Kane County remap may create seven Hispanic seats

Kane County is, at best, looking at seven total county board seats specifically drawn to allow Hispanic residents to elect a candidate of their choosing.

Redistricting task force Chairman Cathy Hurlbut presented a list of the possible districts Wednesday to the county board’s Executive Committee. Based on maps Hurlbut drew, there are seven districts in the county that could host a population that looks about 60 percent (or more) Hispanic.

Hurlbut presented three scenarios of how those districts would look depending on how many county board seats there are. A range from 22 to the current 26 seats is on the table. The more seats stay, the more dense the minority population in the proposed districts becomes since the district size, geographically, is smaller.

The list of potential minority districts currently have Hispanic representatives on the board except in three cases. Deb Allan, of Elgin, represents District 17. Jackie Tredup, of Elgin, represents District 22. And Hollie Lindgren, of Carpentersville, represents District 24.

The four remaining districts are: Cristina Castro’s District 20 in Elgin, Monica Silva’s District 7 in Aurora, Juan Reyna’s District 3 in Aurora and Myrna Molina’s District 1 in Aurora.

Hurlbut said her maps would not place any current board member in competition with another current board member in the next election.

“But I have to tell you it’s not the most efficient map,” Hurlbut said.

For instance, Hurlbut pointed to Allan’s district as potentially having the most dense Hispanic population if it were redrawn to overlap with Jeanette Mihalec’s neighboring District 18. Hurlbut went so far as to say Allan’s district actually should overlap Mihalec’s district, forcing the two to go head-to-head in the next election. After the meeting, Hurlbut said she fully expects a final map to produce two or three county board races with current board members squaring off against each other.

“Better districts could be formed, possibly,” Hurlbut said to the committee. “This is a decision you guys are going to have to make. I could make them better, but I could make them worse. That’s not for me to decide. The purpose of bringing this forward is to show we can do it.”

Executive Committee members decided to push the decision on how many board seats to cut, if any, back to the task force. That will allow task force members to look at maps showing what a 22-seat, 24-seat and 26-seat board would look like with the Hispanic districts factored in. Such maps would also provide a better idea of which board members will be forced to oppose a colleague for their political futures.

Hurlbut said she expects the task force will view a first draft of the three potential maps by the end of April.