Congressional Democrats Have Secretly Been Weighing In on New Map
Congressional Democrats like Lauren Underwood, Bill Foster, Jan Schakowsky, Robin Kelly, Danny Davis, and Sean Casten, pictured at Thursday’s event with President Joe Biden, have been involved in drawing a new congressional district map in private. (Photo credit: Sun-Times)
NOTE: This story was originally posted for subscribers only. To receive subscriber-only newsletters and content, click here.
The House Redistricting committee held its first hearing on new congressional maps Thursday. There was one witness, little discussion, and it took under 25 minutes.
I received a text from someone frustrated with how Democrats have handled the congressional map thus far saying “you know they’ve got it in a drawer somewhere ready to go, right?”
To be honest, I didn’t know. So I started asking around. The best we can tell at the moment is that no, the congressional map is not yet done and ready to go.
Two sources tell The Illinoize Democratic members of the state congressional delegation huddled with Democratic legislative staffers a couple of weeks ago trying to flesh out changes to their districts. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Senator Dick Durbin have also weighed in, apparently.
The Illinoize reached out to the offices of 9 different Chicago-area Democratic members of Congress Thursday to confirm that they were in a meeting about the maps and to see if they believe drawing a map in a back room like this goes against the Democratic election reform bill, which requires independent remaps.
None returned our messages.
Meanwhile, the five remaining Republicans in the state delegation issued a joint statement Thursday calling the Democratic redistricting process a “sham.”
“In Springfield and Washington, Illinois Democrats like to talk about empowering voters, but their sham redistricting process shows they only care about protecting their own political power,” the statement read. “Illinois citizens have been clear that they want an independent redistricting process free of political influence, but as we speak, Democrat lawmakers are picking their own voters behind closed doors.”
The Senate redistricting hearings kick off Friday in suburban Des Plaines.
