What Change Will Republicans Ask For in the Legislative Map?
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), left, and Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) speak to the media in the State Capitol earlier this year. The two are plaintiffs seeking to invalidate portions of the Democrat-passed legislative map.
Judging by what lawyers for Republican leaders told a federal court last week, an expected filing this week to change the state legislative map won’t be as extensive as some expect.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) are two of the key plaintiffs in the case against the Democratic-drawn legislative maps. But, it appears the GOP won’t present an entirely new legislative map when it is due to the federal court Wednesday.
But, what will we see?
The GOP will likely (and we may be reading between the lines here because they won’t confirm anything and lawmakers and staff won’t even take my call on the topic) ask for specific districts to be changed.
Here are some examples from the GOP arguments: (here’s the map if you want to follow along)
They allege House District 23 is “packed” and gerrymandered to capture an excessive supermajority of Latino voters. They say it is 71% Latino. (Rep. Edgar Gonzalez (D-Chicago) lives in that new district.)
The GOP has also said Latinos have been “cracked” and separated among four additional House Districts in Southwest Chicago: 21 (areas of Berwyn, Cicero, North Riverside, Summit, Hodgkins, and McCook), 24 (parts of Chicago in the McKinley Park, Mount Pleasant, Lower West Side, and Bridgeport neighborhoods), and 6 and 32 (parts of the Back of the Yards, Ashburn, and Clarksdale neighborhoods). (The new 24th is the home of Asian American Rep. Theresa Mah (D-Chicago).)
The GOP says the September map does not create any majority-Latino House Districts on Chicago’s northwest side. Instead, they allege, Latino voters are “cracked” and separated into five separate House Districts, including House Districts 3, 4, 19, 39, and 40.
The 3rd is represented by Rep. Eva Dina Delgado (D-Chicago), the 4th is home to Rep. Deila Ramirez (D-Chicago), the 19th is reprsented by Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (D-Chicago), the 39th is represented by Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago), and the 40th is home to Rep. Jaime Andrade (D-Chicago).
In Aurora and West Chicago, the GOP alleges the Democrats separated a large Latino community among four separate House Districts, including House Districts 49, 50, 83, and 84. Only one of those is currently represented by a Latino/a, Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora).
Similar to the NAACP of East St. Louis suit, the GOP says the map “cracks” and separates Black voters from East St. Louis into two districts: House Districts 113 and 114. 114 is represented by an African American woman, Rep. LaToya Greenwood (D-East St. Louis), the 113th is represented by a white male, Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea).
Interestingly, if the court redraws all 16 disputed districts, they’re still likely to be won by Democrats. There will be some changes to neighboring districts as a result, but mapmakers we spoke with say there probably won’t be enough change to make the maps greatly different.
From a political point of view, what’s a win for the GOP at this point? Even if the court redraws part of the map, downstate districts continue to be sprawling, some from the city to rural areas, some combining multiple communities of interest, and some splitting counties and cities that don’t need to be split.
Maybe they’re hoping the chain reaction of changing the disputed districts leads to the court changing even more districts. We’ll see.