Our View: When politicians draw the map, it’s tough to get a break

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

As Illinois heads toward redrawing its legislative district boundaries in the wake of the 2010 census, a series of 15 public hearings have been scheduled across the state to allow for public input into the process.

One of these was held Monday at the Illinois Math and Science Academy and Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, among others, took the opportunity to voice an opinion as to how he would like the new districts to come out.

The goal is to have state House districts with 108,734 residents each and State Senate districts with 217,468 residents each. Several Aurora officials asked that the city, with its population of nearly 198,000, be contained in one State Senate district.

Because Kane, Kendall and Will counties have been three of the fastest growing counties in the state over the past 10 years, the districts here could look a lot different than they are now — more compact for one thing.

Weisner would prefer to have Aurora legislators whose territory encompasses as much of the city as possible, instead of Aurora having several legislators — each with a small part of the city — as it has been in the past.

The idea is that a legislator whose district has all or most of Aurora will have a good reason to focus sharply on the city — his or her re-election might depend on it.

Weisner told the panel conducting the hearing, “I think it is important that we be represented as a whole as much as possible.”

We agree with the mayor entirely. It is important that a city as large as Aurora have a significant presence in Springfield, and though we have no quarrel with the quality of representation Aurora now has, the population growth in our area and the redistricting that comes with it is going to change the ballgame. We think the best way for Aurora to have its issues seriously considered is to have representatives dedicated to Aurora to the greatest extent possible.

Unfortunately, the needs of Aurora — or most other cities for that matter — are going to come in a distant second to a map that will be drawn by Democrats in a Democratic-controlled state for the sole purpose of giving the Democratic party as much of an advantage as it can. This will also be true when congressional districts are divvied up, especially considering that since Illinois lost population, it will lose one congressional district and have 18 seats instead of the current 19.

The map that is likely to emerge from Springfield will protect Democrats and incumbents, and especially Democratic incumbents, and whatever officials and others from around the state say at these public hearings will have little effect on what the majority party decides.

Our local Republican representatives and senators will have little to say about it either, for in politics, to the winner belongs the spoils.

So if by some chance Aurora ends up in one state Senate district and two House districts, that would be very good for our city.

But don’t hold your breath.