Metro East Sun

It is time for Gov. Pritzker to intervene in the map making process according to state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville).

He reacted at a May 25 news conference in connection with the maps released by Democratic lawmakers.

“It should be about the people of our great state,” Plummer said. “It's clear from these shenanigans that the Democrats in the majority care more about keeping their power than they do about giving a voice to those very people. What isn't clear right now is what Gov. Pritzker is going to do. When he was traveling the states seeking the vote of the people of Illinois, he committed to them that he would veto partisan maps. He’s been very silent since then and he's been presented with an opportunity right now through this very partisan process. I hope he proves to be a man of his word.”

With repeated appeals for transparency, Republican lawmakers seemed to have not achieved what they wanted for Illinois. Plummer isn’t stopping the push for transparency.

“The Democrat majority has made repeated promises to the people of this state that the redistricting process would be open, transparent, and fair,” Plummer argued. “Their late Friday night release of unworkable PDF maps on their website is just another one of their broken promises.”

Calling the Democrats' move as “despicable," he also added that the process and the map that they drew were manipulated using faulty data and had a “blatant lack of transparency.”

“Given the file format, the public couldn’t even begin to understand what the lines meant or where the district boundaries had been drawn," Plummer pointed out. "This type of secret governing just shows how much nothing has changed here in Springfield; no one would have believed that the level of transparency could have decreased from what we experienced under speaker Madigan.”

Plummer also stated that the Democrat map is a “direct affront to the people of this state and a disgrace to our democratic process.”

“The lack of public information and refusal to good government groups just demonstrates that the Democrats have no real interest in providing the transparency that Illinoisans deserve and demand,” he said.

Despite his pledge during his campaign to veto any map drawn by politicians, Pritzker on April 27 said: “As we reach the end of this session, and I look to the Legislature for their proposal for a redistricting map, I’ll be looking to it for its fairness. And that’s something that’s vitally important for our state, as an effect on the next 10 years and representation throughout the state,” the Illinois Policy reported.

Last month the GOP urged the governor to testify at a redistricting hearing but has not received a word from him.