By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Not even three hours before redistricting hearings began, legislative Democrats proposed a new map to redistrict the Illinois Supreme Court. Only six of the seven districts are in play, as Cook County is its own district.

“They’ve clearly used Mike Madigan’s playbook in the Illinois redistricting process,” said State Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville), referring to the former Illinois House speaker, at a Republican news conference shortly after the judicial district remap proposal came out. “But I think it’s really disappointing that they’re using the (U.S. House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi court-packing agenda in Illinois, and particularly at this late hour.”

Shortly after that event, State Sen. – and gubernatorial candidate – Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) held one of his own outside the Capitol, to demonstrate that COVID mitigations keep out members of the general public, many of whom stood behind Bailey, holding campaign signs.

“There is no consistency, there is no representation,” Bailey said of how supermajority Democrats treat Republicans. “I don’t even know if they understand it, except just to turn things around, spin things on their head, because for some reason a group of new representatives has risen up. We’re sick and tired of the status quo, we’ve come here, and I think maybe they see that as a reason to stifle that.”

Of the Supreme Court proposal, a joint statement from House and Senate Democrats says:

Under this proposal, the number of residents in the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Supreme Court districts will be substantially equalized to better reflect the population and demographic shifts that have occurred in the state of Illinois over the course of the last sixty years. Currently, population fluctuates greatly between districts. For instance, the Second District contains 3.2 million people, while the Fourth and Fifth Districts contain under 1.3 million people

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].