Politics |

New congressional maps from Illinois Democrats seek to extend House majority, putting Adam Kinzinger in a left-leaning district with Marie Newman

Illinois Democrats on Friday unveiled their proposed map of the state’s congressional boundaries for the next decade, a plan aimed at increasing their advantage over Republicans in a downsized Washington delegation.

With the 2020 census showing Illinois lost population for the first time since statehood was granted in 1818, the state went from 18 to 17 congressional districts. In redrawing the congressional maps, Democrats stretched geographic boundaries and sought to put GOP incumbents at a disadvantage in an effort to turn the current 13-5 Democratic majority in the delegation to 14-3.

The map puts Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and his continued role in leading the GOP, into a district with first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman of La Grange. The new 3rd District removes portions of Newman’s Southwest Side voting base and extends the border farther south and west to include Ottawa and LaSalle.

Downstate, the map would pit Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Peoria against freshman GOP U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Oakland in a new 16th Congressional District that encompasses much of west central and central Illinois and goes east to surround Democratic-leaning Champaign.

Champaign would be part of an open-seat 13th District drawn to favor Democrats that stretches southwest to Democratic-favoring suburbs east of St. Louis.

The Democratic proposal also would give Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville, who had been considering a bid for governor, a sprawling GOP-leaning district of rural voters stretching from Freeport, west of Rockford, to Vandalia in southern Illinois — a distance of 232 miles from north to south.

Despite the increase in the state’s Latino makeup shown in the census, Democrats did not add a second Latino-opportunity seat as sought by some advocates. Instead, they extended the boundaries of the earmuff shaped 4th District held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia of Chicago, which links Latino communities on the Northwest and Southwest sides of Chicago through a western strip near the Tri-State Tollway.

Democratic state Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez of Cicero, who chairs the Illinois House Redistricting Committee, called the plan “an excellent first draft that amplifies diverse voices and gives every person in our state a say in government.”

But Republicans called the map a blatant gerrymander aimed at protecting incumbents and boosting chances for Democrats to keep control of the U.S. House.

Illinois Republican state chairman Don Tracy described the map as “the Nancy Pelosi Protection Plan” for the 2022 midterm elections, and GOP state Rep. Tim Butler of Springfield said it was “obviously a partisan attempt to sustain the thin majority in Washington, D.C.”

“The map that was just released … is one of the most incredible cartographic feats I’ve ever seen in the history of mapmaking, to be honest with you,” Butler, the ranking Republican on the Illinois House remap panel, said during a hearing Friday.

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, a nonpartisan group aligned with Princeton University that supports an end to partisan gerrymandering, gave the map an overall grade of “F.”

The group broke it down with an “F” for partisan fairness, an “F” for geography, noting its sprawling districts and how it splits up counties, but a “C” for competitiveness in comparison to other state’s maps.

Illinois Democrats have been under pressure from interests including the party’s national campaign committee to maximize opportunities for Democratic seats. Progressives had sought a map that could elect 15 Democrats and leave only two Republicans, but Democratic leaders said privately they settled on a plan to ensure a more likely outcome of 14 Democrats and three Republicans.

But the map could set up a nationally watched contest in the new southwest 3rd District containing the homes of Kinzinger and Newman.

Kinzinger was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump and is one of two Republicans on the House select committee looking into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the nation’s Capitol, making him a target for a Trump-aligned challenge.

But if he could win a GOP primary, it would put him up against the progressive Newman in a district where she has lost some of her city base while gaining rural downstate territory.

In a statement, Kinzinger, who has said he intends to seek reelection to Congress rather than run for a statewide office, said he was keeping his options open.

“I have proudly served six terms in the U.S. House and it has been an honor to do so,” Kinzinger said. “Following the release of the new congressional maps for Illinois, my team and I will spend some time looking them over and reviewing all of the options, including those outside the House.”

Newman, who defeated eight-term U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski in the 2020 Democratic primary, was clearly unhappy with the new boundaries.

“It is abundantly apparent that what has currently been proposed for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District is not only retrogressive but substantially diminishes the diverse and progressive voices of Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs,” she said. “I look forward to continuing to represent the constituents of Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District.”

Complaints about the new 3rd District boundaries were raised by residents of the existing district during a House hearing who noted that the Bridgeport neighborhood would be moved into the Latino-dominated 4th District, while Chinatown would be split between the 4th District and the 7th District, now represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.

With the state’s population declining outside the Chicago metropolitan area, downstate districts that have turned increasingly Republican grew larger as Democrats sought to create problems for GOP incumbents.

In central Illinois, the map pits Miller against the four-term LaHood in a heavily Republican district. Miller has been an outspoken and controversial conservative who has aligned herself with the far right movement in the Republican Party while LaHood, who also has backed Trump, also is strongly conservative. The district leaves very little of Miller’s existing district while expanding much of LaHood’s current territory. He nonetheless was critical of the Democratic effort.

“The proposed maps are a slap in the face to good governance everywhere,” LaHood said in a statement. “Illinois voters deserve much better than this nontransparent, corrupt process.”

The map would give Republicans Rodney Davis and Mike Bost of Murphysboro their own districts with Bost getting much of southern Illinois and Davis an extensive north-south district.

Davis, a five-term congressman, has said his political future would depend on the map produced by Democrats as he explored a potential run for the Republican nomination for governor to challenge first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. But the new map would give him plenty of Republican territory, including much of Miller’s.

In a statement, Davis did not give any indication of his political future, but joined his Republican cohorts in blasting the process.

“This proposed map, along with this entire redistricting process, is a complete joke,” Davis said. “It’s clear Gov. Pritzker and the Democrats will stoop to any low if it means they can keep their corrupt system going.”

Democrats are expected to adopt a new congressional map during their scheduled six-day fall session that begins Tuesday.

Since Democrats control the Illinois House and Senate as well as the governor’s office, they can dictate the new map without any Republican input — as was done earlier with the adoption of new state legislative boundaries.

The Illinois House and Senate redistricting panels have each scheduled a Wednesday hearing on the new map with other hearings planned before a vote on a final map likely at the scheduled end of the session on Oct. 28.

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