Reformers aim to shed light  on redistricting

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Show us the maps!

That’s never going to be quite as catchy a mantra as “show me the money,” but when you get right down to it, the maps are the key to the money, too.

If only the maps in question were actual treasure maps, I’d have no trouble holding your attention.

Instead, though, I’m talking about political redistricting maps — the ones that will reshape the boundaries of our congressional and state legislative districts in Illinois for the next decade.

Redistricting may seem an esoteric subject of interest only to wonks, but control those maps and you might control the U.S. Treasury, and most certainly would control the taxes we pay to Springfield.

Right now, those maps are a closely held secret. Yet between now and the General Assembly’s scheduled adjournment at the end of May, the maps without doubt will surface and be enacted into law.

In the past, that process has sometimes miraculously occurred overnight, going from rumor to done deal while the voters of Illinois slept. This year, however, a number of good government and civic groups have dedicated themselves to making sure the process is at least exposed to some sunshine.

The Illinois Campaign for Accountable Redistricting has had a bit of success in that regard, shaming both chambers of the Legislature into holding hearings around the state to take public testimony on how those maps should look. But many remain skeptical this will influence the final product.

While it would be nice to think Illinois Democrats, who for the first time have absolute control of the map-drawing process by virtue of holding the governor’s office as well as a majority in both chambers of the Legislature, are listening to all this testimony and rushing back to their offices to take the public comments into account, nobody really thinks that’s how it’s going to work.

You don’t have to be a Republican (and I’m not) to worry about what might happen when so important a matter is under the complete control of one political party.

That’s why every chance they get, the redistricting reformers are telling our Illinois elected officials: “Show us the maps!”

“I know these maps are being drawn and decisions are being made, and the public is being totally left out,” said Brad McMillan, a Peoria lawyer who helped start the Illinois Fair Map Campaign after working on redistricting for the Illinois Reform Commission.

McMillan was speaking Wednesday at a redistricting seminar for journalists, which I chose to attend on the first day of the Rod Blagojevich retrial because somehow it seemed more important to the cause of preventing future Rod Blagojeviches than seeing how many potential jurors say they’ve paid no attention to his case.

The current redistricting process mainly serves to protect incumbents and perpetuate the slim choices available to voters, which is why I want to see the maps, too.

Several of Wednesday’s speakers said they have been told the maps will be ready by mid-May. The hope is that there will then be more public hearings at which groups could speak to any deficiencies in the proposed maps, and this part is really revolutionary, it’s further hoped the Legislature would then actually consider proposed changes instead of treating it as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, i.e., leave the state.

Sen. Kwame Raoul, the Chicago Democrat who chairs the Senate’s redistricting committee, recently said he plans to hold two hearings after the actual legislative maps are released, which is also being taken as a positive sign, if not exactly gospel, as the most important person in the equation is House Speaker Michael Madigan, who plays his cards closer to the vest.

“Whether it’s a dog and pony show, it’s a step in the right direction,” said Whitney Woodward, redistricting policy coordinator for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Woodward advised journalists to understand the importance of redistricting to lawmakers, who can be mapped out of a job with a maneuver as simple as changing a boundary to put their home outside their district.

“They take redistricting very personally. This is their livelihood. This directly impacts them,” Woodward said.

The do-gooders are drawing up their own proposed map, which they are hurrying to put before the public ahead of the official map.

We’ll show you ours, they say, now show us yours.