* Sunday’s extensive remap coverage is here. You’ll also notice that just above the news feeds on the far right side of the page is a new pull-down index of handy remap links. Check ‘em out and provide us more links in comments if you can find them.
* Last night, the Senate Democrats passed three shell bills over to the House which will likely be used as vehicles for the new maps. The Senate Republicans cried foul. From a press release…
Senate Democrats apparently short-circuited the ability of individual senators to offer changes to the once-a-decade redrawing of state and congressional district boundaries on Sunday.
By passing three “shell” bills to the House which contained no content, the Senate likely surrendered the opportunity for members to offer up amendments or changes to the measures.
As the measures were being pushed through during a late Sunday afternoon session, Deputy Senate Republican Leader Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) said the “shells” were being rushed through to make it easier for Democrats to adopt a final map “before anyone has got a chance to catch their breath, and look at the lines and figure out what’s going on.” […]
The three bills passed on party-line votes in the Senate (SB 1177, SB 1178 and SB 1179) contain nothing more than titles. The maneuver allows the House to add all the detail to the legislation and then send it back to the Senate for a single up or down vote with no opportunity for Senators to offer individual amendments.
Senate Republicans will now have to hope that their House counterparts can introduce amendments for them, if that’s even allowed.
* The most interesting story to come out of Sunday’s House remap hearing…
Shortly before the hearing, House Democrats released racial and ethnic data behind the new districts they drew. The map shows 16 districts with a population of voting-age African-Americans ranging from 50.08 percent to 62 percent. It also showed 11 districts in which voting-age Latinos make up 50.4 percent to 78.3 percent of the population.
Combined with Senate districts devoted to minorities in the map, 39 of the General Assembly’s 177 seats would come from boundaries in which a majority of voters were from racial or ethnic groups.
But the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations said at the hearing that lawmakers could have crafted 57 such “minority-majority” districts. The group noted that under the current boundaries, there were six House districts with 65 percent or more of voting-age Latinos — a figure that would drop to three in the new map.
The rare Sunday hearing highlighted a fissure among groups advocating for greater Latino representation that developed a day earlier during testimony by a state Senate remap panel. Democrats had hoped in the mapmaking process to placate two key constituencies even though Latino population increased in the state while black population dropped significantly, primarily in Chicago.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column is, of course, also about the remap…
Statehouse paranoia and angst always are at an all-time high every 10 years in Springfield.
Why? The new state legislative district maps are drawn, and that highly political process always involves generous amounts of partisan mischief-making and revenge.
This year is no different. The Democrats control both legislative chambers and the governor’s office, so they can pretty much draw any map they want as long as they follow federal and state voting rights laws which protect minorities and other “communities of interest.”
The Republicans, locked out of power and influence, just knew they were in for a beating, and they got one. In many respects it probably wasn’t as bad as it was 10 years ago, when the Democrats drew a map so solidly partisan that the House and Senate Democratic majorities easily survived one of the biggest Republican landslides in history.
Partisanship aside, though, imagine being told that the only way to keep your job was to sell your house and move your family a few miles, or even a few blocks. That’s what some legislators have to go through every 10 years during remap season, and it’s what quite a few Republicans are facing — again — this time around. Several have been mapped into districts with fellow Republicans. One of those legislators in each of those districts will have to retire, move or suck it up and run in a primary against a fellow GOP legislator.
So, when Republicans like state Sens. Kyle McCarter and Dave Luechtefeld are put in the same district, reporters heard some very angry complaints. Luechtefeld’s house has essentially been pulled out of his old, deep southern Illinois district and put into a new district farther north that is (for the most part) currently represented by Republican Sen. John O. Jones. Jones’ house has been put in what is now Luechtefeld’s district. A big chunk of McCarter’s current district has been shoved at fellow Republican Sen. Sam McCann.
Confused? That’s the whole idea, man.
A new map usually means representing new territory, and that means legislators must get to know thousands, even tens of thousands of voters who have no idea who they are. That can be a dangerous thing in these politically volatile times. But in the case of Luechtefeld and Jones, they have to either familiarize themselves with almost 200,000 new faces or move, or retire.
The Republican pairings are quite numerous. Sens. Tim Bivins and Christine Johnson are in the same district. The Democrats even paired Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno with Sen. Ron Sandack. Sandack likely will run for a House seat.
Over in the House, southern Illinois Republican state Reps. Ron Stephens and John Cavaletto are in the same district, as are central Illinois Reps. Dan Brady and Keith Sommer. Eastern Illinois Reps. Chapin Rose and Bill Mitchell have been put together.
The mischief goes beyond pitting two Republicans against each other. Northwest suburban Republican Rep. Sid Mathias has been placed in the same district as Democratic Rep. Carol Sente. The district clearly favors Sente, so Mathias will either have to move or take a big risk.
Clearly, some of these folks had better hope the housing market improves soon.
And it’s not just the pairings which grate on the minority party’s nerves every ten years. Much of Sen. Dave Syverson’s Rockford-area district was taken from him so the Democrats could create a very favorable district for Marla Wilson, whom the Dems backed against Syverson last year.
I could go on, but I’m pretty sure you get the idea. Keep something in mind here if this all makes you angry. Two constitutional amendment were proposed awhile back to change the way districts were drawn. Backers of both proposals fell far short of the required petition signatures. Some of the same Republicans who are griping now about the way the maps are drawn probably should’ve put a whole lot more effort into one or both of those amendment petition drives.
Many of those Republicans might not have worked on those constitutional amendments because they figured they’d win the governor’s race and that would be enough to block the Democrats from drawing the map without a fight. After all, how could they possibly lose after Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment and during an inept Pat Quinn administration? Oops.
* And we already have a candidacy announcement before anybody knows what the final congressional map will look like…
A Hoffman Estates man who finished a close second in the Democratic primary race for Illinois comptroller in 2010 said Saturday he is eying a run for Congress in 2012.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, 37, said he is forming an exploratory committee Monday to seek the 8th Congressional District seat currently held by Republican and tea party favorite Joe Walsh, who defeated three-term Democrat Melissa Bean of Barrington by 291 votes last November. […]
Krishnamoorthi says he would expect to challenge Walsh in an 8th District that includes the Northwest suburbs. Bean has said she will not seek her old seat, and Krishnamoorthi is the first Democrat to launch an exploratory committee in a congressional race that should draw national interest in 2012.
* Remap roundup…
* Dems on redistricting defensive: Republicans and groups like the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and Change Illinois said the Democrats are rushing to approve a map and are not being open enough to the public. State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, criticized a legislative maneuver referred as a shell bill, which is essentially a placeholder for latebreaking proposals. The map could be placed in a shell bill and fast-tracked to a vote
* State legislative maps released, but may change: “Ten years ago the Democrats put out one map, waited a few days and then they put out another map that had substantial changes to it, including in downstate districts. So everyone, whether they’re involved in the political process or not, needs to take a deep breath and recognize that this thing is very much drawn in pencil now.”
* Remap makes for tough road ahead for some suburban lawmakers
* Remap plan criticized, praised at public forum
* Suburbs Appear Slighted in New Legislative Maps
* Lawmakers anticipate changing boundaries
* New legislative map could split Mendota: Mautino’s district — the 76th — would change slightly. The northern border in Mendota is U.S. 34, which leaves part of the city in the 90th district, represented by Jerry Mitchell (R-Sterling). Mautino’s district also would expand east to include Ottawa and Marseilles; currently, the 76th district includes only part of Ottawa. The 75th district, represented by Pam Roth (R-Morris) would lose part of Kankakee and Iroquois counties, extending north instead into Kendall County.
* VIDEO: Sen. Raoul on redistricting
* VIDEO: Sen. Righter on redistricting
* VIDEO: Rep. Fortner on redistricting
