Congressional maps should be federal priority

Sheldon Jacobson writes in his column Sunday that the Princeton Gerrymandering Project has given the new Illinois congressional map a grade of F, and he uses that metric to conclude that Illinois needs an independent redistricting commission. However, there is more to the story.

The Princeton project has graded the redistricting congressional maps of 12 of the states. Of these, five states received a an F - Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin. Of these five, three are gerrymandered to favor Republicans, and two to favor Democrats.

The intent of the gerrymandered maps is to send as many members of ones own party to Congress as possible, a goal of considerable importance to the leaders of each party given the current narrow difference in congressional seats between the parties.

This illustrates the difficulty of setting up separate independent commissions in individual States. Why, for example, would Illinois pass a Fair Maps amendment if Texas does not? If fairly drawn congressional maps are desirable, and it is clear that they are, there should be an independent commission that operates at the federal level, and it's recommendations applied by the federal government to each of the states.

Dick Page

Naperville