The Illinois State legislators are kicking off the once-in-a-decade process of drawing new State House, Senate and Congressional district boundaries.
Illinois Senate have with 5 public meetings across the state, beginning March 28 and continuing into April. Residents are invited to tell members of the Senate Redistricting Committee about their communities and representational needs by speaking at the meetings, which have been scheduled for Chicago (March 28), Springfield (April 6), Kankakee (April 16), Peoria (April 16) and Cicero (April 19). Additional hearings will likely follow.
Illinois Senate Redistricting Committee’s website http://ilsenateredistricting.com
The House of Representatives series of public hearings will be around the state this month to take testimony on reapportionment and the redrawing of state legislative and Congressional district lines. This Special House Committee on Redistricting will hold a hearing in Elgin on Monday April 18 at 4:00 p.m. at the Centre of Elgin (100 Symphony Way in Elgin) as part of its effort to hear from residents across the state. More information can also be found at www.ilhousedems.com/redistricting
A new law requires both the House and the Senate to hold a minimum of four public meetings each before passing a new map. Unfortunately, there is no requirement that lawmakers show residents a draft map or make changes to proposed district borders based on public feedback. To learn more about Illinois’ redistricting process and how it affects you, visit Illinois Campaign Political Reform’s Redistricting issues page at http://ilcampaign.org/issues/redistricting
I hope that all of the maps, for congressional, state senate, and state house districts, will be drawn, using the Iowa method. Iowa uses a computer program that doesn’t consider ethnic groups, incumbents, or parties.
In 2010, there was a referendum petition drive called the Fair Map Amendment led by the Illinois Fair Map Amendment (Citizens Movement to Take Back Illinois) whose partners are
• League of Women Voters
• Better Government Association
• Members of the Illinois Reform Commission: Patrick Collins, Brad McMillan, Shelia Simon, David Hoffman & Duane Noland
• Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
• Common Cause – Illinois
• Illinois Chamber of Commerce
• Americans for Prosperity
• Illinois Alliance for Growth
• Illinois Farm Bureau
• Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO)
• Protestants for the Common Good
• United Power for Action and Justice
• DuPage County United
• Lake County United
This amendment defined criteria close to the State of Iowa. Check out the Illinois Fair Map Amendment website at http://www.ilfairmap.com for further details
Their efforts including HanDI to gather sufficient signatures to get the Fair Map Amendment on the November 2010 ballot had fallen short. The initiative simply did not have enough time, enough petition passers or enough money to do what needed to be done in the field.
During this initiative, it got the attention of Illinois State leadership to present their own amendment which they passed. That is why there are these public meetings now.
The Illinois Fair Map partners are monitoring the process and are attending the redistricting meetings. They continue to pursue approaches designed to reform the current redistricting process in Illinois. Again check-out their website at http://www.ilfairmap.com
On Facebook, check out the Illinois State Democrats posting:
Legislature Offers Access to Map Drawing Software and Public Workstation
Redistricting Chairs Pleased to Offer Key Tools
Chicago where they can draw and submit maps to be used in the Illinois remap process.
At the workstation the public can draw boundaries of Illinois Congressional, Legislative and Representative districts to be considered by the Senate and House Redistricting Committees. Users will have access to a menu of census data including racial demographics along with current boundaries of wards, house districts, senate districts and counties. Interested parties will also have access to a facilitator which can offer technical assistance. The terminal will be located on the 7th Floor of the Bilandic Building in a joint, bi-cameral space dedicated to public redistricting efforts.
Has Illinois state legislators actually entered the 21th century? I plan to check this out next week.
Senate Redistricting Committee Chairman Kwame Raoul released on Thursday, 19 May 2011 to the public a Census-driven redistricting proposal for review. For the first time in Illinois history the legislative district boundary proposal is now available, in intricate detail, to any citizen with an Internet connection.
Raoul also announced that the Senate Redistricting Committee will conduct two additional public hearings. The meetings, which will be streamed live over the Internet, are scheduled as follows:
CHICAGO:
Saturday, May 21, 2011 | 12:00 PM
Michael A. Bilandic Building
Committee Room C-600
SPRINGFIELD:
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 | 9:00 AM
Illinois State Capitol
Committee Room 114
Note: The Tuesday, May 24 hearing in Springfield will be a joint hearing of both House and Senate Redistricting Committees.
Live streaming video of these hearings will be available at http://www.IlSenateRedistricting.com.
Citizens seeking to testify at either of these hearings should send an e-mail to Redistricting@SenateDem.ilga.gov
Emails regarding the Chicago hearing should be sent no later than 4:30 pm on Friday, May 20.
For the Springfield hearing, please issue requests no later than 5:00 pm on Monday, May 24.
Complete details available on the Illinois State Democrats website.
http://www.senatedem.ilga.gov/index.php/features/1961-exclusive-legislative-district-proposal-released
Daily Herald reports Illinois GOP challenges Democrats’ political map in Federal court
Illinois Republicans led by the suburban leadership of the House and Senate challenged Democrats’ new legislative political map in federal court Wednesday, saying new boundaries are unfair to minorities.
Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110720/news/707209820/#ixzz1SnMtZMx1
View the State of Illinois Senate, Representative and Congressional Districts that can be view down to street level via Google maps available thru the Illinois House Democrats website.
http://www.ilhousedems.com/redistricting/?page_id=554