By: Mark Glennon*
Talk about voter suppression.
The initial proposal was absurd enough. It was the remap proposed by Illinois Democrats last Friday for Illinois seats in the US House of Representatives. It would be, even according to the New York Times, “among the most gerrymandered in the country.” It was designed to “consolidate Democratic power in the state’s congressional delegation, most likely cutting the number of Republican seats in the state to three from five.”
You can see the contortions needed to accomplish that in that first map shown on the left. It would, as described by the NYT, “leave in place one of the nation’s most crooked districts, the jaw-shaped Fourth that connects Hispanic neighborhoods on the North and South Sides of Chicago. In the mouth of the proposed Fourth District sits the Seventh, one of three districts drawn to have a plurality of Black voters.”
But that “didn’t go far enough to protect House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s majority” for Washington Democrats, as Politico put it, which has the full story here. So they got into the act by proposing the second map, shown on the right. It’s even more contorted and would likely remove three Illinois Republicans from the House, reducing their count to just two seats out of the 17 Illinois will have. (Illinois is losing one seat because of population changes.)
“Music to Pelosi’s ears,” said Politico.
Courts have said that voting maps are supposed to be “compact and contiguous,” but that’s clearly a farce.
Look at the particularly absurd blue district in the center of the second map. It nearly entirely surrounds another district.
Both maps are coming from the crowd that forever moralizes about “voter suppression” in the form of voter ID laws. But nothing suppresses votes more obviously than gerrymandered maps. The entire point is to assure that your vote is not likely to matter because one particular party almost certainly will prevail.
Be aware that Republicans do their own gerrymandering in states they control, though perhaps not as flagrantly as this.
UPDATE: Here’s a great video clip of Gov. JB Pritzker’s promises to deliver fair maps.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Pritzker was in Central Illinois yesterday and at the presser a reporter sheepishly asked about the remapping and his campaign promise for fair maps. I was a bit stunned, but Pritzker just casually let off a whopper of a lie and basically said ‘this is the legislative process’. Of course there was no follow up on that big lie from the sheepish, adoring press gaggle. It is astounding how comfortable Pritzker appears to be with lying.
As long as i get ma fwee stuffs im votin democratic
gimme sum o dat
racist scum
So,in a nutshell,democrats are dirty,cheating,controlling scumbags,way to go Chitcago and Illinois,lets vote more of these lying scumbags into office!-this state is a lost cause
This extreme level of gerrymandering is disgusting. Both of these gerrymandered maps basically disenfranchise anyone who isn’t a Democrat.
I still encourage Republicans, and other conservatives, to vote anyway because if enough Republican votes are cast, it might be enough to turn at least a few of these gerrymandered districts Republican.
The only thing this endeavor proved is that Democrats are still afraid to grant Hispanics proper representation.
It’s the exact opposite, they are not afraid of hispanics at all. It’s not like hispanics in Illinois are suddenly going to start voting Republican and flip the district! “Give us more seats or we’ll vote Republican!” That’s an idle threat.
IL Democrats take the hispanic vote for granted that they just don’t care. There’s nothing the hispanic caucus can do – other than file a lawsuit against their own party – to get a bigger slice of the identity politics pie!
Guess they’re worried they’ll get another Chuy Garcia.
Chuy is setting up his own competing forever caucus for Hispanics supporting candidates for offices all over the region, like a new Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO). The powers in charge don’t like that and they have no intention of ceding any of their powers to nobody. But it’s not like they fear Chuy, they just don’t respect him or hispanics. What they gonna do, vote Republican? Hahaha
Elections are rigged anyway, not talking about the maps, I mean they are literally rigged in the counting and ballot chain of custody. Now and forever, I truly don’t believe Republicans can win unless its a windfall. In 2020 my wife and I received the mail-in ballots, not knowing what to do we sent them in. All our lives we voted in person. After we mailed in the ballots we realized how stupid we were. Anybody who opens the envelop can simply throw it in the garbage. So on election day we went and voted in person. Obviously someone did… Read more »
I say the big rig is by the national media. They have most of the nation living in a fictional world, favoring progressive candidtates by probably at least 4 to 5%.
Mark-Wouldn’t it be simpler if you count the number of registered voters in any given area/precinct and compare that to all the ballots that came in from the mail and in person votes? If the total is more than the registered voters that area needs to be immediately be scrutinized. 1,000 registered voters and 1,100 total votes cast=something fishy. The total registered voters in an area should be made public first before votes are cast.
Freddy, yes that should be done too. Pretty much everything that can be done to restore confidence in the system should be done, for all sides’ sake.
That’s certainly one component of Democrats advantage. Lax voting rules and outright fraud are the other components for the trifecta of progressive politics.
Since moving to Tennessee, several friends and family have visited. They see our lifestyle is basically the same as before (in Illinois) and we are paying thousands less in taxes. Now they are having conversations with their families about joining us in Tennessee. I used to worry about moving away from almost all my loved ones in Illinois. Now I realize many people in Illinois are just waiting for someone to show them the way out.
I have yet to meet the person who regretted moving from IL to TN.
Home prices in Williamson County TN are more expensive than DuPage County. Prices are up 20% a year in Williamson County. DuPage is only up 4.4% a year. TN taxes may be cheaper but you’ll be paying more on the front end for the home. Believe me, I’m a proponent of leaving IL, I hate this stupid state and I’ve lived here all my life, but getting out and capturing the savings, that boat sailed last year. It’s getting costlier and costlier every year as prices increase in red states everywhere.
True. The most popular destinations like Nashville have gotten expensive. Austin TX now extremely expensive. It will be interesting to see how much that helps IL or of other destinations not yet popular gain momentum.
High prices elsewhere “helps” IL only in the sense that it delays my own move by a couple of years or more. Cheaper home prices in IL relative to other states does not attract new residents to Illinois. If this were true, local officially recognized real estate sub-markets like Danville, IL would be booming because it’s one of the cheapest in the country yet the state continues to see a mass exodus. My ultimate goal is a small home on a lake right over the border in a red area in Southern Wi or Northern IN. But everyone else is… Read more »
The positive is that your home will continue to appreciate. In central Illinois, sadly many have taken on steep losses to sell their house.
One more thing about this, last year when I again looked into moving, I briefly looked at Utah after discovering Mish (Mike Sherlock a global finance blogger from IL) had moved there. But even Utah has gotten really expensive. The previously affordable SLC region, my modest home costs 50% more than it does in IL. Sure the taxes are cheaper but you lose out on the purchase price. For example, West Jordan UT, a purple town in southern SLC, with a HH income of $80k a year, has seen home prices jump 28% in the LAST YEAR and have jumped… Read more »
I’m shocked. I’m not shocked that the Democrats fight dirty to the point of cheating their way through everything, but I am shocked that conservatives actually still believe that Democrats will play fair — in ANYTHING. Listen, they don’t care. If you have watched “The Party” for decades–as many of you have–you’d know that everything they do is about centralizing power to themselves. They do not believe in rugged individualism, or personal freedom. They aren’t of the high-minded spirit that we can disagree and still get along and love our country. They hate you and they hate everyone who disagrees… Read more »
If you read Democrat comments about these issues, they say the same thing you are saying about their own party. The truth is that both parties right now are playing down and dirty. IL’s map is only slightly more gerrymandered than other states both R and D its just that we have small islands of blue in deep seas of red that need to be connected to make D districts out of red rural areas. That’s why our maps look so crazy. In other states they can accomplish gerrymandering with better maps because the population is more spreadout throughout the… Read more »
I agree with your point. But I also wonder how much of the 2020 Presidential election was an anomaly, whereas everything down ticket was more in line with actual voter sentiment? If that’s the case, then the Senate and House are more representative of how America feels, than the presidential percentages. Many people on both sides had/have a visceral dislike of Trump. I think that the less people viewed policy as important, the more likely they were to vote for Biden. In other words, these are “personality” and “leadership” voters, who view the Presidency in more of a spiritual figurehead… Read more »
There are not many split ticket voters, certainly not enough to change the election. We call them Never Trumpers – they are actually Democrats now – and they are a small single digit percentage actual voters. As for fraud, there was plenty of down ballot fraud too with straight D tickets. You just don’t notice it because it all occurred in districts that voted heavily D anyways, so no one notices. While don’t have time to provide a lot of examples, the 2016 Detroit recount was stopped as soon as they realized that there were more votes than voters in… Read more »
Mark – Be proud of the 2nd map, my union brother. It was drawn by Zach Koutsky, former political operative for UFCW 881. #BaggersUnite
He’s also engaged in consulting work for the Northfield Township Democrats. Stop by and say hi when you get the chance.
Every state is doing this. Utah is a 4R-0D state even though Biden won 37% of the state. Bidens supposedly won WI but they only ave 2D reps, the other 6 are R’s. I used to be shocked by Illinois’s gerrymandering but it’s really not that different than anyone else. If anything, people are concerned that the gerrymander is a dummymander. No one know the inputs into these maps and a red wave year with a poor D candidate could potentially flip some of these districts. Assuming no fraud, of course.
Think what really needs to be done is separate Chicago from the rest of the State, and then Madigan can have his own Country.
Lawsuits will be filed and the only judges out there that look at these maps and find them reasonable and not gerrymandered will have a giant “D” after their name. These maps look like a Chinese scrabble game.
Sure, but the legislature and governor collectively have the legal responsibility for deciding what is “reasonable” rather than you or I. “Reasonable” is in the eye of the beholder.
Yep,to governor Putzker its completely ” reasonable” to eat an entire large pizza by yourself
Well, there are pizzas and there are PIZZAS. The latter usually has a higher tolerance on the “reasonable amount” scale.
I know some downstaters who voted for Pritzker because of his promise for ‘fair maps’. These people have learned their lesson about Chicago Democrats, but it’s to late now.
Such an embarrassment for Illinois. Democrats have absolutely no shame.
The Republican call out on this article is unnecessary.
Republicans create block style maps which cut up cities. Democrats create unrepresentable districts.
From the light blue to the dark green (Chicago-ish), these districts are ungovernable.