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House Bill Passes to Allow Monster Community College District to Redistrict Itself

May 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Community Colleges are getting in on the redistricting fun too. The State Journal-Register reports:

Bill would let LLCC board draw election map itself

The Lincoln Land Community College board of trustees would get the power to redistrict itself under legislation that passed the Illinois House Thursday.

The General Assembly previously drew maps for community colleges where trustees are elected from districts. However, only LLCC and Southwestern Illinois College, based in Belleville have that electoral set-up.

“There are 39 community colleges in this state,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg. “All but two of them have trustees at large.”

The proposal passed 115-0 with one representative – Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville, who also serves on the LLCC board – voting “present.”…

The land mass of this community college blows me away…

“Lincoln Land is the largest physical district – larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware put together,” LLCC trustee Kent Gray said. “It made sense to have geographical representation.… (read full)

Whoa… How many campuses does this community college have? How do you service a land mass like that?… Online classes? lol

Imagine how much they collect in property taxes!

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Illinois Campaign for Political Reform – SB 3976 Not Good Enough

January 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Cindy Canary, director for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, writes a guest column in the Rockford Register. She attacks SB 3976 and ask Gov. Quinn to pursue transparency in the redistricting process:

Quinn can give voters voice in redistricting

After enacting an income tax hike, abolishing the death penalty and legalizing same-sex civil unions, could any issue on the horizon in 2011 possibly be viewed with as much importance by state legislators?

Yes, redistricting — inside baseball to most of us — is the issue that many legislators consider to be of paramount importance. Redistricting is the political life-or-death issue that will consume the attention of every legislator interested in being re-elected.

The once-a-decade redrawing of legislative district boundary lines also should be important to voters, but many legislators don’t want to be bothered by voter opinion on this issue. They’d rather concentrate on maps drawn under the direction of House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton.

Instead of soliciting voter opinion, some legislators concocted an elaborate ruse to make voters think their voices would be heard. They passed Senate Bill 3976, which includes improved minority protections and a section called the “Redistricting Transparency and Public Participation Act.” Unfortunately, the transparency section of the bill is more about the illusion than the reality of openness.
That pseudo-transparency bill now is on Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk.

Quinn should make it clear to the General Assembly that he expects real transparency and real participation by the public… (read full)

Filed Under: Redistricting, Reform Tagged With: ,

IL-17 Cited in USA Today

January 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Illinois’s 17th congressional district was cited as a modern example of gerry-mandering in a broader USA Today editorial “Our view on redistricting: Politicians picking voters.”

In most states, there are few constraints on what the legislature can do in redrawing political boundaries for partisan advantage. California has one congressional district that’s 200 miles long and at places only a few hundred yards wide. In Illinois, the 17th district has so many twists and turns that it has been described as looking like ” a rabbit on a skateboard.”

Custom-designed districts are an effective protection racket for incumbents, more so as computers have made the game more sophisticated. But they add to the political polarization that the public so disdains, preventing compromise on divisive issues. Candidates who face no general election threat cater instead to the extremes of their own party to deter any primary challenge… (read full)

The article went on to list other states with recent reforms. Illinois was absent.

Filed Under: Redistricting, Reform Tagged With: ,

Peoria Journal Star To Quinn: Veto Redistricting Reform… ?

January 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Peoria Journal Star pressures Quinn with this editorial today:

Our View: Is Quinn still a reformer? Prove it on redistricting bill

A bill laying out the framework for how state lawmakers will redraw the political boundaries for House and Senate seats in the Illinois Legislature is on its way to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk. If even a shred of the old, good-government reformer still exists in Quinn, he’ll take out his amendatory veto pen and make some serious changes.

It’s too late to make the most major of alterations – removing politically connected mapmakers from the process and boosting the majorities required for approval so that Democrats who control the state House, Senate and governor’s mansion can’t unilaterally impose a map – because such matters would have required a constitutional amendment. Illinois voters dropped the ball on getting one onto the ballot last year, so the same, flawed system remains. But some key improvements can still be made, if the governor insists.

This measure requires there be four public hearings around the state before a map gets voted on, with no requirement that any input come after a map has actually been proposed. There ought to be more public discussion; only a year ago Democrats called for at least eight hearings. It’s a slam dunk that citizens ought to be able to weigh in not only before the first-draft map is drawn but be able to react to that product afterwards, with the Legislature open to revisions…(read full)

The editorial continues and ends with this specific challenge:

If the measure arrives on Quinn’s desk in the next few days, an amendatory veto can take care of all these things and send a message to the Legislature that it’s time to abandon the embarrassing status quo. After Wednesday, when a new General Assembly is sworn in, any changes to the bill can’t be considered. But a regular veto, sending legislators back to the drawing board, will deliver the same signal that the interests of voters come first.

Frankly I don’t think vetoing SB3976 would effectively further any sort of reform in Illinois… or improve Gov. Quinn’s image as a reformer for that matter. I think a gentle bill advocating minority districts and vaguely pursuing four public hears is the best our flawed General Assembly can muster.

Is the Peoria Start right on or off the reservation? Leave your thoughts below.

Filed Under: Redistricting, Reform

Dupage County Chairman Cronin Firm on Redistricting Reform

January 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

“If the remap committee chairman thinks that this can be handled now the way it’s been handled in the past, he’s sorely mistaken,” Cronin said.

The Beacon News reports drama in the Dupage County Redistricting Committee:

Rumblings galore in DuPage remap

Jan 7, 2011 02:48AM
By Susan Frick Carlman scarlman@stmedianetwork.com

The panel charged with redrawing the electoral boundaries in DuPage County is under fire from a couple of directions.

Critics allege the Redistricting Committee, composed of one Republican member from each of the county’s six districts, fails to fairly represent its increasingly diverse voting base, which two years ago put a record three Democrats on the 18-member County Board. Newly installed Chairman Dan Cronin also has called the committee to task, saying its members have refused to set a place at the table for him.

“I just want to be on equal footing with the County Board members,” said Cronin, whose position lost a significant chunk of its power when the board overhauled its decision-making rules in September, several weeks before he was elected.

The chairman received a boost, however, when the General Assembly approved an amendment Wednesday afternoon that will enable him to propose redrawn lines that the committee can’t bypass without first conducting a public hearing… (read full)

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SB3976 – Redistricting Reform for Minorities Sent to Governor

January 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Illinois Issue’s blog offers detailed coverage on redistricting that passed through the general assembly today. If you cut through the rhetoric, here are the highlights on SB3976:

Illinois lawmakers approved changes today to the method they will use to draw legislative districts for future elections. . .

If signed by Gov. Quinn, the redistricting measure would add provisions to the process to protect minority voters. . .

The bill also requires four public redistricting hearings throughout the state. Republican opponents said hearings were not enough to give the public input. They said some hearings should be required after proposed maps are drawn, so voters can provide the legislature with specific feedback.

Chicago Democratic Sen. Kwame Raoul, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, said there will likely be more than four redistricting hearings, and Currie agrees…“It’s not a ceiling. It’s a floor. It says we have to have at least four hearings in separate parts of the state, so the people of the state of Illinois, in separate parts of the state, can have a voice in this process.”

Currie said: “The four is the floor. We can have many more, and 10 years ago [when the current map was drawn], we did.” (read full)

Governor Quinn is likely to sign this one. Public hearings on the next political map will be a gracious act of transparency by Illinois standards.

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