* Dan Petrella…

Illinois House Democrats are proposing their own plan for changing the way the state’s legislative districts are drawn.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has made redistricting reform a key component of his “turnaround agenda,” but Democrats say a Republican proposal and one being pushed by a group called Independent Maps wouldn’t adequately take into account minority populations when drawing boundaries, a claim supporters dispute.

Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, said he filed the new proposal because he doesn’t believe the other plan would pass constitutional muster due to its lack of protection for minority voters. […]

Jim Bray, a spokesman for Independent Maps, said Franks’ concerns about what his group’s proposed amendment would mean for minority voters are unfounded.

“The Independent Maps Amendment has strong minority voting rights protections and probably the strongest in the nation of any of these statutes or constitutional amendments,” Bray said.

Speaker Madigan “is prepared to support” Franks’ proposal, which you can see in full by clicking here.

* The Independent Maps folks spent a fortune on a failed effort to get their idea on the ballot in 2014, and are now spending even more to get a revised proposal on the ballot this November.

They ought to continue moving forward with their effort, but also be prepared to negotiate with Franks. If Madigan is serious about putting this on the ballot, that would be an historic “turnaround,” and could take us a step closer to ending the impasse and finally getting a much-needed reform in Illinois. We don’t need competing ballot measures on the same topic.

Get. This. Done.

*** UPDATE ***  Brian Gladstein of Common Cause Illinois and Sarah Brune of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform have both signed on as proponents of the Franks measure. I’m told ICPR will ask for some changes, including an issue with the proposal’s meeting notice requirements - the same issue it had with the Independent Maps proposal.

But these witness slips in favor of the Franks proposal will definitely put pressure on everybody to keep partisan politics out of it. Make the needed changes and pass the darned thing.