Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Burr Ridge) strongly urged the governor to stand up for Illinoisans and veto the Democrats’ map after it was released Friday night.

In a May 24 news conference, he challenged the transparency the Democrats have been touting.

“After three months of hearings with dozens of independent groups and Illinois citizens providing hours of testimony and just one week to go in this year's legislative session, Democrats have hit a new low by dumping their proposed maps at 7 p.m. last Friday evening,” Durkin said. “They did so to give the public, the advocacy groups, and the media, and most certainly the Republicans zero opportunity to react. The initial maps that were submitted were nothing less than a kindergartner’s artwork.”

Durkin alleged that it was the majority’s intent to create the maps and the next hearings for their advantage. Durkin also criticized House Speaker Chris Welch (D-Westchester).

“Make no mistake these maps were drawn solely for the Democrats to maintain their political power in the state of Illinois,” he said. “The party of transparency won't even share that data which they used as the foundation for these maps to the public. They scheduled four public hearings this week, two of which are in the same day in an attempt to ramrod these maps through the general assembly before May 31. What we've seen here today is the lowest of lows for the House Democrats, which quite frankly I did not think was possible after Mike Madigan disappeared. But as Speaker Welch said in January it is a new day and that new day is worse than what we witnessed under Madigan.”

He ended his speech demanding action from Pritzker. He also called on the Democrats who agreed to an independent map.

“I want to direct this to Gov. Pritzker: It’s now up to you to keep your promise, veto this map on behalf of the 13 million Illinoisans you represent,” Durkin said. “These maps are the perfect example of why the independent commission is the only answer to the crises. Current members of the Illinois House pledged publicly that they support an independent commission to draw these maps including speaker Welch. Thirty-one House Democrats voted for an independent map constitutional question…where are they right now…they're sitting silently while the transfer of power from Madigan to Welch continues to drive corruption further into our state government.”

Remapping is a decennial process following the release of the official count from the federal census—not yet released for this year’s process. The Chicago Sun-Times reported the Democrats used data from the American Community Survey.

The Illinois State constitution requires that legislators should pass new legislative maps by June 30 of the year following the U.S. Census. If that deadline is not met, the responsibility is passed on to an eight-person bipartisan commission. When that back-up commission inevitably deadlocks, a ninth member is randomly chosen by the Illinois secretary of state.