Metro East Sun

Illinois state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) is calling out Democrats over what he sees as deception in the battle to bring fairly drawn legislative district maps to Springfield.

“The Democratic majority has made repeated promises to the people of this state that the redistricting process would be open, transparent and fair,” Plummer said in a video posted to YouTube. “Their late Friday night release of unworkable PDFs on their website is just another broken promise. This type of secret governing shows how much nothing has changed. The lack of public information and refusal to listen to good government groups just demonstrates that the Democrats have no real interest in providing the transparency Illinoisans deserve and demand. It shouldn’t be about us, the politicians, it should be about the people of our great state.”

Plummer argues he doesn’t see how that can be the case given the way Democrats have approached the once-every-decade job of redistricting.

 While Gov. J.B. Pritzker has expressed he trusts the Democrats to conduct the process fairly, not many Republican lawmakers appear convinced of that.

“It’s clear from these shenanigans Democrats are more concerned about keeping power than giving a voice to the people,” Plummer added. “What isn’t clear now is what Gov. Pritzker  is going to do. When he was traveling the state seeking the vote of the people, he committed he would veto a partisan map. He’s been every silent since then. I hope he proves to be a man of his word.

Meanwhile, Plummer is among the Republican lawmakers pushing Senate Bill 1325, also known as the People’s Independent Maps Act. The bill seeks to strip the redistricting responsibility from the majority party and hand control to an independent commission of 16 people chosen by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Plummer, who is currently sitting on the Senate Redistricting Committee, insists the push for fair maps is not new and in times past has even garnered Democratic support.

"A majority of Democrat state senators co-sponsored this concept just last session, but they are hard to find now, when it matters," he said. "Talk is cheap in Springfield."