New Effort For Redistricting Reform Picking Up Steam
From the Peoria Journal-Star
Leaders of a revived effort to amend the state constitution’s requirements for drawing the state Legislature districts are working to fix what they call a “seriously flawed” political system.
Leaders of Independent Maps, a nonpartisan statewide coalition, were on Bradley University’s campus Thursday afternoon to brief volunteers tasked with gathering the hundreds of thousands of signatures required to place a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot.
After failed attempts in 2010 and 2014, the latter of which gathered enough public support but was struck down after a court challenge, proponents of creating an independent commission to draw legislative maps have reorganized, this time armed with the wisdom gained from defeated similar efforts in the past.
Business leaders, members of both political parties and representatives of the minority community are driving an effort to de-politicize and make transparent the process of drawing legislative maps.
“Right now the system is rigged so that incumbents automatically get re-elected. There’s no competition,” said Brad McMillan, executive director of the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service at Bradley, and a member of the Independent Maps board of directors. “It should frustrate anyone in Illinois that these maps are drawn completely behind closed doors with no transparency by a few powerful people.”
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Peoria Journal-Star
Leaders of a revived effort to amend the state constitution’s requirements for drawing the state Legislature districts are working to fix what they call a “seriously flawed” political system.
Leaders of Independent Maps, a nonpartisan statewide coalition, were on Bradley University’s campus Thursday afternoon to brief volunteers tasked with gathering the hundreds of thousands of signatures required to place a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot.
After failed attempts in 2010 and 2014, the latter of which gathered enough public support but was struck down after a court challenge, proponents of creating an independent commission to draw legislative maps have reorganized, this time armed with the wisdom gained from defeated similar efforts in the past.
Business leaders, members of both political parties and representatives of the minority community are driving an effort to de-politicize and make transparent the process of drawing legislative maps.
“Right now the system is rigged so that incumbents automatically get re-elected. There’s no competition,” said Brad McMillan, executive director of the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service at Bradley, and a member of the Independent Maps board of directors. “It should frustrate anyone in Illinois that these maps are drawn completely behind closed doors with no transparency by a few powerful people.”
Read more in our daily News Update...