Illinois Redistricting Amendment Campaign

[muon2]

A new initiative to put a constitutional amendment on the 2014 ballot was announced this week. It is somewhat similar to the CA process and the summary of the proposal with a link to the draft text is here.

The coalition is looking for comments before finalizing the language for the petitions. I know there are plenty of posters here who could bring some useful comments forward. I'd be happy to see that comments on the draft get to the coalition.

[muon2]

All the Democrats complaining here are being huge hypocrites. I'd rather have a huge GOP house majority with more Nonpartisan redistricting in left-wing states.

Unilaterally disarming is stupid and counterproductive. Like I said, the only way to deal with this is on the Federal level.   

Redistricting reform didn't hurt the Dems control in CA, and IL has a similar partisan make up. This proposal here is only for the state legislature so the feds can't intervene. Of course other states should do the same and I worked in favor of the OH amendment that failed.

[muon2]

...some days partisanship makes me cry

That's so true with gerrymandering - it was created precisely to cement partisan control and for no other purpose. It worked that first time in 1812 for the MA Senate, and it's been a feature in the US since.

[muon2]

Needs to be done federally.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/22/1201551/-Did-Gerrymandering-Cost-Dems-the-House-A-33-State-Look-at-Alternative-Non-Partisan-Maps

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/States_with_initiative_or_referendum

The feds could only legislate redistricting for Congressional districts. This is about state legislative districts.

[muon2]

A new initiative to put a constitutional amendment on the 2014 ballot was announced this week. It is somewhat similar to the CA process and the summary of the proposal with a link to the draft text is here.

The coalition is looking for comments before finalizing the language for the petitions. I know there are plenty of posters here who could bring some useful comments forward. I'd be happy to see that comments on the draft get to the coalition.

The language is way too vague for me. Also, I am down on the California system. I didn't like the way the auditors picked commission panelist finalists, and then the panelists were gamed, so the final map had some highly questionable elements. I prefer a more automated system to pick map candidates, and then let the pros dicker over them, using a strike mechanism, until the available map choices are reduced to one.

I agree with you, but the reality is that in IL there is so little trust of anyone connected with the political system that the proponents feel that the more layers of isolation there are the better their chances. I'm hoping for (and suggesting) more specificity on some criteria to ameliorate any negative impact from the commissioners.