Editorial: Freshman Democrats in legislature need to get behind Fair Maps
On Wednesday, the 2019 Fair Maps Amendment was filed in Springfield - the latest attempt to bury gerrymandering forever in Illinois and remove politicians from the process of drawing congressional and legislative districts.
There's plenty of evidence that Illinois voters favor this; what's been less clear is if they'll ever get a chance to vote on it. In 2016 more than 563,000 voters signed petitions to put a question on the 2016 ballot, calling for a constitutional amendment to have an 11-member board devise maps. The Illinois Supreme Court shot it down.
Last year, scores of lawmakers signed on as sponsors to put a fair-map amendment on the ballot; a supermajority in the state Senate and more than two dozen in the House. It never got called by legislative leaders for a vote.
Who, oh who, can get this done?
That's easy: This is a job for the Democratic freshman class of the Illinois legislature.
All of these newcomers were elected promising to be independent from Speaker Mike Madigan and the other Democratic overlords. If there was ever a time to prove they meant it, here it is.
Gerrymandering, the act of political leaders drawing legislative districts to consolidate their own power, steals your vote out from under you. It makes for bad legislation and encourages greater polarization within the parties - an officeholder whose only fear is a primary challenge will pander to ideological purity over competent legislation, every time.
Moreover, gerrymandering frequently divides cities and villages into two or more districts, weakening that community's overall influence.
It's a lot to ask of legislators who are still trying to figure out the Wi-Fi passwords in the Capitol, we know. But if they are as progressive and concerned about the future of the state - and not just their personal political futures - as they have led us to believe, they certainly know what is at stake.
They already know that ultimately Fair Maps is the way forward in Illinois, to leave the backroom deals from where our candidates spring on the ash heap of history.
What's more, the newly-elected Democratic governor has vowed to veto gerrymandered maps - a vow that we will remind him of at every opportunity.
What Gov. J.B. Pritzker needs to do now is lead on this issue, and give political cover to his freshmen legislators.
The Democrats have a super majority in the Illinois legislature and they hold the governor's office. They own everything that happens from now on, including Fair Maps. It's time to take one for the team, and get Fair Maps on the ballot for a vote.