Grundy Reporter

Illinois's now-passed - and challenged - partisan redistricting includes multiple undisputed truths, an east Illinois freshman state representative said during a recent interview.

The maps are unfair, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker broke his campaign promise to support those unfair legislative maps, Illinois State House Rep. Jackie Haas (R-Bourbonnais) told the Grundy Reporter.

"The legislative maps signed into law by Gov. Pritzker are overtly gerrymandered for political gain," Haas said. "They were drawn by Democrats behind closed doors, using flawed and incomplete data. Those are not my opinions, but indisputable facts. No, these maps are not fair."

Pritzker signed off on those unfair maps earlier this month with his eyes wide open, breaking his campaign promise not to do so, Haas said.

"Again, that is not my opinion but a well-documented fact," she said.

Haas has represented Illinois' 79th House District since she was sworn in this past December at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Kankakee to take the seat previously held by Rep. Lindsay Parkhurst, who herself was sworn in as a circuit court judge earlier in the month. The previous month, Haas soundly defeated her Democrat challenger, Charlene Eads, taking almost 64% of the vote.

The 79th House District is in Kankakee, Will and Grundy counties.

Pritzker has hinted he may not seek re-election, according to an WIFR news report published earlier this month.

In April, well before maps were passed, an NPR Illinois story said Pritzker was trying "to recast his previous statement" to suggest he doesn't mean now what he said then.

He also, both when campaigning and recently, pointed to the state's Constitution.

"I have also said that in order for us to have an independent commission, we needed to have a constitutional amendment — something that would actually change the way the process operates today in the Constitution," Pritzker said in the NPR news report. "That did not happen."

Pritzker and state legislators also were up against a Constitutional deadline of June 30, after which an eight-person bipartisan panel would have been created — as required under the state's Constitution — to come up with equitable redistricting.

Instead, Democrat lawmakers in Springfield ran the once-in-a-decade redistricting season, racing to craft new legislative and congressional maps and get Pritzker to sign off on it.

This redistricting year was supposed to be different. Three years ago, Pritzker vowed to veto any "unfair" map. However, NPR Illinois reported that Pritzker and Democrats lawmakers "have melded their definitions of 'fair' and 'unfair' maps," saying instead the maps should reflect the state's diversity.

The majority of Illinoisans what fair maps and, much earlier in the most recently ended legislative session, it looked like the will of that majority might have a vehicle to get those fair maps.

Senate Bill 1325, also called the People's Independent Maps Act, would have removed politicians from making decisions about redistricting and place that power in the hands of Illinoisans. But SB1325 missed a deadline to come up for third reading. Instead, the bill was referred to assignments, where it died.

The maps, set to take effect in 2023, are being challenged. On June 11, the Mexican American Legal Defense (MALDEF) and Educational Fund filed suit against leading Democrat lawmakers and state election officials, calling the redistricting "malapportioned," not providing equal representation of all of the state's populations.

"Illinois voters, including the growing Latino voter community, are entitled to districts that accurately reflect the population as determined by the constitutionally mandated decennial census," said MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz said in a statement issued the same day. "Ultimately, the General Assembly will have to redraw lines for the 2022 elections using the proper decennial census data."

Haas said her focus is on an earlier challenged filed by Republican lawmakers against leading Democrat lawmakers that claims the new legislative maps are unconstitutional.

Unfair maps cannot be allowed to stand, Haas said.

"If these maps are ultimately the final product, the consequences for our state will be devastating," she said, pointing to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial that disclosed "the reality that Republicans won 41% of the votes in Illinois’ 2020 congressional races yet hold only 28% of the seats."

"These new maps will undoubtedly worsen the woeful discrepancy in representation that already exists," Haas continued.

The entire redistricting process turned up something even more worrisome about how the Democrat trifecta is running the state, Haas said.

"The bottom line is that under these maps, Democrat politicians have handpicked their voters and the governor shamelessly went along with it," she said. "Illinoisans of all political stripes should take note."