Sangamon Sun

State Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) believes Democrats are gerrymandering — again.

For Spain, the way the Democrats have been handling redistricting is nothing new, just the old way it has been since Madigan’s era, and the aim remains the same.

“I think we still know what their intentions are, right now even under the cloak of secrecy and the hidden map room,” Spain said.

On Friday, the majority party has revealed the maps they drew for House and Senate districts.

“Releasing new partisan maps late on a Friday night proves that the Mike Madigan playbook continues in the Illinois House,” Spain said. “In a further attempt to skirt any transparency, Democrats dropped partisan maps drawn in a locked room by politicians who hand-selected their voters.”

The Democrats released their maps just over two weeks after Spain and Republican spokesperson of the House Redistricting Committee state Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) held a news conference in front of the locked room where the Democrats, according to Republican lawmakers, were drawing the partisan maps.

“Tonight’s drop of partisan maps is yet another attempt to mislead voters in an effort to block fair elections,” Butler said. “After so many promises made by Democrats to have an open and transparent process involving the public. We continue our call upon Gov. Pritzker to live up to his pledge to the people of Illinois and veto a map that was drawn by politicians like what we see here today.”

During his campaign, Pritzker promised not to approve any maps created by legislators. He urged "Democrats and Republicans to agree to an independent commission to handle creating a new legislative map.”

A poll revealed that 75% of Illinoisans no longer want politicians to draw legislative maps.