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 There are 118 seats in the Illinois House of Representatives.
But before a single vote is cast on Election Day, nearly half of those seats
will have been filled.
That’s because 54 candidates are running unopposed.
House members’ titles as “representatives” can ring hollow with so many voters
having no real choice in the general election. And even in a die-hard blue or
red district, losing the power to vote for the opposing party breeds apathy.
Of those 54 free passes, 42 are going to Democrats. Some of the blame falls on
the Illinois Republican Party for failing to put warm bodies on the ballot in
those districts. And they almost certainly pay the price for it, as any
Republican House candidate would likely boost turnout for the top of the ticket.
The Illinois Senate is even less competitive than the House this year. Among 39
races, voters have one name to choose from in 20 of them. Fourteen of the 20
candidates running unopposed are Democrats.
More than anything else, these numbers on politically “safe” districts drive
home the problem with partisan mapmaking.
In Illinois, politicians draw the legislative map every 10 years. Here’s how it
works:
Both the House and Senate must approve a map, which the governor may then veto
or sign into law. If state lawmakers can’t get a map to the finish line, party
leadership appoints an eight-member committee to hash things out. If the
committee can’t agree on a map, the secretary of state appoints a tiebreaking
ninth partisan by random chance. Whichever party wins the lottery for the ninth
seat then draws the map.
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House Speaker Mike
Madigan has drawn Illinois’ legislative maps for three of the past
four decades. Notably, a three-member panel of federal judges forced
changes to the first map Madigan drew following the 1980 census,
after they found it unfairly weakened the voting strength of black
and Hispanic Illinoisans.
According to a Chicago
Tribune editorial published in January 1982, that was the first time
a court in a northern state had found the Democratic Party guilty of
intentional discrimination against minorities.
The judges’ ruling, “held in effect that those who drew up the map –
primarily [then] House Minority Leader Mike Madigan of Chicago and
Martin Murphy, [Chicago] Mayor [Jane] Byrne’s planning commissioner
– deliberately designed it to keep black and Hispanic representation
low,” the editorial board wrote.
“No defeat in court could have left the Democrats with such an
inglorious black eye …”
Nearly 40 years later, the mapmaking process remains the same. And
that means whoever becomes the next governor will have a key role to
play in mapmaking after the 2020 census.
If J.B. Pritzker wins the governor’s race and the House and Senate
remain under Democratic control, Pritzker will have to decide
whether to approve a partisan map drawn by his own party come 2021
or demand a more independent process.
Gov. Bruce Rauner would face the same choice if he wins and
Republicans take over the General Assembly.
Either man, if elected, must fight to get politicians out of the
cartography game.
More Illinoisans deserve a say on who their communities send to
Springfield.
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