Peoria Journal-Star: Governor should veto unfair legislative maps
Peoria Journal-Star Editorial
May 21, 2011
Unreal. That's about the only word that can be used in polite company to describe state Senate President John Cullerton's contention that the new legislative map to be debated by his chamber wasn't drawn with an eye toward electing more Democrats. "That's not the intention whatsoever. It's to comply with the law," he said.
Yeah, sure. That's why the city of Chicago lost some 200,000 people over the last decade but by our count managed to keep the same number of Senate districts - 19, roughly one-third of that chamber - by extending them out into the suburbs while preserving just enough Democratic voters in the city to keep sending folks with "D-Chicago" after their name back to Springfield.
That's why a plethora of Republican senators have been drawn into each other's districts, forcing them to retire or run against one another. The Democratic majority that drew the map even managed to give the Senate's GOP leader, Christine Radogno, that treatment. That's why a newly elected downstate Republican in a formerly Democrat-held district had his new boundaries drawn to bolster the number of Democratic voters in it. It has already been predicted that Democrats will gain at least three more Senate seats from this map, returning the party to its supermajority in that chamber.
But move along, nothing political going on here.