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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
I’m assuming you’ve already seen coverage of the Democratic Texas state legislators who fled to Illinois to prevent a Republican-backed redrawing of congressional district lines in their home state. Their absence means their Legislature doesn’t have enough members to legally conduct business.
Like every Democratic governor, Gov. JB Pritzker needs his party to win back the U.S. House next year to prevent further fiscal damage to his state (among many, many other things). Hence his intense attention to Texas attempting to pick up five seats with an intercensal remap.
This is also a bit of a public relations payback by Pritzker after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to Chicago awhile back.
Not to mention that the media-friendly news conferences and public appearances raise Pritzker’s national profile ahead of a possible presidential bid.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has his own national ambitions and has floated an idea for a November referendum on redrawing his state’s districts. So, hosting self-exiled Texas Democrats allows Pritzker to say he’s doing something.
Texas state legislators are paid $600 a month. They all have “real” jobs. The Texas Dems also walked out in 2021 over a voting rights bill, but the stalemate ended five weeks later when three Democrats returned to the state and a quorum was restored.
This isn’t Texas’ first intercensal redistricting move. In 2001, a federal judge drew Texas’ congressional boundaries, but the Republican-controlled state Legislature redrew the map in 2003 (after another failed Democratic walkout), resulting in big GOP wins in 2004. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan refused to redraw Illinois’ maps in retaliation.
Illinois Democrats hold 82% of our 17 congressional seats. We live in a heavily gerrymandered state.
Texas Republicans hold 66% of that state’s 35 congressional seats. The remap could conceivably allow Texas Republicans to pick up five more seats, giving them 79% of the state’s districts — which would still be slightly below Illinois’ congressional gerrymander.
But it’s not quite that simple because Texas is being accused of conspiring to undermine the Voting Rights Act by breaking up existing minority-majority districts. The Illinois congressional map had no such issue.
Pritzker has said that redrawing Illinois’ congressional districts to elect another Democrat is a possibility. But Illinois’ petition circulation process began last week.
Unless it’s done really soon, redrawing congressional districts here might require either a separate primary for all U.S. representatives or moving the whole primary process back for everyone.
The best way to accomplish this goal is by diluting current Democratic districts with more Republicans to make room for another Democratic district. And that may make some Democratic incumbents nervous about elections beyond 2026.
“Nobody’s done any work on a map for Illinois,” Pritzker confessed to reporters late last week when asked.
Pritzker’s statement was confirmed by spokespersons for both House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon.
I just don’t see this remap happening here.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, is listed as the sole Illinois attorney in a state lawsuit filed in her native Adams County on behalf of several Republican Texas legislators demanding that Illinois courts assist Texas in forcing the skedaddled Democrats to return to face the music.
Ironically, Tracy’s Senate Republican caucus briefly tried to shut down their chamber a few years ago when the Democrats wanted to redraw some judicial circuit boundaries.
Texas has issued civil warrants for the apprehension of the absconded lawmakers, so their lawsuit is based on pretty thin gruel, particularly since Illinois does not allow the cooperation of its police with federal civil warrants issued by immigration authorities. Outside civil warrants just don’t mean much here.
According to the lawsuit, Illinois has a “mandatory constitutional duty to respect and give full faith and credit to the public acts of the Texas House of Representatives, including the Quorum Order and the Quorum Warrants,” under the “full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs want the Texas Democrats held in contempt and a post-haste hearing where the Southern state can “present evidence of Respondents’ willful attempts to circumvent Texas law.”
President Donald Trump won Adams County with 73% of the vote last year, so prepare yourself for a possible initial win by the Texans. I seriously doubt that the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic Supreme Court would ever go along with any sort of punishment or detention, however.
In other words, this whole thing is mostly symbolic, including (so far, let’s hope) the unfortunately predictable fake bomb threats at the suburban hotel where the Texas Democrats are staying.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 8:30 am
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Seems to me Pritzker’s goal here is to put pressure on California and New York to do their own redistricting to counteract Texas. Which wouldn’t be symbolic.
Comment by ChicagoVinny Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 8:37 am
Pritzker’s performance on MTP was embarrassing and the type of thing that sinks your presidential aspirations before they begin.
He overstepped on this issue full stop.
Comment by LP-Dad Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:08 am
=He overstepped on this issue full stop.=
Overstepped? Meet Greg Abbott and Donald Trump.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:11 am
JS Mill
Whataboutism isn’t an effective argument. JB has lost the moral high ground and is sinking. He is not quick on his feet and has fumbled his response each time.
As OW said, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
Comment by LP-Dad Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:16 am
He couldn’t answer simple questions he knew were coming.
The host didn’t even press him on breaking his campaign promise to not sign a gerrymandered map drawn by politicians.
JB was for fair maps before he was against them.
Lecturing a national audience about threats to democracy when Democrat’s seats are affected but not when he draws two downstate Republicans out of their seats doesn’t fool anybody
Comment by Johnny B Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:20 am
=This isn’t Texas’ first intercensal redistricting move. In 2001, a federal judge drew Texas’ congressional boundaries, but the Republican-controlled state Legislature redrew the map in 2003 (after another failed Democratic walkout), resulting in big GOP wins in 2004. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan refused to redraw Illinois’ maps in retaliation.=
I shudder to think what could have happened had Rod Blagojevich gone ahead and proposed his own “Blagomander” in response to Texas two decades ago. And perhaps not just limited to a new congressional map, perhaps new legislative maps to punish his “enemies” (e.g., Madigan and perhaps the entire Springfield-area delegation) and reward his “friends” (e.g., Hoffman, Emil).
Comment by Leatherneck Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:21 am
The governor got the big pr bump he wanted but I really don’t think it did him much good. It has to hurt and be surprising when both Stephen Cobert and meet the Press call out your map and say it is a poster for gerrymandering and gets an F and your responses is well we’ll we had kindergartners draw it and we didn’t discriminate
Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:24 am
I wish Democrats would stop trying to squirm out of this question of hypocrisy around blue state gerrymanders. Yes, of course you want a gerrymandered map, everyone does. Everyone knows it. Just be honest about it.
I also wish that some Democrat, somewhere, would start making the case that we need to fundamentally re-think how we elect Congress in the first place. Using single-member, geographically defined, winner-take-all districts is just not a good way to elect a Congress in the 21st century. Maybe it worked in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it doesn’t work in today’s democracy. Fairness will come from having some kind of multi-member proportional system (and completely reworking the Senate, for that matter). As long as we use our current system, gerrymandering will always be with us and it will always be a political process. I hope it’s not too much to ask for one high profile Democrat to be courageous enough to talk about this.
Comment by I-55 Fanatic Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:31 am
Abbott 2, Pritzker 0
Comment by City Zen Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:49 am
LP Dad acting like this is December 2027 instead of summer 2025.
Whatever Pritzker said in that interview will be forgotten by the majority of people who watched it…already.
Your attempt to make this sound like he’s already the Democratic nominee would be humorous if you were remotely funny.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 9:54 am
Fact: republicans have more and worse gerrymandered maps countrywide than democrats do.
Fact: democrats tried to pass an anti gerrymandering law nationwide, and republicans blocked its passage.
Democrats need to stop running from questions that do the typical “whataboutyourmaps” and start answering with republicans continue to fight our attempts to make it nationally fair and until that time comes, we will fight back from now on.
Its that simple. Dems once again with a messaging problem, per usual.
If JB hurt his national standing, then good, because I want him as Illinois Governor indefinitely.
Comment by Brandon Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 10:33 am
I think this worked for JB. We know him and most people outside of IL will have trigger of who he is, the D-governor fighting back. That’s about it for an election that is more than 3 years away. Here’s a potential mid-term answer:The two main culprit districts do make us look ridiculous, but they don’t violate the Voing Rights Act of 1965.
Comment by levivoted4judy Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 11:03 am
=== JB has lost the moral high ground ===
Dems have been on the moral high ground on so many issues, yet they don’t get plaudits, credit or voters for being there. Meanwhile, the MAGA GOP has no morality nor compulsion to even try. That’s why it’s ludicrous to criticize Dem response to the MAGA GOP efforts to redraw maps mid-decade solely to keep from losing the House of Representatives after the disaster Trump has wrought on the nation. Efforts that target minority representation.
Comment by Norseman Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 11:06 am
=Abbott 2, Pritzker 0=
JB is driving abbott nuts right now. 1-1
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 11:34 am
Sorry folks, the states with one party rule by Democrats have the most gerrymandered districts. Ironically, the worst state is also one with an independent commission that a lot of people think is the only fair way to draw districts - Iowa.
A detailed analysis is available here: https://www.americanexperiment.org/on-gerrymandering-three-cheers-for-minnesota
Comment by MeanderingJerry Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 11:54 am
Assuming Pritzker runs for Governor and then does not run for President in 2028, most of these comments become unnecessarily alarmist nonsense.
Pritzker calling out Abbott is what every democrat is doing. It’s call politics, and it’s called framing the issue.
Relax folks. Illinois cannot change the national game this week. California and New York can. That’s the real issue. The rest is just politicking. Prizker did well on Colbert, assuming he is not running for President, or even if he is.
PS - Abbott is not winning. He is ending representive governance.
Comment by H-W Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:02 pm
@meanderingjerry
You are doing nothing but meandering, country wide, republicans have out gerry mandered democrats as a whole and it isnt even close. Democrats tried and did pass to end gerrymandering nationwide, and republicans blocked it because they knew it would hurt them more.
Lets also talk blue states vs red states a minute:
Blue states over all have lower crime rates, higher quality of life rankings, longer life spans, less poverty, higher wages, more worker benefits, and pay more in taxes than they get back.
If this is the outcome of red vs blue, amd it is, we should all want every state to be democrat majority gerrymandered.
But why let facts get in the way?
Comment by Brandon Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:26 pm
=== PS - Abbott is not winning. He is ending representative (sic) governance. ===
He and his MAGA GOP co-conspirators don’t care. Power and money are the goals.
Comment by Norseman Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:33 pm
===Sorry folks, the states with one party rule by Democrats have the most gerrymandered districts.
Wrong. Republicans pick up 16 more seats from redistricting with Florida and Texas gaining 5-6 more seats than without a neutral map, Illinois is 2-3 and the only Democratic state in the top 8 offenders
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-gerrymandering-tilts-2024-race-house
Phelps, from your source, tries to argue that states should have the same breakdown as if states had multimember districts statewide. That’s not how the population is distributed and misses that single member districts always distort it. Now, if you want to move to Proportional Representation, I’m all in, but I doubt you want that.
Comment by ArchPundit Monday, Aug 11, 25 @ 12:40 pm