Lake County leaders call for status quo in remap
By Dan Moran dmoran@stmedianetwork.com April 19, 2011 8:56PM
Waukegan Township Supervisor Patricia Jones addresses the Special House Committee on Redistricting. | Thomas Delany Jr.~Sun-Times Media
Illinois
redistricting
For more information on redistricting in Illinois, visit www.ilhousedems.com/redistricting. Questions, concerns and other input can be e-mailed to ILRedistricting@gmail.com.
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Updated: June 19, 2011 12:15AM
WAUKEGAN — The process of redrawing both state and federal legislative districts across Illinois came to City Hall on Tuesday, a task that will ultimately include shaving one seat from the state’s Congressional delegation.
As one of 15 local public hearings planned by the Special House Committee on Redistricting, the Waukegan session featured speakers focused primarily on preserving the current makeup of such boundaries as Illinois House District 60.
“We do understand that there has been some shifting in the minority community,” said Lake County Board member Angelo Kyle of Waukegan. “People are moving north into the Pleasant Prairie area (and) into the western part of the county.
“But we wanted to make sure that the minority voters are not disenfranchised,” Kyle added, “(and) that we continue to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.”
North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham also touched on that theme, reading the text of a resolution approved this month by the North Chicago City Council, stating in part that city officials “will oppose any redistricting (that) would dilute minority representation in the Illinois General Assembly.”
According to figures supplied by the committee, the Waukegan metropolitan area — which includes both the city itself and surrounding communities like Park City — saw its population increase from 122,895 in 2000 to 127,129 in 2010.
Of that 2010 total, 87,869 are classified as minorities, about 70 percent of the population. A reported 25,051 are African-American and 57,790 are Hispanic. The Latino populaton alone increased from 44,630 in 2000, and is most dense in Waukegan.
Isabel Anadon, an analyst with the Chicago-based Latino Policy Forum, told the committee that Illinois gained about 500,000 Latinos between 2000 and 2010, including 8,000 in Waukegan.
“Without the growth of the Latino population, Illinois would have lost two Congressional seats,” Anadon said. “We want to make sure the districts that will be drawn will keep the Latino (representation) intact.”
The committee’s chairman, state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, read a statement pledging that the result of redistricting “will uphold the one-man, one-vote principle” established by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1964 that representative districts must be roughly equal in population.
Joined by committee members that included state representatives Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, and Mike Fortner, R-West Chicago, Lang said the panel is only required by law to conduct four public meetings but wanted to “hear from as many people as possible.”
Lang added that, along with population, there are “countless other factors in the redistricting process,” and he invited the public to weigh in with “any characteristics that are unique to your community.”
The first due date for a new map is June 30, but statute allows for the process to be turned over to a Legislative Redistricting Commission if no plan is in place.
By law, the commission is made up of eight members, no more than four of which can be from one policial party. If a plan is not approved by at least five members by Aug. 10, the Illinois Supreme Court must submit two candidates from different parties to serve as a ninth board member, and Secretary of State Jesse White “shall draw by random selection” one of the two names.
With the ninth member in place, a plan must be filed by Oct. 5, and the new districts would be in effect for the 2012 primary elections.
Waukegan was one of three hearing locations on Tuesday, along with Rockford and South Holland.
Sessions were held earlier this week in Aurora, Champaign, Cicero, East St. Louis, Elgin and McHenry. The remaining locations this week include Chicago, Joliet, Peoria, Rock Island and Springfield.
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