Springfield Takes a Crack at Remap Reform
ICPR Board Chair Susan Garrett is quoted in this article
via CRAIN’s Chicago Business
“As a citizens group pushes its own solution, legislative efforts to reform the controversial process in which the state draws House and Senate district lines are suddenly picking up a bit of steam in Springfield.
The House Executive Committee late yesterday unanimously approved a proposal by Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, that would take decennial reapportionment, better known as ‘remap,’ completely out of the hands of lawmakers. Instead, the Illinois Supreme Court would appoint a commission to do the job and, if it stalemated along party lines, select a tie-breaking member to make the final call.
A similar measure pending in the Senate would give lawmakers a first crack at drawing lines themselves. But if that process stalled, the Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, would let the senior Democratic and GOP justices of the Supreme Court select a tie-breaking remap ‘master,’ much like the Franks bill.”
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