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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Tensions Rise over Redistricting
Produced by Sam Hudzik on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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Raoul, McDonald and Schaafsma on Tuesday. |
A showdown is developing in Illinois over a little-understood political issue that affects all other political issues. After the 2010 census wraps up, Illinois will re-draw the maps that split the state into legislative districts. Illinois' process of redistricting has long been ridiculed. So, this year, a number of proposals have popped up to change it. But picking one could prove to be almost as complicated as actually re-drawing the map.
First, a quick civics lesson on a topic that's been talked about a lot recently:
PAUL GREEN: Redistricting.
In Illinois, the first responsibility for this task goes to members of the legislature. But if they can't agree with the governor...
DAWN CLARK NETSCH: ...redistricting...
...is put in the hands of a commission with an equal number Democrats and Republicans. But if those efforts come up short, the state Supreme Court picks a Democrat and a Republican. Then one of those names is pulled out a hat and - voila...
KIRK DILLARD: ...redistricting...
...is controlled by a single party, indirectly deciding the fate of many politicians, and the clout of many communities.
I suppose you can see why this is troubling to some. Not so troubling, though, that they've bothered to change it. In the previous three decades, the maps have ultimately been decided by chance. But now, in this era of post-Rod Blagojevich anti-establishment fervor...
SCHAAFSMA: We are in the process of gathering sufficient signatures to put a proposal on the Illinois ballot in November to reform and change the process of redistricting in Illinois.
Mary Schaafsma is with the League of Women Voters of Illinois, which has teamed up with - among others - the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and - most recently - the Illinois Republican Party - to launch a citizens' initiative to change the state constitution.
SCHAAFSMA: The Illinois Fair Map Amendment, which is what we're calling it, attempts to reform the process by creating a redistricting commission.
Under the League's plan, the legislature does get a couple chances to approve the maps, but not draw them. This follows a standard reformer talking point that incumbent lawmakers should not get to pick their constituents. As you can imagine, this proposal is not universally embraced.
RAOUL: Redistricting is inherently political. And I think we should put that on the table and nobody should lie about it. It is political.
State Senator Kwame Raoul heads up the Senate Redistricting Committee, and is spearheading the Democratic majority's efforts to put together a constitutional amendment. Like the League of Women Voters' proposal, it would get rid of the "pull a name out a hat" tiebreaker that currently exists. But Raoul says the small redistricting commission proposed by the League would lack diversity. So he wants to let the legislature...
RAOUL: ...which is a diverse body of 177 people, take a first crack at drawing a map.
...like they do now.
Raoul is painting the League's plan as a Republican amendment in reformers' clothing. He says he hopes a compromise can pass the legislature, and go to the voters without the many obstacles facing organizers of the citizens' initiative. Those citizens have to get 300 thousand or so signatures, survive petition challenges and win a likely legal battle - all just to get on the ballot.
At a forum on their competing proposals Tuesday in Chicago, there was some visible tension between Raoul and Schaafsma. Moderator Michael McDonald sat in between them.
MCDONALD: I'm a political scientist. Political scientists learn how to argue both sides of an issue. They can see value in both ways.
McDonald is a professor at George Mason University and a redistricting expert.
MCDONALD: The public doesn't have a lot of information about redistricting, and these are very arcane procedures we've been talking about.
That means voters look to community leaders and political parties, to make their decisions.
MCDONALD: So, while I think it's encouraging that we have two proposals, I'm also a little concerned that we have two proposals. Because it is a chance for a stalemate and then nothing to get done.
And that's a real possibility. If Democrats and Republicans both hold to their favored plans, and fight hard against each other's, neither proposal could go before voters.
Or, get this: If both wind up on the ballot, Illinois residents could simultaneously approve two conflicting redistricting plans. A complication legal experts say could send the whole issue to the courts.
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