Durkin Lambasts Democrats for Redistricting "Hypocrisy," Welch Spokesperson Calls it "Political Posturing"
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) says House Speaker Chris Welch is going back on his previous support of fair and independent redistricting. A spokesperson for Welch says the Republican leader is “posturing.”
The top House Republican says he’s fed up with hypocrisy from House Democrats as they continue to plan to pass legislative redistricting maps without official census data. But, a spokesperson for House Speaker Chris Welch calls GOP complaints “political posturing.”
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) spoke to media Wednesday, attacking Democrats like Governor JB Pritzker and Welch for previously supporting fair or independent redistricting in the past, but allowing Democrats to draw their own maps in 2021.
“What we’re seeing right now, after all these high hopes back in the beginning of the year with a new speaker, is that the House Democrats are reverting back to the same business model which put this state into peril,” Durkin said. “The hypocrisy is at the highest level that I have ever witnessed in my life. We are not going to see anything close to fair maps.”
After being sworn in as Speaker in January, Welch said he continued to support independent and fair maps and has previously co-sponsored a constitutional amendment taking the redistricting process out of the hands of the legislature. Durkin’s staff even provided a 2016 editorial written by Welch that called for independent maps.
Durkin says Democrats are failing to live up to their previous pledges.
“The Democrats have absolutely no intention of holding to their promises on fair maps, ones that which they campaigned,” Durkin said.
Jaclyn Driscoll, a spokesperson for Welch, emphasized Democrats have held 27 public hearings on redistricting. She says the GOP isn’t taking an active role in the statewide discussion.
“Republicans provided no witnesses for the hearings and are choosing to dismiss the public’s input because their only goal is to rig the process for their own political benefit – just like their right-wing allies are doing across the country with no regard to public input.”
This political posturing by Republicans is nothing more than an attempt to disregard constitutional deadlines in a desperate hope that a single Republican appointee, who is accountable to no one, can draw the map. That is not democracy and it's a disservice to the people of this state."
If Democrats fail to pass a map by June 30, a bipartisan commission would be charged with drawing the maps. In the event it can’t pass a map, the Supreme Court would hold a random drawing for the Republicans or Democrats to control the process.
One of Durkin’s chief complaints was the fact Democrats will not wait for delayed census data in mapmaking. Instead, it appears Democrats will use sample American Community Survey data during the process.
“It’s not a proper foundation for us to draw these legislative districts,” Durkin said. “I’ve talked to [Speaker] Welch about this, and he says that he’s gonna stay with the ACS data and he believes whatever process will be in place will be fair.”
But Driscoll denied Durkin’s statement.
"Speaker Welch has never suggested that maps will be drawn solely using ACS data,” she said. “As he's reiterated numerous times, it is one of the alternative sources of data suggested by the National Conference of State Legislatures. It is one of the aggregated data sets the committee is using, just like several other states, including Oklahoma and Colorado. But, to suggest that we are not considering all voices throughout Illinois is a lie.”
For now, though, Durkin says Democrats are rushing the process to help themselves.
“It’s about rushing this through, making sure not every person, every vote counts,” he said. “They speak out of both sides of their mouth. They want to maintain absolute power, absolute control. That has not worked well for Illinois on any level.”