SARA BURNETT Associated Press In the neck-and-neck fight to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats need help from the few places where state lawmakers can make 2022 difficult for Republicans. Illinois Democrats delivered Thursday, using their dominance in state government to advance new congressional district maps intended to eliminate two Republican-held districts and send
In the neck-and-neck fight to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats need help from the few places where state lawmakers can make 2022 difficult for Republicans.
Illinois Democrats delivered Thursday, using their dominance in state government to advance new congressional district maps intended to eliminate two Republican-held districts and send more Democrats to Washington.
To do it, Illinois Democrats have embraced gerrymandering, the practice of drawing district boundaries for political benefit that party leaders including former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder have railed against as “rigging” elections. The new map is a collection of odd shapes resembling abstract art and, critics say, a symbol of Democrats’ hypocrisy.
“This is a desperate map from a desperate party,” said Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, which coordinates redistricting for the GOP. He called it “America’s most extreme gerrymander.”
Both parties use gerrymandering, though Democrats more actively opposed it after the GOP used the practice in 2011 to create huge advantages for the next decade. Obama traveled to the Illinois Capitol where he once served as a state senator to deliver a speech about America’s broken political system, saying gerrymandering — packing a party’s supporters into one district or dispersing the other party’s voters for political advantage — was the reason nothing could get done in Congress.
Democrats in some states even gave up their own power by pushing for independent commissions to draw boundaries. And Holder became chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which has backed legal challenges to GOP-drawn maps in places like North Carolina and Virginia.
Democrats in Illinois, meanwhile, have done all they can to exert control and ensure it benefits their candidates for elections through 2030. Even with Illinois losing a seat due to population loss, the map was drawn to create a congressional delegation of 14 Democrats and three Republicans starting in 2022, a change from the current 13-5 split. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, a nonpartisan group that evaluates maps, gave Illinois’ maps an “F” grade, saying they give Democrats a significant advantage and are “very uncompetitive.”
The maps — along with maps in other Democrat-controlled states like New York — could be pivotal as Democrats try to hold their narrow majority in next year’s midterms, when the party in the White House has historically performed poorly. Republicans are in charge of the mapmaking known as redistricting in more than twice the number of states as Democrats, including large, growing states like Texas and Florida.
Illinois Democrats defended the maps they released late Thursday and passed a short time later, saying they ensure minorities and other Illinois residents have an equal voice in government.
“I’m proud of this map,” said Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, a sponsor of the redistricting legislation. “This is a fair map and it reflects the diversity of the state of Illinois.” He also said lawmakers chose to unite communities “that shared political philosophies and policy objectives.”
Harmon
Democrats added a second predominantly Latino district, after census data showed Illinois’ Latino population grew over the past decade. They also maintained three predominantly Black districts.
GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump, and Darin LaHood were put into the same heavily Republican district, as were GOP Reps. Mike Bost and Mary Miller.
Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, who said he may challenge Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker next year depending on the final map, was drawn into a safe GOP district that meanders from one side of the state to the other. It surrounds another Democrat-leaning district that was carved as a narrow squiggle stretching nearly 200 miles from the home of the University of Illinois to Democrat-friendly communities east of St. Louis. A former aide to Pritzker who worked in the Biden administration, Democrat Nikki Budzinski, is running for the seat.
Not all Democrats are happy. First-term Democratic Rep. Marie Newman was drawn into the same majority-Latino district as Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a late-in-the-game move that Newman said was done “to appease one person and a small handful of affluent insiders at the expense of workers and working families” in her current district.
Democrats say that move — sacrificing one of their own party — proves the new maps are fair and should survive expected court challenges.
Illinois State Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, questions Andrew Ellison about his proposed maps during a House Redistricting Committee hearing at the Illinois State Capitol on Oct. 20.
The Illinois Senate approved the maps late Thursday, with all Republicans voting no. The House was expected to consider it later Thursday.
Democrats’ aggressive mapmaking started earlier this year, when they insisted on approving new state legislative maps — which will strengthen their hold on the state House and Senate for another decade — using population estimates rather than census bureau data, making Illinois the only state in the nation to do so. Legislative leaders said they faced a deadline set by the state constitution, but that deadline was only for Democrats to have total control of the process, rather than a bipartisan commission.
Lawmakers had to redo those maps after census data showed they were unconstitional because the districts varied dramatically in population. Lawsuits seeking to have the new maps thrown out are pending.
Pritzker signed both the first set of legislative maps and the do-over maps, despite pledging during his 2018 campaign that he would veto any legislative maps drawn by politicians. He is expected to sign Democrats’ congressional maps as well.
Photos: Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Building
1920s Chicago skyscrapers
The tops of 1920s Chicago skyscrapers peek through fog in 1956. The buildings are the London Guarantee & Accident Building, from left, the Wrigley Building, 333 North Michigan Ave., Tribune Tower and the Palmolive Building.
Wrigley Building
The Wrigley Building, left, and the American Dental Association building are two of the structures designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.
Michigan Avenue Bridge
Lillian Berg, of Chicago, walks across the Michigan Avenue Bridge with the Wrigley Building in the background under the protection of an umbrella as another day of rain and fog cover the city in January 1969.
Michigan Avenue in 1958
The view looking northwest from Randolph Street near Lake Shore Drive shows dark clouds moving over Michigan Avenue in 1958. The historic buildings, left to right, are 333 N. Michigan Ave., the Wrigley building and the Tribune Tower.
Wrigley Building
An automobile is destroyed by a bomb between two sections of the Wrigley building on July 12, 1965.
Chicago in 1948
An aerial view of Chicago in 1948, including the Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building.
Chicago in 1945
Chicago at night, 1945. The Tribune Tower and Wrigley Building are at middle left.
Chicago in 1944
Medinah Athletic Club, from left, Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building as fog rolled in off Lake Michigan in April 1944.
Chicago in 1935
The Wrigley Building, left, and the Tribune Tower in 1935.
Chicago in 1932
Communist riot at the Wrigley Building in downtown Chicago, circa April 5, 1932.
Chicago in 1928
An aerial view, circa 1928, of the Mather building, from left, London Guarantee & Accident Building, lower center, the Wrigley Building, the Medinah Athletic Club and the Tribune Tower.
Chicago in 1923
The London Guarantee Building (also known as the London Life Insurance Building and/or London Guaranty & Accident Building) is under construction at 360 N. Michigan Ave, circa 1923. The Wrigley Building is across the river.
Wacker Drive in 1927
Wacker Drive looking east in 1927 with the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower on the left. On the right are the London Guarantee, Mather and Jewelers buildings.
Tribune Tower in 1924
A bird’s-eye view of the construction of the Tribune Tower is shown in 1924. The Wrigley Building is on the left.
Wrigley Building
Mayor William Hale Thompson and his boat at the Wrigley Building in an undated photo. Thompson said he was going to sail to the South Seas.
Wrigley Building in 1922
Elliott Jenkins, left, and Thorne Donnelly are the original owners of WDAP, the predecessor to WGN radio. Jenkins and Donnelly are at their transmitter in the Wrigley Building in 1922. This 50-watt transmitter was built up from component parts by station engineers and was moved over to the Drake Hotel at the latter part of 1922.
Wrigley Building in 2021
Historian Tim Samuelson and building manager Bradley Borowiec on the rooftop of the Wrigley Building on Oct. 19, 2021.
Wrigley Building in 2021
The Wrigley Building, on Oct. 19, 2021, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.
Chicago in 1981
The walkway on lower Wacker Drive affords riverfront strollers a view of boaters and such North Michigan monoliths as the Wrigley Building, River Plaza and Tribune Tower on July 16, 1981.
Wrigley Building in 1970
Clear weather provides an excellent view of Chicago from atop Tribune Tower, showing the Wrigley Building down below on July 20, 1970. This view is looking southwest.
Wrigley Building in 1970
The adaptation of Baroque ornament in the Wrigley Building stands out sharply against the glass and steel design of the Equitable Building, located across Michigan Avenue, in July 1970.
Wrigley Building in 1969
The moon above Chicago as the clock on the Wrigley Building indicates 9:56 p.m., the time when Neil Armstrong set foot on lunar soil on July 20, 1969.
Wrigley Building in 1966
Holiday decorations in Pioneer Court, looking toward the Wrigley Building on Michigan Avenue on Dec. 16, 1966, in Chicago.
Chicago in 1962
The view from the top of the Tribune Tower on March 7, 1962, was heavy with fog due to thawing temperatures. Tribune photographer Jack Mulcahy was setting up a long-range camera when this picture was taken by Tribune photographer Phil Mascione. The Wrigley building is in the center.
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