The Redistricting of Illinois

I was lucky enough to get the chance to sit down with my local representative to the Illinois Senate, Senator Dale Righter(R). I’ll be covering the many topics we discussed in a series of articles. Sen. Righter represents the 55th district in Illinois. This district has been redrawn in the recent changes to the district map in Illinois. These changes have not come without some controversy. In the first part of the interview, I got to talk to Sen. Righter about the challenges of a redrawn district, the controversy behind it, and what actions are currently in the works.

Senator Righter has represented the 55th district since 2003. Every 10 years the state redraws districts to account for population changes. Sen. Righter supports the redistricting concept stating that “There’s nothing wrong, in fact there’s everything right with requiring people in office to have to get used to new people if they choose to run again. I really try to look at it in that big picture way.” There are six new counties in the redrawn 55th district.

Ever since the 1970 Illinois Constitution, incumbents are allowed to draw the new district maps. Sen. Righter says that there are concerns with letting a political party draw political lines. “The process is the problem in redistricting. The process should be handled by a group of individuals outside of the political arena, who don’t have any steak in weather or not the Republicans or Democrats have control or weather the Republican over in one part of the state or the Democrat in another part of the state get re-elected.” Efforts were made in the previous spring to pass a “Fair Map Amendment” that would amend the Illinois Constitution to achieve the ideal of an outside group to draw the district maps. The amendment was voted down along party lines. There was also a petition drive to get an amendment put on the ballot for voters to get to decide. The petition drive fell short, but Sen Righter said that they there will be another petition drive to get an Amendment on the general ballot. There is also an ongoing lawsuit over if the map is constitutional.

Sen. Righter wanted to differentiate between changing the process and the ongoing lawsuit to change the map that was drawn. He said that the process needs to be changed so that no party can redraw the map for purely political purposes. He went on to say that both parties have been guilty of abusing the redistricting, and feels that it is best for the people of Illinois if people outside the political process make the map. Sen. Righter also talked about how the map was passed very quickly in order to keep people from getting enough time to review the map. He said that many of the lines on the map were drawn for purely political reasons. By passing it quickly, it left little time for debate, and little time for people to see how lines were drawn. Sen. Righter said that some lines are even drawn to put political opponents just outside of the new district. He believes that had the map been out for the public to see before it was voted on, many more questions would have been asked about why the lines were drawn the way they were, and would have influenced changes to keep the map fair.

Overall, Senator Righter has taken the changes with stride. “It’s a process we should all have to go through.” He said he’s been traveling to parts of the “new 55th”, as he calls it, to talk to constituents and get to know the people in the areas he will be running for re-election in. He thinks that it’s good to get to know new people, and let them know what he stands for.

To find out more about Senator Righter, you can visit his web-page here. It includes links to Facebook and Twitter.


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