McLean County Times

State Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) used the words “hoping” and “hopeful” to express his thoughts on the words of then-candidate J.B Pritzker pertaining to the redrawing of the legislative boundaries following the decennial census.

Brady is hoping that the saying “the more things change the more things stay the same” will not be applicable to the redistricting process. He pointed out that the governor’s pledge to veto any legislative map that will be drawn by politicians should happen not later but sooner. The GOP is pushing for maps drawn by an independent commission while the majority Democrats are eager to use the American Community Survey data to meet the June 30 deadline in time for the 2022 election.

“In his words, we should amend the Constitution to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps, but in the meantime, he urged Democrats and Republicans to agree to an independent commission to handle creating a new legislative map,” Brady said. “We are hopeful that the governor will stand by what his words were in 2018 as we continue to go through the legislative redistricting process.”

The words were a response to a question posed to gubernatorial candidates in 2018 which was “Will you pledge as governor to veto any state legislative redistricting map proposal that is in any way drafted or created by legislators, political party leaders and/or their staffs or allies?”

The governor has not made another statement with regard to the ongoing state redistricting process. The Illinois General Assembly has been having several redistricting hearings but has not heard any insights from the governor.

While there is a common goal across the aisle of creating a fair map, state Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) said “Where Republicans differ with Democrats in charge of the map-making process is in Republicans' strong position in favor of voters picking their politicians versus politicians picking their voters.”