By WMBD TV
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD-TV) — Bradley University hosted three former lawmakers on Thursday to discuss bipartisanship.
That comes shortly after a partisan battle took the spotlight during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Partisan politics are a little foreign to Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman who became the U.S. Department of Transportation secretary under former President Obama.
He said you can always find controversy in Washington D.C., but lawmakers’ first priority should always be their constituents.
“You have to remember you’re serving the people that elected you,” he said. “You also have to reflect their views in the issues that are being debated. If you do that, things will work.”
Former Democratic lawmaker Cheri Bustos holds a similar opinion. When she held the Illinois 17th district for ten years, she said that area was a “Trump district.”
She served during the shutdown during Trump’s first term as president. Back then, all representatives stayed in Washington D.C., talking every day to make a deal.
Compare that to the shutdown this year, where the House of Representatives was on break during most of the shutdown.
“If you’re not even in the same town, you’re not in the same room, you’re not talking about how to get past something like this, it’s hard to get past it,” she said.
One reason why politics have become more partisan is because of gerrymandered maps, according to former lawmaker Bob Dold. That’s where lawmakers make congressional maps that favor one political party.
“The legislators are choosing the voters that they want,” the former Chicago Republican said. “If you had more 50-50 type districts, where it was in theory 35% Democrats, 35% Republicans, the remainder independents, you’d have a lot more bipartisanship.”
Ray LaHood launched a fair maps initiative to remove Illinois state lawmakers from the map-making process. He’s working towards getting more funding in order to get the 340,000 signatures he needs to get on the November 2026 ballot.
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