Rabbi Shlomo Soroka | agudah.org
Rabbi Shlomo Soroka | agudah.org
Rabbi Shlomo Soroka fears the current map redistricting process is having the complete opposite impact of what its supporters claim it is striving to have.
“We trusted that our input was being listened to and we were optimistic that our requests would be accommodated,” Soroka said at a recent public hearing on the subject. “I have to say when the maps were unveiled we were somewhat astonished to see that not only were the improvements we asked for not made and not only were we not further consolidated, the exact opposite was done and we were further split and divided.”
Republican lawmakers seem convinced that may be just the way Democrats want things, given the way they have conducted the ongoing once-every-decade map-redistricting task.
With Census Bureau data usually relied on as part of the process not expected to be available before a June 30 deadline, Republicans had hoped they might have more of a voice in ushering in a fairer overall process.
Instead, Democrats relied on American Community Survey (ACS) data that critics charge will not lead to a true representation of Illinois.
“The use of other data — American Community Survey data, other private data potentially will not truly represent the state of Illinois," House Assistant Minority Leader and Republican spokesman Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) told the Southern Illinois News. "We've had multiple people testify over the last several weeks that ACS data undercounts minority populations, undercounts rural populations and it is vitally important for us to realize that.”
Butler also recently joined with state Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) to pen a letter to the chairs of their respective redistricting committees requesting that Gov. J.B. Pritzker or a high-ranking member of his administration appear to testify on the subject at a hearing in East St. Louis.
Republican lawmakers are calling on Pritzker to stand by his word in honoring a vow he made as a candidate not to sign off on any map redistricting that was drawn by politicians.
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