from the State Journal-Register
A week after Republican leaders floated their proposal, Senate Democrats today put out their vision to change how legislative districts are drawn in Springfield.
Democratic members of the Senate Redistricting Committee at a Statehouse news conference laid out the differences between the idea they're working on and both current law and the proposal pushed by Republicans and several voter rights groups.
The Republican plan calls for taking the legislature out of map drawing altogether and giving that power to a nine-member commission. They argue that will help reduce the influence of politics in what is now a highly partisan process that often gives power to the party whose name is drawn out of a hat.
The Democratic proposal changes the criteria used to draft legislative districts, including allowing Senate and House districts to be drawn separately.
But it still calls for legislators to take first crack at the maps - either the House and Senate drawing maps for their own chambers or the legislature and governor agreeing to new maps together.
Sen. Kwame Raoul, the Chicago Democrat who heads the redistricting panel, said the idea is to shine more light on the map-drawing process and get more outside input on the best setup. But trying to take politics out of the process is a non-starter, he said.
"I think we should be honest about that. The redistricting process is inherently political," Raoul said.
