CHICAGO (CN) — The Illinois General Assembly is set to vote next week on changes to the state's political maps, the final step in a redistricting process that began in June.
Before next Tuesday's vote, lawmakers will hold four days of public hearings on the proposed district maps, starting Thursday and running through Sunday.
Redistricting, as its name suggests, is the process by which the state's legislative, court and congressional districts are apportioned throughout the state. District sizes are determined by population, and they can grow, shrink or even disappear to reflect changes in that population. The state is required by law to redistrict once every 10 years to reflect data from the latest national census.
This census cycle, Illinois was apportioned 17 seats in Congress, losing one seat from the 2010 apportionment. The change reflects the state's overall population decline over the past decade, and means that one congressional district must go.
That's bad news for Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, whose fiefdom is the state's politically divided, central 16th Congressional District. Half suburban liberal, half rural conservative, a partitioned 16th District could help shore up the neighboring 14th District held by Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and the 17th District, soon to be left open by retiring Democratic Congresswoman Cheri Bustos.
Democrats control Illinois' ship of state from bow to stern, and in what's predicted to be a highly competitive midterm next year, they'll likely press every advantage they have – especially if it means getting rid of a nationally popular Republican.
In a Wednesday interview with Politico, Kinzinger denied worrying too much about the political Sword of Damocles hanging over his head.
“If I lose my district, we'll take a look then... But I'm not too freaked out,” he said.
The controversy around Kinzinger's seat is not the only fight to emerge in this year's redistricting process. The Illinois General Assembly "finished" redrawing all state Senate, House and appellate court districts in late May, with the changes signed into law by Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker in early June. However, these maps were based on 2015-2019 estimates made by the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, not the full 2020 census.
Though state Democrats, who soundly control the redistricting committees, called the early change necessary in light of census delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, groups both to their political left and right accused them of trying to rush through the process to cement their own political advantage. Both the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Illinois Republican Party filed lawsuits against the State Board of Elections, claiming the early maps are unconstitutional. Those lawsuits, consolidated in July for judgment before a three-judge panel, are still pending.
"The General Assembly used data from the American Community Survey five-year estimates for 2015-2019 and 'other election data' to draw the boundaries for the districts used to elect members of the General Assembly... Five-year ACS estimates are not current for purposes of determining whether districts comply with the [14th Amendment] one-person, one-vote standard," according to the lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Sure enough, the full 2020 census results released on Aug. 12 showed substantial population differences from the preliminary estimates. To address this, last week Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, both Democrats, announced a special Aug. 31 session to vote on new district maps. The four days of public hearings starting Thursday are meant to offer the Illinois public a chance to review and comment on the proposed new maps, but these too have faced criticism from many corners.
Jason Barickman, a Republican state senator and minority caucus chair, called the four-day public comment period "highly condensed," the State Journal-Register reported Monday. He said the drama between the initial redistricting, its signing into law by Pritzker, and the short length of time between the official release of the census data and a new redistricting vote on Aug. 31 made the whole affair a "sham process."
Omar Aquino, a Democrat who is chair of the state Senate Redistricting Commission and majority caucus whip, rebuffed these claims in a statement released by the Illinois House Democratic Caucus on Monday.
"The maps passed in May were drawn with the best data available at the time. Now that the long-awaited census data has arrived, we will make adjustments as needed,” Aquino said.
Illinois residents can provide comments and submit electronic witness slips on the proposed redistricting maps through the General Assembly website or by email. All the public hearings will be broadcast live on the General Assembly website. A full schedule of the hearings is available on the Illinois House Democrats website.
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