* US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois…
On May 28, 2021, the Illinois General Assembly approved a state legislative redistricting plan before the release of the official population totals from the 2020 United States decennial census. The pandemic delayed release of the official population totals, although the United States Census Bureau (“the Census Bureau”) had announced previously that those totals would be available by mid-August 2021. The Illinois General Assembly elected not to wait, and instead relied primarily on data from the American Community Survey (“ACS”), a population estimate previously published by the Census Bureau, to determine the boundaries of Illinois legislative districts. With Governor Pritzker’s signature, the General Assembly-approved redistricting plan (“the June Redistricting Plan”) became effective as of June 4, 2021.
Two sets of Plaintiffs filed lawsuits contending that use of the ACS data resulted in the drawing of constitutionally-flawed legislative district boundaries. Those cases have been consolidated before this three-judge court (“Court”) convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2284(a). In both cases, Plaintiffs allege that the June Redistricting Plan impermissibly violated their right to Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Defendants in both cases have moved to dismiss [McConchie, 66, 80], [Contreras, 40, 55] Plaintiffs’ first amended complaints1 [McConchie, 51], [Contreras, 37]. Following the release of the official Census data, Plaintiffs in each case moved for summary judgment [McConchie, 76], [Contreras, 63].
For the reasons stated below, the Court denies the motions to dismiss [McConchie, 66, 80], [Contreras, 40, 55] in full, except to the extent that Plaintiff Martinez is dismissed from the first amended complaint in Contreras, see [37]. The Court also grants the Plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment in full [Contreras, 63] and in part [McConchie, 76]. The Court declares that the June Redistricting Plan, Public Act 102-0010, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and enjoins the Defendant State Board of Elections and Defendant Members, Charles W. Scholz, Ian K. Linabarry, William M. McGuffage, William J. Cadigan, Katherine S. O’Brien, Laura K. Donahue, Casandra B. Watson, and William R. Haine, in their official capacities as members of the Illinois State Board of Elections, from enforcing Public Act 102-0010.
Finally, the Court will not require formal dispositive motion practice (e.g., motions under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b) and 56) on the second amended complaints and sets the schedule for the selection of a court-approved state redistricting map as follows: (1) Plaintiffs’ submissions for proposed revisions to the September Redistricting Plan, Public Act 102-0663, accompanied by a statement explaining how those revisions cure any constitutional or statutory defects in the September Redistricting Plan, are to be filed on the docket no later than November 8, 2021; (2) Defendants’ responses and objections to the submissions are to be submitted no later than November 18, 2021. This case is set for further status on November 5, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. […]
Taking into account the totality of the circumstances—both agreed and disputed—we will proceed therefore toward the approval of a map for Illinois legislative districts for the next decade using the September Redistricting Plan as a starting point, but also carefully considering the legal challenges raised in the operative second amended complaints. Having found the June Redistricting Plan unconstitutional and therefore reached the remedial phase of proceedings, the Court will not require formal dispositive motion practice (e.g., under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b) and 56) on the seconded amended complaints [McConchie, 116], [Contreras, 98]. To the extent that the September Redistricting Plan does not pass muster, Plaintiffs are invited to submit proposed alternative maps for the Court’s consideration accompanied by a statement explaining (1) the constitutional or statutory defects in the September Redistricting Plan and, (2) how the revisions or alternatives cure such defects. Defendants will likewise receive an opportunity to respond to the proposed alternative maps and accompanying assessment according to the schedule set out at the conclusion of this opinion.
In other words, the first version of the map has been tossed over unconstitutional population deviation between districts (the courts have long had a rule about that and the new Illinois map was in clear violation). The second version is now under judicial review because the court declared the first version unconstitutional. And the court has invited plaintiffs, meaning the Republicans and MALDEF, to submit their own alternative maps with specific emphasis on how their alternatives address the Democrats’ alleged defects.
Also, the court rejected the Republican claim that the failure to draw a constitutional map by the deadline triggers the state’s non-partisan remap commission process.
…Adding… Press release…
Below is a statement from Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) on Illinois’ redistricting maps being declared unconstitutional today in court:
“Today’s ruling is a victory for Illinois citizens, advocacy groups and communities of interest. During this process the Republican caucuses consistently demanded transparency and fairness in mapmaking, which were rejected by the Democrats and Governor Pritzker. The court’s ruling validates all the concerns that were raised during the Democrats’ unconstitutional attempt to gerrymander Illinois.”
…Adding… Tribune…
Though Democratic lawmakers passed and Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the updated map last month, they did not repeal the earlier estimated-population map approved in May.
That prompted concerns that if the new map was ruled unconstitutional, the earlier map using population estimates would take effect. The court said it needed to rule on the unconstitutionality of the original map to prevent that from happening.
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Our sorry state
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Hannah Meisel…
In the early days, weeks and months of the pandemic, COVID-19 ravaged nursing homes, killing thousands of elderly and frail residents and forcing the isolation of thousands more.
Though long-term care facilities statewide locked down, forbidding outside visits from family members, staff from the Illinois Department of Public Health charged with investigating complaints of abuse and neglect should still have been going in to those facilities.
But for the first three and a half months of the pandemic, they weren’t. Pritzker’s administration admitted to that error last summer after severing ties with two IDPH officials and catching up on the 272 missed abuse and neglect complaints, substantiating 17 of them. The agency hired a former federal prosecutor to review the unsubstantiated claims.
“Our top priority as a regulator of long-term care facilities in Illinois is ensuring vulnerable Illinoisans are kept safe by those responsible for their care,” IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike said in a course-correcting news release last August. “Anything short of that is unacceptable, and our entire department is committed to getting this right as we move forward.”
In service of that goal, IDPH also paid $425,000 to an outside firm to examine what went wrong inside the agency and how its processes could be improved to prevent such a major dereliction of duty from happening again.
More than 13 months later, however, the report remains unpublished, though it’s been complete since Nov. 30, 2020. A copy obtained by NPR Illinois shows the outside review was critical of IDPH, its Bureau of Long Term Care and the Office of Health Care Regulation directly responsible for investigating nursing home abuse and neglect complaints.
But as Pritzker and some Democrats in the General Assembly attempt to overhaul how the state reimburses nursing homes with Medicaid patients — a move they say will engender more accountability and equity — the report paints a complicated picture that neither fully bolsters Pritzker’s argument for an overhaul nor the resistance from the nursing home industry warning its cash-poor facilities will close en masse.
Scroll down…
According to the national Staff Time and Resource Intensity Verification, or STRIVE Project, Illinois accounts for 47 of the 100 most understaffed facilities in the nation when comparing actual staffing levels against their target levels within STRIVE.
The persistent staffing issue is at the heart of Pritzker’s proposed overhaul to how the state pays nursing homes; the Department of Healthcare and Family Services wants to increase nursing home reimbursement rates, but have those increases tied to a facility’s staffing levels and other safety improvements.
But Manatt’s consultants found IDPH has long had the power — and has actually been obligated by state law — to enforce skilled nursing facility staffing ratio requirements, but hasn’t.
*facepalm*
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COVID-19 roundup
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that a continued decline in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Illinois could lead him to lift “certain mask mandates” in time for the holiday season.
“We want to remove the mitigations as we approach the holidays,” Pritzker said during a COVID-19 briefing at the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop. “That’s an important marker for us.”
“We want to make sure that these numbers keep going down,“” he said. […]
At the time the mandate was issued, Pritzker pointed to the recommendation from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that people wear masks indoors in areas of “substantial” or “high” coronavirus transmission. As of Monday, that still included all but two of the state’s 102 counties, both of them downstate.
Map…
* Pritzker was responding to a question from Amy Jacobson about the state’s mask mandates…
Well, we’re continuing, again, to watch the numbers. You know that we look at these every day, Dr. Ezike and the IDPH team. And we work with them to determine when the right time is. I think you’ve seen that, although numbers have come down. And I know pretty much every moment of every day, you’ve wanted us to remove every single mitigation. Every question that you give is a question about removing mitigations. I want them to go away too. But we want to make sure that we’re keeping people healthy and safe, following the guidelines that doctors are offering for us. And so we’ll continue to do that. And obviously we want to remove the mitigations as we approach the holidays. These are you know, that’s an important marker for us. We want to make sure these numbers keep going going down and we’d like very much to head into, you know we have three holidays coming up. But especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, where people spend extended amounts of time together. So we’d like very much to get to a place where we can remove certain mask mandates.
Please pardon any transcription errors.
* Hannah Meisel took a look at the numbers in a long thread and concluded…
* But then up comes the clickbait headlines…
Gov. JB Pritzker Hopes To Lift Statewide Indoor Mask Mandate In Time For Holidays
* IPHA…
Community Health Workers responded to 5,586 service requests in September.
Behind each request is someone experiencing the harmful, long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As demonstrated in the data table below, most of the service requests received in September were for basic human needs, such as food and household items, income assistance (including rent and utility payment programs), and even finding a safe place to quarantine. […]
Notice also that [southern Illinois] Region Five, despite being a more rural, sparsely populated part of Illinois, had the highest number of service requests for the month. Health administrators in those southernmost 20 counties reported all intensive care unit beds were in-use as a surge tore through the region. This left patients who would have otherwise been hospitalized with few options other than to remain isolated at home for several days.
…Adding… Today’s data…
* More…
* Pritzker pushes COVID booster shots for eligible residents: Pritzker urged skilled nursing facilities to make booster shots available to all residents and staff before Thanksgiving. The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs is also preparing to provide booster shots to residents at state-run veteran’s homes.
* You can’t work at this southwestern Illinois hospital without COVID-19 vaccination: “As the principal healthcare provider in our community, we should serve as a leader to our patients, families, coworkers, and community,” President of Touchette Regional Hospital Jay Willsher said.
* Just 54% of Chicago Police Officers Tell City Officials They Are Vaccinated Against COVID-19
* Compliance with vaccine mandate for city employees worst among police, firefighters
* Hearing planned Wednesday in Chicago Fraternal Order of Police’s battle with city over vaccine mandate
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Support Regulated Pet Stores And Defeat Puppy Mills
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois families will soon be losing their opportunity to purchase dogs and cats from safe, highly-regulated local pet retailers, such as Petland, who offer their customers the choice of a pet that best fits their needs and provide health warranties. This change is coming because the state’s Animal Welfare Act has been updated through HB 1711 which bans the retail sales of dogs and cats obtained from licensed and regulated professional breeders.
But HB 1711 needs fixing, because while singularly blocking retail pet sales, it fails to strengthen any animal standards or protections at unregulated puppy mills across the state. Consumers looking for particular breeds will have no choice but to purchase dogs from unregulated breeders or dog auctions – thus perpetuating puppy mills. Responsible breeders and retailers will be heavily penalized while HB 1711 does nothing to address the issue of substandard breeders across the state.
Petland is dedicated to improving animal welfare and we have publicly demonstrated this commitment; in fact, we support the Humane Society’s petition effort to improve standards of care. Petland’s breeder pledge is a commitment to provide more space, more exercise, and more socialization for their pets plus numerous other improvements to standards of care.
Home - Protect Our Pets Illinois
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Changes urged to HCRCA
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Separately, Pritzker will be pushing for legislation to prevent some public employees, including police officers and teachers, from trying to skirt COVID-19 vaccine mandates by citing a state law that allows people to avoid certain health care services for moral or religious reasons.
The state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act was intended to allow health care workers, especially those at Roman Catholic hospitals, to deny the distribution of emergency contraceptives to patients seeking abortions.
In broad terms, the law applies to “any phase of patient care,” but whether the law indeed applies to vaccine mandates will be taken up at some point during two-week session.
Some courts have ruled in favor of employees who citied the right of conscience exemption. But the Pritzker administration said the law is being interpreted incorrectly by those resisting the vaccine requirements and is seeking to exempt masking and vaccine mandates from the statute.
The administration’s language would also exempt testing….
“Testing” is specifically included in the law’s definition of health care.
That’s the key here that too many in the media don’t appear to quite grasp. The unvaxed are claiming they shouldn’t be required to be regularly tested. It’s a wholly ridiculous argument.
* Capitol News Illinois…
The Health Care Right of Conscience Act defines conscience as “a sincerely held set of moral convictions arising from belief in and relation to God, or which, though not so derived, arises from a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by God among adherents to religious faiths.” On those lines, certain care can be refused.
The governor’s office has been promoting legislation that would narrow the allowable exemptions when it comes to COVID-19 requirements, although a spokesperson did not identify the exact language it was pursuing.
“The Health Care Right of Conscience Act was never intended to allow people to avoid public health guidance and jeopardize workplace safety during a global pandemic. The administration supports efforts to clarify the law, so it cannot be misinterpreted by fringe elements,” Pritzker spokesperson Emily Bittner said in a statement Monday.
Subscribers have the proposed language.
* Meanwhile, the SJ-R continues to run big splashy stories about a couple of Springfield teachers who are refusing to be tested regularly based on their “conscience”…
The resolutions, “notices to remedy,” were unanimously passed by the school board without discussion. They stated the teachers’ actions could “(warrant) discharge and dismissal.”
The two stood by each other and later embraced as the resolutions were read by assistant superintendent of human resources Gina McLaughlin-Schurman. […]
Koen and Keys have cited “personal liberties” as motives for defying the governor’s mandate. Neither said they were budging from their positions as they and several supporters, including fellow teachers, addressed the board in the public comment section.
“That they’ve taken (our livelihoods) from us over something that is completely illegal and completely irrational is unconscionable,” Keys said of the mandate.
If your conscience tells you not to be tested regularly for a debilitating and potentially fatal disease after refusing to take a safe vaccine, there’s something very, very wrong with your conscience. Making heroes out of these two without making that clear is beyond irresponsible.
* Center Square…
Elsewhere throughout the state, local officials seem to be negotiating mandates in good faith with local law enforcement unions, [Illinois Fraternal Order of Police President Chris Southwood] said. If not, he said there’s always the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act.
“It clearly states that it’s unlawful to discriminate because of a person’s conscientious refusal to receive health care service contrary to his or her conscience,” he said. “We clearly feel we can fall back on that when we need to when it comes to these vaccine mandates and how they are implemented.” […]
The FOP he said will be lobbying against any possible changes to the Health Care Right of Conscience Act, a decades-old law he says gives broad protections to people refusing medical treatments that go against their beliefs.
“We’ll let General Assembly members know right up front that if you vote for changes to this act, we’re going to make sure your constituents are aware that you voted for changes to that act,” he said.
I’m fairly certain that the majority of Illinoisans will find it ridiculous for the unvaxed to use a “conscience” excuse to opt out of regular COVID testing.
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The other side of the “Fair Map” debate
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Russell Berman at The Atlantic…
The stakes for the reapportionment that follows the decennial census are always enormous; the redistricting process draws lines for Congress and state legislatures that endure for a decade. But the consequences over the next few years could stretch far beyond the fate of President Joe Biden’s agenda or whether a particular state’s taxes go up or down: Given former President Donald Trump’s continued dominance over the GOP and the possibility that he will run again, whichever party controls the House and key state legislative chambers could determine the next presidential election. That stark reality is giving the Democrats who championed nonpartisan commissions second thoughts. “As a matter of policy, I think we should pursue these, because I think it’s the right thing to do,” Morgan Carroll, the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, told me. “But as a matter of politics, if across the country every Dem is for independent commissions and every Republican is aggressively gerrymandering maps, then the outcome is still a Republican takeover of the United States of America with a modern Republican Party that is fundamentally authoritarian and antidemocratic. And that’s not good for the country.”
Democrats have not abandoned gerrymandering everywhere. In large blue states such as New York, Illinois, and Maryland, the party is expected to draw maps that maximize its partisan advantage. But Republicans control the redistricting process governing more seats, and given the Democrats’ narrow House majority, the GOP could take back power through gerrymandering alone. By giving up their mapping pens in just a few states, Democrats might also have given away their gavel.
No state illustrates the Democrats’ predicament better than Colorado, where the party holds the governorship and solid control of the legislature. That power could have allowed Democrats to draw a favorable new congressional seat, shore up their four House incumbents, and target the reelection bid of freshman GOP Representative Lauren Boebert, who supported Trump’s bid to overturn last year’s election. In 2018, however, Democrats backed a ballot initiative to hand power over congressional redistricting to a nonpartisan commission. The map that the panel has proposed would instead make the new Eighth District north of Denver a toss-up, potentially jeopardize at least one of the Democratic incumbents, and ease Boebert’s path to another term, Carroll told me. The difference between the commission map and what Democrats might have drawn themselves could be nearly enough to tip the balance of power in the entire House. “It is a problem,” a high-ranking Colorado Democrat told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. […]
Along with Colorado, California now serves both as the model for the kind of redistricting commissions Democrats want to establish nationwide and as an impediment to their hopes of retaining power long enough to do so. The party controls 42 out of the state’s 53 seats in Congress—easily the biggest Democratic delegation in the country—but an aggressive Democratic gerrymander probably could have yielded a few more.
Obviously, there’s hyperbole in that piece, so take a deep breath before commenting.
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* Good infrastructure news from the Tribune…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday unveiled a six-year timeline for the $1.2 billion reconstruction of Interstate Highway 80 through Will County, including work on aging bridges over the Des Plaines River considered so decrepit that unions put up billboards with warnings such as “Cross bridge at your own risk” two years ago.
“In recent decades, this stretch of I-80 has also come to represent the disinvested infrastructure that Illinois used to be notorious for,” Pritzker said during a news conference Monday in New Lenox. “That’s all changing.”
* Bad infrastructure news from the Tribune…
On Saturday morning, Dixmoor resident Martha Montero turned on her shower to find nothing. But she had water stored in a cupboard from the numerous other times this had happened. […]
The issues with water have been ongoing for about two years, said 29-year-old Montero. […]
The town has been without a reliable and consistent water source since Saturday. According to Dixmoor Village President Fitzgerald Roberts, that is because of breaks in the pipe that brings water into Dixmoor, affecting the whole town’s water supply. The latest break was Monday. […]
Harvey supplies water to other towns including East Hazel Crest, Hazel Crest, Homewood and Posen.
Homewood is in the process of switching its water source due to “erratic water rates” and “unreliable infrastructure,” said Homewood’s marketing director Jennifer Quirke.
* And I still don’t know what to make of this idea…
The developer behind the proposed $20 billion One Central development revealed details for the project’s first phase: a transit center surrounded by roughly 1.4 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space on a 35-acre site above the train tracks near Soldier Field.
The full plans for One Central, unveiled in 2019, include up to 22.3 million square feet of buildings with as many as 9,050 residential units and 9.45 million square feet of offices. The project still needs city and state approval to proceed, and Landmark president Bob Dunn has said he expects to submit a zoning application by late October or early November.
* Related…
* Rush hour is coming back, but slower traffic hasn’t meant fewer crashes: One solution is to put “traffic calming” measures onto city streets, which can help protect cyclists and pedestrians too, as biking and walking are growing in popularity throughout Chicago and the suburbs, she said. That can include lower speed limits, pedestrian islands and crosswalks in roadways and bike lanes, which both provide space for cyclists and narrow streets to encourage lower speeds. The measures might be one way to reverse not only the pandemic spike in traffic fatalities and deaths, but also a longer-term uptick in the Chicago area that predated the pandemic, Wilkison said.
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Question of the day
Monday, Oct 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
llinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Illinois State Senator John Curran (R-Downers Grove) were joined by suburban police chiefs from Cook County Monday morning to introduce new legislation that will give law enforcement the ability to override the state’s attorney’s charging decisions, as well as bring transparency and accountability to this process.
“Today’s legislation is a major step towards accountability for the Cook County State’s Attorney with law enforcement and victims of crime,” Leader Durkin said. “This legislation demands transparency in the charging process and gives law enforcement a fair avenue to participate in the criminal court system.”
House Bill 4176 will allow local law enforcement the right to override a state’s attorney’s decision not to file felony charges when law enforcement believes clear and convincing evidence exists. Currently, law enforcement has no recourse when charges are declined on a case by an assistant state’s attorney. This bill will give law enforcement the ability to protect public safety and fight for victims and victims’ families when no one else will.
A 2020 Chicago Tribune analysis found that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx “dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants, a dramatic increase over her predecessor.” In one of the latest egregious cases, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office refused to file Felony charges in a deadly shootout, citing “mutual combat” because both groups were shooting at each other.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cook County is on track to see the highest carjacking numbers in 20 years, with carjackings up 43.5 percent in Cook County this year as opposed to the same time period in 2020. In another tragic case where a seven-year-old was murdered, police officials filed their own charges against the suspect when the Cook County State’s Attorney refused to do so, only to see their charges dropped.
“This proposal brings transparency and accountability to criminal charging decisions made by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office,” said State Senator John Curran. “There have been consistent complaints from law enforcement agencies within Cook County about the State’s Attorney’s charging decisions, oftentimes leaving the public with no information as to why criminal prosecutions are not being pursued while our communities are experiencing a rapid rise in violent crime.”
Leader Durkin held a meeting with over two dozen police chiefs from Cook County last week to discuss ways to empower law enforcement when the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office continues to reject charges for violent and felony cases, some of which have resulted in fatalities. Police chiefs from the villages of Riverside and Worth participated in the press conference today.
* Synopsis…
Provides that, in a criminal investigation in counties in excess of 3,000,000 involving a forcible felony where the State’s Attorney or an Assistant State’s Attorney rejects the filing of a felony charge or charges or the case is designated by the State’s Attorney or Assistant State’s Attorney as a continuing investigation: (1) a law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction where the alleged crime occurred may override the State’s Attorney or Assistant State’s Attorney’s rejection of the felony charge or charges or the case is designated by the State’s Attorney or Assistant State’s Attorney as a continuing investigation if the evidence supporting the charge is clear and convincing and the override is filed with the clerk of the circuit court and the State’s Attorney; and (2) the State’s Attorney or Assistant State’s Attorney may rescind the override within 7 days after the override by petitioning the Chief Judge of the Criminal Division of the circuit court. Provides for petition requirements. Provides that, if the court determines that law enforcement agency’s decision to override was based on clear and convincing evidence, the State’s Attorney must proceed with a preliminary examination or seek an indictment by grand jury within 30 days from the date he or she was taken into custody or, if he or she is not in custody, 60 days from the date he or she was arrested. Provides that the decision of the court on the law enforcement agency’s override is not appealable.
* The Question: Your thoughts on this bill?
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* Progress, but a drop in the bucket until AFSCME comes around…
After recently reaching three union agreements requiring vaccines for certain state workers, Governor JB Pritzker announced the fourth such agreement has been reached with multiple Illinois trade unions working in congregate settings. This progress has been reached as negotiations are ongoing with AFSCME representatives.
This agreement will ensure employees at facilities such as the Shapiro Developmental Center, Menard Correctional Center and Quincy Veteran’s Home are protected with the COVID-19 vaccines. Given the provisions in the previous agreements the state made with VR-704, the Illinois Nurses Association and Illinois Federation of Public Employees, the deadline for all employees covered by vaccine agreements to get their first shot has been extended to October 26.
State employees who remain unvaccinated pose a significant risk to individuals in Illinois’ congregate facilities. Therefore, if employees do not receive the vaccine or an exemption by the dates identified, progressive disciplinary measures will be implemented, which may ultimately lead to discharge. The agreement includes a process whereby employees can seek an exemption based on medical contraindications or sincerely-held religious beliefs.
“Leadership by President Biden and businesses across the country show that vaccine requirements work,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I’m proud to announce that Illinois has reached our fourth union agreement to ensure those we serve are protected. Vaccination remains our strongest tool to stay safe from COVID-19 and protect our children.”
Following Gov. Pritzker’s announcement that all state workers who work in state-run congregate facilities would be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the agreements covering 1,990 workers have been made:
• VR-704: 260 supervisory employees at the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Agreement reached on September 20, 2021.
• Illinois Nurses Association: approximately 1,100 nurses working in 24/7 facilities like McFarland Mental Health Facility, Quincy Veterans’ Home and Jacksonville Correctional Center. Agreement reached on October 7, 2021.
• Illinois Federation of Public Employees: approximately 160 employees working in Human Services and Veterans’ Affairs. Agreement reached on October 7, 2021.
• Illinois Trade Unions: approximately 470 employees working in 24/7 facilities such as Menard Corrections Center, Shapiro Developmental Center and Quincy Veteran’s Home.
To further encourage vaccinations under the agreements with the unions, employees will receive an additional personal day. If the vaccine administration is not available during an employee’s regularly scheduled shift, the employee may be compensated at their regular pay for the time taken to receive the vaccine. In addition, vaccinated employees will receive paid “COVID time,” so that if a vaccinated employee gets COVID-19 they will receive a period of paid time off without using their benefit time.
The administration has taken extensive measures to make the COVID-19 vaccine equitable and accessible. The Pritzker administration established 25 mass vaccination sites. The Illinois National Guard supported more than 800 mobile vaccination clinics on top of an additional 1,705 state-supported mobile sites that focused on communities hardest hit by the pandemic, young residents, and rural communities. The COVID-19 vaccine has been available for healthcare and nursing home workers since December 15, 2020, and open to teachers since January 25, 2021.
Vaccination is the key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic and returning to normal life. All Illinois residents over the age of 12 are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at no cost and proof of immigration status is not required to receive the vaccine. To find a vaccination center near you, visit vaccines.gov.
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COVID-19 roundup
Monday, Oct 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Jake Griffin…
Illinois has surpassed another grim COVID-19 milestone with the disease now claiming the lives of one in every 500 Illinois residents, according to Illinois Department of Public Health records.
IDPH officials reported 63 more COVID-19 deaths over the past three days, bringing the state’s death toll from the virus to 25,470.
State health officials also report another 2,798 deaths were likely caused by the disease.
* The selfishness of these people never ceases to amaze me…
Keys and Kadence Koen, a math and business teacher at Southeast High School, are defying Springfield School District 186’s efforts to carry out Gov. JB Pritzker’s mandate that school personnel get vaccinated against COVID-19 or get tested weekly.
Keys and Koen cite “personal liberties” as the main reason for defying the order. […]
“I’m committed to standing up for my family, and, no, I will not comply with something that goes directly against my freedom to make independent medical decisions for my family and me,” Keys said. “The implications of eroding my personal freedom in my employment will then bleed into the freedoms of my children and my wife.”
Keys said Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education are “subverting the process” and forcing school personnel into “a life-altering medical procedure.”
Well, yeah, taking a vaccine is life-altering in that it can save your life and the lives of those around you. But, riddle me this, Batman, how is taking regular COVID tests as an alternative to a vaccine in any way “life-altering”?
Also, your “personal freedom” ends when it endangers the health and lives of others. You have the right to harmlessly swing your fist through the air. That right ends when you punch somebody.
* And for those of you who love trolling comment boards to ask why the vaccinated are so adamant about everyone possible getting their shots…
Colin L. Powell, whose immune system was weakened by treatment for multiple myeloma, died of complications of Covid-19 despite being “fully vaccinated,” his family said in a statement.
Being vaccinated will help you, but it could also save the lives of people who are severely immunocompromised or who can’t be vaxed.
* Eric Schmid…
Nearly every county in Illinois doesn’t have enough primary care, mental health and dental providers, according to a new report by the Rural Health Summit.
The issue is most acute in the state’s rural counties, including southern Illinois.
The report, produced by a consortium of health care professionals, finds the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated and illuminated the depth to Illinois’ rural health worker shortage.
“It showed a lot of people that there are a lot of issues that were under the surface for a long time and they came to the surface, and it kind of caused a crisis,” said Dr. Jim Daniels, a family and preventive medicine physician with Southern Illinois University’s medical school.
Speaking at a webinar Thursday about the report’s findings, Daniels said there’s a mismatch with the pipelines medical and government institutions have developed to get more doctors into rural areas.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on how we’re going to get someone to rural health, but maybe not a whole lot of time in the rural areas talking to folks saying, ‘What keeps folks there?’” he said. “If you say, ‘We’re going to pay your medical bills off,’ and then in about four or five years you haven’t bonded with the community, [so] you leave.”
One way to combat this, according to the report, is to provide opportunities and incentives for people from rural communities who want to enter the health care field.
* Oy…
In May 2021, as the U.S. vaccination campaign started to lose momentum, several U.S. states and some cities arrived at the same conclusion: To boost uptake, they’d launch vaccine lotteries, giving locals who’d gotten their shot the chance to win a million or more dollars.
But a new study published in JAMA Health Forum on Friday suggests that, on their own, the lotteries launched for vaccinated residents in 19 states failed to achieve their goals of encouraging people to take the Covid vaccine. It found no significant difference in rates of vaccine uptake in states that launched lotteries compared to those that did not.
“Everyone was rooting for this to work, but you’ve got to check,” says Andrew I. Friedson, an associate professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver and an author of the report. “The way the evidence has stacked up it seems that there are better ways to spend our money.” […]
Researchers used an approach that compared states only by whether and when they launched vaccination campaigns, attempting to weed out other potential influences across regions of varying affluence, population and political leanings. They also controlled for other day-to-day variables, including the number of new Covid cases, foot traffic behavior and whether states had other vaccination incentive programs ongoing. They found no association, either way.
* More…
* New CPD memo threatens investigation, termination for cops not compliant with vaccination reporting deadline; ‘Invalid,’ says FOP
* CPD restricts time off for officers as Catanzara fights Lightfoot on vaccination reporting mandate
* ‘Legitimacy’ of Chicago Police Department at Risk Amid Vaccine Mandate Fight: Lightfoot
* Chicago chief: Unvaccinated cops risk retirement benefits
* She never planned to get vaccinated. Seeing other pregnant women die from COVID changed her mind.
* Clock ticks down on vaccine mandate
* NBA should be working on an alternative to Irving’s COVID-19 vaccination message
* Should You Mix and Match Your Booster Shot?
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Chicago Sky open thread
Monday, Oct 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I know many of you are fired up about the championship win, so have at it [multiple exclamation points]
…Adding… Press release…
– The City of Chicago will celebrate the 2021 WNBA Champion Chicago Sky on Tuesday, October 19 with a downtown parade and rally. The parade will begin at 11AM when the team departs from Wintrust Arena, arriving at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park for a celebration rally starting at noon.
“The City of Chicago could not be prouder of our winning Chicago Sky,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “We are thrilled to throw a celebration worthy of this historic moment in Chicago sports and congratulate the Sky for bringing our city its first WNBA title. Let’s get ready to paint the town #SkyTown!”
PARADE ROUTE
The official parade starts with the team leaving Wintrust Arena at 11AM, traveling north on Michigan Avenue from Roosevelt Rd. to Randolph St., and heading east to Pritzker Pavilion. Fans are encouraged to cheer on the Sky along the parade route.
RALLY
A Celebration Rally will take place at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park starting at noon.
The rally is free and open to the public. All attendees must pass through security screening at select entrances off Michigan Ave. and Monroe St. Guests are encouraged to leave bags at home. For security, health, and safety information, please visit MillenniumPark.org and “Plan Your Visit.”
While attendees are not required to be vaccinated to attend, it is highly encouraged. Please do not attend if you do not feel well or recently tested positive for COVID-19.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** More remap stuff
Monday, Oct 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* New York Times…
Illinois Democrats on Friday proposed a new set of highly gerrymandered congressional maps that would consolidate Democratic power in the state’s congressional delegation, most likely cutting the number of Republican seats in the state to three from five.
Only if you’re looking at presidential results…
2022 is an off-year election and President Biden’s trend ain’t the Democrats’ friend. And many (not all) congressional Dems underperformed Biden last year. Not saying that this map wouldn’t result in 14-3, but it ain’t a slam dunk when you factor in reality. A bunch of those districts could be tossups.
* Not sure why counties are always supposed to be kept together, but OK…
* Koutsky has close ties to a top Durbin person…
Yet if Republicans found that map absurd, they will be even more offended by a new proposal.
Crafted by Zach Koutsky, a longtime Illinois Democratic operative, it appeared on the state Legislature’s online portal late Friday night.
The more aggressive map is even more contorted than the first — though perhaps more effective at delivering seats for Democrats. It was crafted in consultation with national Democrats, according to a source familiar with its origin.
In this proposal, Bustos’ northwest Illinois district stretches across the state’s northern border, grabbing the city of Rockford and dipping into Lake County to pick up some of the city of Waukegan. It also loops the Democratic-leaning cities downstate into two districts: one snaking from East St. Louis to Springfield to Decatur, and another that stretches from Peoria to Bloomington to Champaign.
That would leave just two deep-red seats for the state’s current Republican members. Democrats could conceivably take 15 of the 17 districts in the next election under this map.
* Wasserman, who is better at numbers than political analysis, wasn’t impressed by the effort…
* Question from Crain’s…
Will the Dems’ new map survive the week?
This is not intended to be the final map. The chair of the House Redistricting Committee specifically called the proposal a “first draft” on Friday. So, no, it won’t survive. By design.
* The truth is, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can submit a map, and several will before this is over…
* And some tweeters actually thought this obvious spoof was for real, which I thought was hilarious…
*** UPDATE *** AP…
A lawsuit seeks to block new Illinois state legislative district maps, saying Black residents of East St. Louis were unconstitionally split up into multiple House districts to help white Democratic incumbents in neighboring districts win reelection.
The federal lawsuit was filed Friday on behalf of the East St. Louis Branch NAACP, the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP and the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations. It says race played a role in the redistricting of House District 114, which is currently represented by Rep. LaToya Greenwood, who is Black. According to the lawsuit, one-fifth of the district’s Black voting-age population was moved into two nearby districts under the new legislative maps that Democrats approved and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law last month as part of redistricting. Thousands of white voters were added to District 114, which the plaintiffs say jeopardizes the prospects of a candidate preferred by Black voters. The district has been represented by a Black legislator for decades, the lawsuit states.
…Adding… The filing is here.
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* We’ve discussed much of this already, but here’s my weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Catholic priest and Chicago community activist Michael Pfleger has now twice called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to declare a “state of emergency” over his city’s notorious gun violence problems.
The first time was this past July, when Pfleger demanded Pritzker issue a similar emergency declaration to the one announced by New York’s then-governor, Andrew Cuomo. Pfleger repeated his demand again last week after a security guard and a little girl were injured by gunfire outside of a school.
The Democrat Cuomo issued his emergency declaration about a month before he finally resigned his office in disgrace. A chorus was building against him for a variety of reasons, including numerous sexual harassment claims. His emergency declaration was seen by some at the time as a way to distract from the growing calls for his immediate ouster.
As far as the substance goes, there wasn’t much in former Gov. Cuomo’s declaration that the state of Illinois isn’t already doing.
Cuomo unilaterally increased spending on violence interruption and youth job programs, which Illinois did in its current fiscal year’s budget.
Cuomo’s declaration also created a new Office of Gun Violence Prevention, but the Illinois Legislature has already done that here.
Cuomo created a gun trafficking interdiction program to stem the flow of guns from other states, but that’s already being done here, too.
Cuomo was criticized by New York Republicans for not also rolling back some of the state’s criminal justice reforms passed two years earlier, but Illinois’ reforms haven’t even taken effect yet, so they aren’t contributing to the problem, no matter what some ill-informed blowhards might be saying.
Look, the hard truth is, if there was a legal magic wand that could be waved to immediately solve the nation’s violence problem, it would’ve already been waved years ago.
Even so, the Chicago news media has long been notorious for amplifying mostly empty but very loud calls to “Do something right now!” about violence. Mayors Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel and now Lori Lightfoot have all been pilloried for failing to adequately address the city’s violence problems. Remember when another disgraced governor, Rod Blagojevich, threatened to call out the Illinois National Guard over Mayor Daley’s opposition? Blago got a ton of news media coverage for that, which, like Cuomos, is what his threat was really all about.
One thing deserving attention is a better understanding of what’s actually going on.
For instance, we are told over and over that gun violence in our cities is a gang problem. But a study conducted this year of Chicago police incident data for 34,000 shootings during the past decade found that detectives “labeled fewer than three in 10 of them gang-related,” according to The Trace. In 2020, the city’s police department claimed 43 percent of fatal shootings were gang-related, down from 70 percent five years earlier. But that police data is probably unreliable, so we don’t really know.
There are surely other things that can be done which are working elsewhere. And the current violent surge began with the COVID-19 pandemic, so it might eventually subside on its own once (hopefully) the pandemic finally recedes.
Some things take time. You can’t snap your fingers and bring back factories to the inner cities, or get rid of guns, or force people to trust the police and stop fearing neighborhood killers.
In the meantime, it wouldn’t kill the governor to be more aggressive in informing the public of what the state has done so far and what can be done in the future. He often tries to distance himself from local crime problems to the point where he comes off as uninvolved or uninterested.
Pritzker has done some good things, including vastly expanding violence interruption and prevention programs, but even then the money spent to treat violence like a public health issue is a relative drop in the bucket of what’s likely needed.
More funding for mental health programs is a no-brainer. This country’s track record on dealing with mentally ill people is beyond shameful. Schools should have counselors. Neighborhoods should have clinics with easy access. Police, nurses, doctors and so many others should get all the help they need so they can better deal with the devastation they engage with every day.
This stuff isn’t free, obviously. Magic wands are free, but they don’t exist. Make the case for more spending on real solutions and move the state forward.
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* Rick Pearson…
Since announcing his reelection bid in July, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has spent nearly $7 million in advertising, a sign of what confronts the four announced prospective Republican challengers seeking to take on the billionaire incumbent in next year’s election.
Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, spent more than $8.2 million from July through September, campaign finance reports showed. The first-term Democrat, who spent $171 million of his own money to defeat one-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018, is again self-funding his campaign and had nearly $24.7 million available in his campaign fund at the start of October.
Republicans are looking to see if or when Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder and CEO of Citadel, will weigh in on the Republican race. Griffin contributed to Rauner and spent millions to push voter defeat of Pritzker’s top agenda item to change the state’s flat-rate income tax to a graduated rate system.
Griffin has not expressed support for any of the four announced Republicans but the field could still grow.
The governor contributed about $39K to other campaign committees, including $15K to the Chicago Federation of Labor and $5K to Rep. Marcus Evans, who was one of the point persons on the climate/energy bill.
Pritzker spent almost $7.2 million on media buys and production, $274K on payroll and taxes, $182K on travel, $176K on consulting, $118K on legal services, $86K on research and $36K on software.
* Republican Jesse Sullivan reported raising $10.8 million and spent $789K, with $551K of that going to various advertising expenses.
Sen. Darren Bailey raised $894K, spent $383K, including $94K on consulting, $22K on yard signs, another $22K on t-shirts and $6K in salaries. He had a million dollars in the bank at the end of the quarter.
Gary Rabine raised $445K, spent $316K, including $146K on consulting and $63K on polling and “data.” He had $416K in the bank.
Paul Schimpf raised $60K, spent $103K, including $52K on consulting and $11K on signs. He had $73,652.58 in the bank at the end of September.
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* Politico…
Recently, wealthy elites have begun looking for other places to park their funds, places they think authorities won’t look. Places that offer all the financial secrecy these elites need, but that few would associate with lives of luxury. As a result, shadowy and sometimes ill-gotten wealth has started pouring not just into yachts and vacation homes, but also into blue-collar towns in the U.S. whose economic struggles make them eager to accept the cash.
One of these small towns appears to have been Harvard, Ill., a depressed factory community that allegedly became part of a sprawling network used by Ukrainian banking tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to launder hundreds of millions of dollars earned from a Ponzi scheme. Kolomoisky, who was recently hit with U.S. sanctions for “significant corruption” in Ukraine, is separately accused by the Justice Department and Ukrainian investigators of using a constellation of shell companies and offshore bank accounts to move millions in misappropriated funds out of Ukraine and into a series of real-estate investments in the American Midwest. (Kolomoisky denies wrongdoing, claiming he made the investments with his own money.) […]
The idea seems to have been to purchase troubled assets that American sellers were eager to offload. Even if the buyers ultimately took a loss, the assets were still outside the grasp of Ukrainian investigators and could still act as vehicles through which to funnel money. Perhaps most importantly, the properties could be bought without much inquiry into the source of the monies: For two decades, American real-estate professionals have benefited from a “temporary” exemption to anti-money laundering laws, allowing them to avoid performing due diligence on the customer making the purchase. […]
More than five years after the purchase, no jobs had returned and no further investments emerged. Unpaid property taxes kept accumulating, starving the strapped local government of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2016, Optima sold the building at a $7 million loss to a Chinese Canadian businessperson. Years of neglect by various owners began to take a toll: Soon, the factory went dark entirely. With a half-million-dollar tab in unpaid electricity bills, the juice was cut off, forcing local officials to visit with flashlights. “It’s just heartbreaking to see that beautiful place sitting vacant,” the McHenry County treasurer said in 2018. […]
“The building won’t just be valueless — it will be a catastrophe for the town, because it will have to be demolished,” Eldredge told me in 2020. “And the net cost for that, after salvage, is probably three to five times the city’s annual budget. It will be a financial catastrophe.” He paused, pondering the implication: This hundred-million-dollar promise to a small outpost in northern Illinois ended up with a foreign oligarch apparently using it to hide his money from investigators. (The building was sold just last month to a group of developers from Las Vegas for an undisclosed amount.) […]
As it turns out, the decrepit Harvard plant had another chance to avoid falling into disrepair. But the story of how that opportunity collapsed suggests just how deeply kleptocratic networks have become embedded into the American economy. In 2016 — just as Ukrainian officials began investigating the depths of Kolomoisky’s alleged Ponzi scheme — the oligarch and his team somehow found a buyer willing to take on the former Motorola plant. The new buyer was another firm with links to overseas investors, this time headed by a Chinese Canadian businessperson named Xiao Hua Gong. […]
A year after the sale, though, still nothing had happened with the building. And then Canadian authorities dropped a bombshell: They accused Gong of running his own transnational money laundering scheme, charging him with fraud and money laundering. Follow-on allegations from New Zealand authorities detailed how Gong had led a “multi-national pyramid scheme,” eventually resulting in the country’s largest-ever settlement, worth over $50 million. If the various allegations are true, this means the Harvard Motorola plant has entered not one, but two separate dirty-money pipelines. […]
The Biden administration has vowed to take on global corruption, recently elevating it to a core national security threat. But the intertwined stories of Kolomoisky and Harvard suggest there’s much left to do before we can even grasp the scale of the damage in America’s heartland — and figure out what to do about it.
Wow.
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PNA repeal back on the front burner
Monday, Oct 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The AP’s John O’Connor has a story on a possible repeal of the state’s Parental Notice of Abortion law. A quick excerpt…
The 1995 law, adopted during the only legislative session in the past half-century that Republicans controlled both the House and Senate and the governor’s office, did not take effect until 2013, after years of judicial challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Since then, the number of abortions among minors has dropped 38%, to 1,092 in 2018, while abortions overall among Illinois residents remained steady, according to Illinois Department of Public Health statistics. The numbers in both categories have plummeted since the mid-90s; overall, sinking 25% from a high of 49,131 in 1996 while abortions among minors hit a high of 4,853 in 1995 and a low of 1,003 in 2017, a drop of 79%. […]
Of 38 states requiring parental involvement in a minor’s abortion decision, 21 require parental consent — in three of those, both parents must consent, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
If a girl is in a family situation where notifying parents or other relatives would result in her harm, she may go to a judge who then decides whether she is mature and emotionally sound enough to decide for herself. That has happened 550 times since 2013, with a judge denying abortion access once, according to Brigid Leahy, senior director of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
* The statute…
No person shall knowingly perform an abortion upon a minor or upon an incompetent person unless the physician or his or her agent has given at least 48 hours actual notice to an adult family member of the pregnant minor or incompetent person of his or her intention to perform the abortion, unless that person or his or her agent has received a written statement by a referring physician certifying that the referring physician or his or her agent has given at least 48 hours notice to an adult family member of the pregnant minor or incompetent person. If actual notice is not possible after a reasonable effort, the physician or his or her agent must give 48 hours constructive notice.
Exceptions…
Notice shall not be required under this Act if:
(1) the minor or incompetent person is accompanied by a person entitled to notice; or
(2) notice is waived in writing by a person who is entitled to notice; or
(3) the attending physician certifies in the patient’s medical record that a medical emergency exists and there is insufficient time to provide the required notice; or
(4) the minor declares in writing that she is a victim of sexual abuse, neglect, or physical abuse by an adult family member as defined in this Act. The attending physician must certify in the patient’s medical record that he or she has received the written declaration of abuse or neglect. Any notification of public authorities of abuse that may be required under other laws of this State need not be made by the person performing the abortion until after the minor receives an abortion that otherwise complies with the requirements of this Act; or
(5) notice is waived under Section 25. [Judicial bypass]
Discuss.
* Related…
* Should Illinois repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act?
* Texas abortion law shutting down court avenue for teens
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* Hyde Park Herald…
“The map that I’m seeing is an absolute non-starter. It’s a horrendous map that does not take into consideration cultural affinities,” [US Rep. Bobby Rush] said in a statement to the Herald. “It begins at a place called absurd and it ends at a place called ridiculous. The best thing about this map is that my southern boundaries are not in Iowa.”
In her own statement, [US Rep. Robin Kelly] was more sanguine about the redistricting.
“Change is always hard, and the map released today is not final. I expect to see more changes in the final version. However, I am pleased to see that the Pullman National Monument, the Museum of Science and Industry, the future Obama Presidential Center and the proposed site of the south suburban airport will remain in my district. I have worked on these projects and with the museum for many years and look forward to continuing my work there,” she said.
“I have always felt fortunate to represent Illinois’ 2nd congressional district, which is representative of our nation itself, with urban, suburban and rural components. I hope the final map will reflect this.”
* Worst remap take so far, and that’s really saying something…
Yeah, because those noted conservadems JB Pritzker, Chris Welch and Don Harmon all banded together to mete out revenge on behalf of the pro-life legacy Lipinski. Right.
* Christie and Pompeo? OK. Also, could somebody tell Wasserman that this map will likely change over the coming two weeks? Thanks…
On Tuesday, the Sun-Times learned, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the co-chairs of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, will kick off an attack on the Democratic-drawn Illinois map, with more GOP assaults to come.
Democrats did not use all the available partisan firepower, said David Wasserman, one of the nation’s foremost remap experts, who is with “The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.”
The Illinois proposed map is “both uglier and less effective for Democrats than expected,” he wrote. With some shifts, Democrats could have added more protection for Rep. Lauren Underwood, who barely won a second term in 2020.
According to Wasserman’s analysis Illinois Democrats – who can still revise the map - unwittingly created some potential swing districts rather than safe havens in 2022. “If the political environment goes south for Democrats in 2022, this grotesque gerrymander could turn into a ‘dummymander,’” he wrote.
One possibility is that this is also a head fake. Republicans were expecting a lopsided map and this clearly is not. So, their attacks will fall flat… until the actual maps are passed in a couple of weeks.
* Using 2020 presidential numbers to predict 2022 outcomes is not smart, so keep that in mind when looking at these numbers from PlanScore, a project of the Campaign Legal Center…
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