case more likely to succeed, according to a report in Capitol News Illinois.
Chen, from the University of Michigan, ran 10,000 computer simulations on different map outcomes in Illinois. The only requirement was that the maps comply with the federal Voting Rights Act, CNI reported.
Not one of those 10,000 tries spit out an option similar to Illinois’ current House map.
Whether this lawsuit leads to a new map remains to be seen.
Ultimately, the best candidate — Democrat or Republican — should earn voters’ trust in any election. But talented suburban Republican lawmakers have lost their seats over the years through simple partisanship, and the uphill battle facing newer candidates surely discourages some from even running.
Dan Ugaste, a Geneva Republican, pointed out that in many districts there is no competition, The Associated Press reported.
“The volume of uncontested races means that almost half of the state representatives will represent Illinoisans not because they were elected and had to present their policy ideas to voters, but only because they submitted the right paperwork to the state Board of Elections,” Ugaste said.
Illinois lawmakers have had years to address the problem. Now, perhaps, the courts will do it for them.