Dr. Jeffrey Leef sees House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) ruling Illinois with a gerrymandered hand.
“Voters of Illinois have repeatedly asked for substantive changes made to the process by which legislative boundaries are drawn,” Leef told West Cook News. "In an ideal world, this should be decided at the state level. Sadly, in Illinois, this is a pipe dream. It is decided at a Madigan level. Nothing more; nothing less.”
But some state lawmakers might be ready to strike back. Seventeen Illinois lawmakers are now part of a bipartisan coalition of 65 legislators across eight states now pushing to curtail gerrymandering by backing an amicus curiae brief in the Gill v. Whitford case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dr. Jeffrey Leef
The Illinois members are Reps. Bob Pritchard (R-Hinckley), Scott Drury (D-Highwood), Michael Fortner (R-West Chicago), Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) and David Olsen (R-Downers Grove), as well as Sens. Michael Connelly (R-Naperville), Karen McConnaughay (R-St. Charles),William Brady (R-Bloomington), Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorne), Chris Nybo (R-Elmhurst), Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet), Sue Rezin (R-Morris), Heather Steans (D-Chicago), Dave Syverson (R-Rockford), Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) and Chuck Weaver (R-Peoria).
Political gerrymandering is defined as the act of drawing up legislative districts for partisan advantage. The Wisconsin case concerns a redistricting dispute in which a U.S. district court found that the state violated certain protections provided by the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The other states involved in the action are Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Maryland.
“Most states do not have a Michael Madigan, who is so powerful that regardless of who is governor, the Democratic Machine will control the state," Leef, who recently launched his campaign against U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) in the Seventh Congressional District, said.
Leef said he thinks gerrymandering has only become a hot-button issue nationwide because other Democratic lawmakers haven’t been able to lord over their states the way Madigan has in Illinois.
“The subject of gerrymandering has reached the Supreme Court because, not unlike other political or social issues, Democrats lay any issue that they cannot control at the feet of a handful of brilliant but appointed judges,” he said.
In Illinois, Leef said the two congressional districts that stand out to him as being among the most rigged are the Fourth and the Seventh, which Davis has represented for 20 years.
“The bottom line is that voting districts should be drawn in a fashion which best serves the needs of voters in that particular district,” Leef said. “That is how congressmen could actually perform their true function and represent the beliefs and needs of the voters who elected them.”
Leef said an example of communities neglected because of gerrymandering can be found in River Forest, Oak Park and Forest Park, where the renovation of a deteriorating 104-year-old viaduct has gotten lost in the shuffle, with funding for the project already rejected four times.
“The needs of Oak Park, Forest Park and River Forest should not be discounted, especially when you are talking about a major thoroughfare, such as Harlem Avenue,” Leef said. “It should be on the merits of the public safety issues which it addresses."
The Seventh District includes much of the west side of Chicago and parts of the suburban communities of Bellwood, Maywood, Oak Park, Westchester and River Forest.
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