By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – The battle over legislative district maps continues in Springfield as a federal court threw out a legislative map passed in May that favored Democrats on Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of U.S. Districts Court judges is set to hear from Republicans and Democrats on the legislative district maps before the trio decides on the boundaries.

Central Illinois Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) told WJBC’s Scott Miller, Gov. Pritzker is “fundamentally wrong” when it comes to his proposed maps.

“This is just a partisan power grab. And I’m not going to hold back my words on the fact that he betrayed the public trust.”

The Bloomington Republican said both sides of the aisle should be frustrated with the Governor, who ran on a campaign promise of fair maps.

“We’ve got to elect people who are straight shooters; who tell people where they stand and what they stand for. And they stand by that when it matters. They don’t just give you a lip service in a campaign. They actually put their vote, or in the Governor’s case, his veto authority, where their mouth is.

And Pritzker failed on that. (He) abandoned voters. And yea, I think Republicans and Democrats should both be angry at him and demand more from him.”

The next court hearing is on Nov. 5.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].