Chicago City Wire

An Illinois redistricting witness was troubled by an exchange during a Senate hearing.

Franklin Stacy, a witness representing the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, lamented where the discussion was headed during the Senate Redistricting Committee Hearing after state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) expressed frustration at the way state Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) seemed to ignore his questions.

"The exchange we all just experienced was troubling to me, Stacy said. "I hope that once the witnesses and everyone that joined the members of the committee can sit down and be cordial and understand that we as citizens are here to speak on behalf of the committees we serve, and we hope that our elected officials can do the same and agree to disagree and do what’s best for everyone else in the state of Illinois."

The discussion turned animated after Plummer called out Sims for deflecting his questions about which data would be used by the Democratic-controlled redistricting process. "It’s troubling to me that you told me multiple times that you didn’t know what data was and then when a witness asked, you stated it was ACS data," Plummer told Sims.

Republican lawmakers are questioning the majority Democratic Party's decision to rely on the American Community Service (ACS) data instead of of the U.S. Census Bureau data. “The use of other data — American Community Survey data, other private data potentially will not truly represent the state of Illinois," Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) said.

Earlier in his testimony, Stacy said that his organization's commitment to voter participation and empowerment was what made them follow the redistricting hearing closely. "This is important to our organization," Stacy said. "For too long, black voices as represented through voting have been diluted or packed into districts to lessen our impact. Our responsibility is to be on the forefront, speaking out and advocating, and doing everything we can to make sure those voices are heard throughout those communities."