Are Illinois Democrats guilty of hypocrisy in Texas map battle?

If you walked through a tunnel that connects to the Illinois Capitol to a neighboring office building, made your way through a room used for furniture storage and possessed the code to an electronic lock on an unmarked door, you could have seen the way democrats drew legislative maps in 2021.

“I don’t make the rules and I don’t have a key either,” state representative Nick Smith (D-Chicago) told a reporter who had found the secret room in 2021. 

A parade of democratic lawmakers marched in and out of the room to see the maps being drawn by party leaders. Most declined to answer questions.

Fast forward four years and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Illinois) is harboring some Texas democratic lawmakers who fled the state to prevent a vote on a re-districting map engineered by republicans.   

“They are attempting to cheat,” Pritzker defiantly declared Sunday night while standing beside the Texas lawmakers in Chicago. 

Texas House minority leader Gene Wu said, “We come here today with absolute moral clarity.”

Illinois republicans were quick to claim hypocrisy. 

“Gov. Pritzker broke his promise to Illinois voters not once but twice for signing one of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation,” said state senate minority leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove).

So what’s the difference?

Political maps are typically drawn every ten years, after census data is reported. Texas republicans are trying force changes now, half-way through the usual cycle.  

Pritzker, who once campaigned promising to support efforts to take the mapping pen out of politicians’ hands, eventually supported the maps produced by his fellow democrats.

The governor now claims democratic dominance in state elections has little to do with districts being drawn in their favor. 

“The fact we are very good in Illinois about delivering for the people of Illinois and the people of Illinois react to that and vote for our candidates is very different than cheating mid-decade and re-writing the rules because their cult leader Donald Trump tells them to do it,” Pritzker said in response to reporters’ questions.

New push for “fair maps”

“We’re all grown-ups in this. We understand this is a game; but there still are certain rules,” said election attorney Michael Dorf. 

For years, Dorf was the general counsel for Illinois democrats and intimately involved in drawing — and defending — gerrymandered maps. 

He’s now part of a bi-partisan group, that includes former transportation secretary Ray LaHood and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, pushing to limit political influence in the map-making that effects Illinois state legislative races.   

“For congressional races and congressional redistricting, we need a national law,” Dorf said. “But certainly, Illinois is not going to unilaterally disarm while Texas is taking the nuclear option.”

This would be the third time an attempt has been made in the past decade to change how legislative maps are made in Illinois. The previous two efforts failed.