* A couple of years ago, Gov. Pat Quinn pledged not to link the capital bill to the budget, then did it anyway. He’s now pledging not to link the budget to the remap. We’ll just have to wait and see if he changes his mind again…

Quinn has one huge bargaining chip: his signature on legislation redrawing House and Senate districts across the state. […]

In theory, Quinn could threaten to block the legislation unless he gets some concessions on the budget, but Matsoff said he won’t do that.

“He’s focused on the budget as a separate issue,” she said.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, expects hard feelings over the new political map. It was probably good that the House passed a budget before the redistricting fireworks begin, he said.

I’ve said before that touching that map would be more politically dangerous for Quinn than just about anything else he could possibly dream up. But, we’ll see.

* Speaking of the remap…

According to a report in Tuesday’s Capitol Fax, a political newsletter, legislative Democrats, who are in charge of the redistricting process, have decided to draw a Democratic-leaning district that would connect Springfield’s east side and Decatur.

Springfield Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner also said Tuesday that she has been working with people, whom she declined to name, about creating such a district. […]

Rep. Adam Brown, R-Decatur, who beat longtime Democratic representative Bob Flider in 2010, said he has not seen a map of the potential new district, but said it sounds like a proposal released by a coalition of Chicago groups, including the Chicago Urban League, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Cook County Bar Association.

That plan would create a barbell-shaped district with east Springfield, which is currently within Poe’s 99th House District, being connected by Interstate 72 to large parts of Decatur. Most of the Decatur part of the new district now is inside Brown’s 101st House District. Brown and Poe are Republicans.

Thirty-two percent of the population in the coalition’s proposed district would be black, while 64 percent would be white, according to an analysis. Springfield’s black population grew from 15.3 percent in 2000 to 18.5 percent 10 years later, according to the 2010 Census.

Keep in mind that nothing is completely set in stone until we see the map itself. Laura Washington wrote more about that coalition proposal…

The group, African Americans for Legislative Redistricting, is demanding a remap that “would protect the interests of 1.8 million African Americans in Illinois, while proposing three minority-led “influence districts” in Springfield, Rockford and East St. Louis.”

The coalition is led by the Rev. Leon Finney, a longtime black businessman and leader of The Woodlawn Organization, and includes the NAACP, the Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition, the Chicago Urban League and the Cook County Bar Association.

They want a new map that would preserve the same number of African-American majority districts that were drawn 10 years ago.

There’s a lot to lose. According to the 2010 census, Chicago’s black population declined by about 180,000 in the last decade. Latinos have picked up 25,000 residents.

* There is definitely a bit of tension between African-American legislators and Latinos…

So as the June 30 deadline looms to redraw voting districts, blacks, Latinos, Asians and Arabs are working to strengthen their ties, wary of being played against one another in a political game where poor people—of all colors—may be the true losers.

“This is really tough,” said Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a Cook County commissioner and 45-year resident of the city. “The relationship between Latinos and African-Americans will be quite challenging because Latinos will gain – as their numbers indicate that they should – but you definitely can see patterns of development that don’t bode well for poor or working people, in general.”

* And the census numbers, combined with African-American demands that they keep the same number of seats in both chambers have combined to create some very elongated districts…

[Sen. Donne Trotter’s] district, for example, may stretch south from Chicago’s Southeast Side into Beecher, a rural Will County community of about 2,000 residents. His district would shift from 72 percent black, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, to 51 percent black.

* There will be other changes as well…

Only two members of the State Senate who are black — Sens. Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields) and James Clayborne (D-East St. Louis) — represent districts that do not have a federally-mandated minimum percentage of African-Americans. That means their new districts can be made up of any racial percentages. Hutchinson, for example, said she expects to pick up Grundy County under the new map, a mostly rural farming and manufacturing community currently represented by freshman Republican Sen. Sue Rezin of Peru.

* State Sen. John O. Jones says he believes the new maps will be released today…

Jones expects the legislative remap to be unveiled on May 18, leading to speculation that the majorities in the General Assembly have completed the Congressional and legislative boundary drawing process. Rumors have circulated the Capitol for months as to how the legislative districts will be drawn to maximize the majority party’s hold on political power.

* Silly editorial comment…

The cynics among us think the maps are done, hidden in the basement of one of the Democratic leaders, ready to be thrown at lawmakers for a last-minute vote.

Democratic lawmakers have been tweaking their districts for well over a week. If the Rockford Register Star hadn’t laid off its Statehouse reporter, the editorial board would’ve known this. But, they do make a decent point here…

The current redistricting gives us only the illusion of democracy. Politicians choose the voters rather than voters choosing the politicians. Maps are drawn so the party in power can have as many like-minded folks within the boundaries as possible, based on the legal constraints.

The process needs to change. Thirteen states have established nonpartisan or bipartisan commissions to take the lead in redistricting.

The Illinois League of Women Voters led an effort to get Illinois to a better system, but failed to get enough signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot. That kind of effort needs to continue.

It took six tries before California got redistricting reform.