Metro East Sun

State Rep. Amy Elik (R-Fosterburg) blames her Democratic colleagues for a 'flop' redistricting hearing in Collinsville.

"I was very disappointed that none of my House Democrat colleagues showed up for the redistricting hearing,” Elik posted on Facebook. “The hearing was a flop and adjourned within a moments’ notice. Even more disappointing was that no witnesses showed up in person because the Democrats gave the public such short notice. I take the redistricting process very seriously as it happens only once every ten years.”

Though Republican lawmakers protested that the newly drawn maps were made in secret with the goal of keeping Democrats in power, they were passed in the House 74-43 along partisan lines earlier this month and now head to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

Republicans are demanding that Pritzker veto the new maps.  

“Moments ago, the House voted along party lines to pass the Democrats’ partisan-drawn maps for the State of Illinois,” Rep. Jeff Keicher posted on Facebook. “I share the sentiments Leader Jim Durkin expressed tonight. Politicians should not be drawing maps. Period. I join those urging Governor Pritzker to stand by his campaign promise and veto this bill.”

Not long after, the Kane County GOP tweeted "State Representative @JeffKeicher has called for @GovPritzker to veto the ‘new maps’ gerrymandered by the democrats. We couldn’t agree more.”

The new maps come after Pritzker signed a similar version of them into law earlier this year, sparking a stream of federal lawsuits from Republican lawmakers and the American Legal Defense and Education Fund who argues the maps are “flawed and unconstitutional because they were based on population estimates from the American Community Survey rather than the 2020 census.”

Elik argues that for Democrats such actions follow a pattern.

“Unfortunately, the Democrats have not taken this seriously from the beginning,” she said. “It's time to have a bipartisan commission draw the map, not one party in control."

With the latest census data now available, Democrats insist the maps will be adjusted when the legislature is slated to soon reconvene in Springfield. Typically, lawmakers have always relied on such data to complete the job of redistricting, but with the release of 2020 statistics slowed by the  impact of COVID-19, Democrats moved in the most recent cycle to use the American Community Survey to satisfy the guidelines of a June 30 deadline that is etched in the state constitution.

Failure to meet the deadline would have automatically led to the creation of an eight-person, bipartisan commission to complete the job with a ninth person to be randomly selected to break any deadlocked votes.