Will Supreme Court Ruling In Arizona Case Clean Up Illinois Politics?
From the Chicago Sun-Times
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday OK’d an Arizona independent redistricting commission, a ruling with significance in Illinois, where reformers are trying again to change the highly partisan gamed system that all but guarantees election results.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled the Arizona commission, created in a 2000 ballot initiative to address partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, was constitutional.
Rampant gerrymandering is the norm in Illinois.
Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield have given Democratic candidates incredible advantages in the drawing of legislative and congressional districts mandated every 10 years after each census.
In 2014, some rich folks who are part of the Illinois civic elite from both parties bankrolled the nonpartisan Yes for Independent Maps, which tried and failed to get a referendum before voters to create a commission to draw state legislative districts.
Cook County Circuit Judge Mary Mikva blocked the measure from getting on the November 2014 ballot. Last June, Mikva concluded the ballot initiative was invalid because the commission structure the group proposed was too broad.
Mikva is the daughter of Abner Mikva, a former congressman, federal judge and White House counsel whose political career is rooted in Chicago’s independent reform-minded Democratic politics. Abner Mikva famously recounted that when he attempted to get a city job he was told, ‘We don’t want nobody nobody sent,’ which explained the inner workings of Chicago machine politics.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Sun-Times
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday OK’d an Arizona independent redistricting commission, a ruling with significance in Illinois, where reformers are trying again to change the highly partisan gamed system that all but guarantees election results.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled the Arizona commission, created in a 2000 ballot initiative to address partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, was constitutional.
Rampant gerrymandering is the norm in Illinois.
Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield have given Democratic candidates incredible advantages in the drawing of legislative and congressional districts mandated every 10 years after each census.
In 2014, some rich folks who are part of the Illinois civic elite from both parties bankrolled the nonpartisan Yes for Independent Maps, which tried and failed to get a referendum before voters to create a commission to draw state legislative districts.
Cook County Circuit Judge Mary Mikva blocked the measure from getting on the November 2014 ballot. Last June, Mikva concluded the ballot initiative was invalid because the commission structure the group proposed was too broad.
Mikva is the daughter of Abner Mikva, a former congressman, federal judge and White House counsel whose political career is rooted in Chicago’s independent reform-minded Democratic politics. Abner Mikva famously recounted that when he attempted to get a city job he was told, ‘We don’t want nobody nobody sent,’ which explained the inner workings of Chicago machine politics.
Read more in our daily News Update...