ILLINOIS TO LOSE 1 SEAT IN U.S. CONGRESS Jobs & Growth Brad Weisenstein Illinois’ decade of population loss, with last year being the worst loss of people since World War II, will cost us one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, not the two seats that Illinoisians thought. Illinois will lose one seat in Congress, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Illinois currently has 18 House seats. It could have been worse: some predictions called for Illinois to lose two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Illinois had 12.8 million residents, the U.S. Census count found in 2020. Gains by other states drew bigger representation out of the 435 seats in the U.S. House. Illinois lost a seat along with California, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the Census Bureau reported. Those seven seats went to Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon, each gaining one, and Texas gaining two seats. The other states remain the same. seats since it peaked at 27 seats before 1943. “So now, 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,” Pritzker said April 27. Republican House leader Jim Durkin said Pritzker must suffer from “retrograde amnesia.” Illinois has been losing Pritzker in 2018 campaigned on the need for independent congressional and state legislative redistricting. He repeated that vow as recently as January, when his spokesman said Pritzker “has been clear he will veto a partisan map.” He said it is now too late for an independent commission, which would require amending the Illinois Constitution. He said the Democrats’ map was fair after the 2010 population count and he trusts them to be fair again. “The map that was put together for the last 10 years started out with a very strong leaning toward fairness, which was the Supreme Court rulings of the past dictated the drawing of minority districts in the state to start with that map – and then you have to draw from there,” he said. News of the lost House seat comes on the heels of a decade of population loss that saw about 18,000 fewer Illinoisans than in 2010. Illinois state lawmakers are tasked with redrawing the congressional districts, as well as their own state House and Senate districts by June 30. The partisan process in the past has been abused and gerrymandered by whichever party was in power at the time. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker promised on the campaign trail and repeatedly after that, including earlier this year, to end partisan gerrymandering of political maps. Now he says, ‘Nevermind.’ He trusts lawmakers. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been clear on two issues: He wants to increase taxes and he has repeatedly vowed to veto any partisan, gerrymandered legislative districts. It turns out that second promise was meaningless, as the governor now intends to trust state lawmakers to draw a fair map. But it’s not too late to create an independent commission, Illinois House Assistant Minority Leader Tim Butler, RSpringfield, said. Pritzker earlier said if there were not an amendment, he would still support creation of an independent commission, Butler said. Butler added that he has a bill ready to go, but Democrats have blocked the effort rather than Republicans as Pritzker now claims. “I would say it’s your friends and the Democratic Party that are not engaging. And we need to have you hold to your word, governor, that you will veto, veto, a partisan map like your office has said,” Butler said April 27 on the House floor. Both parties have abused the mapmaking process when they were in power to benefit their parties by squeezing out opponents and keeping their incumbents safe. The results have been that in the 2018 election, nearly half of the Illinois House of Representatives seats were uncontested. In the Illinois Senate, 20 of 39 senators up for election faced no opponent. That hurts voter turnout, because there is little incentive to vote when there is no choice on the ballot. Page 6
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