Sangamon Sun

State Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) is hoping voters have come to the same realization he has when it comes to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the new legislative maps.

“The governor has now twice broken his promise to not sign maps drawn by politicians,” Butler recently posted on Twitter. “Why does ‘fool me once, fool me twice’ come to mind?”

Pritzker signed off on the revised maps in September.

CHANGE Illinois issued a statement claiming the maps dilute minority voting power.

“Many major groups agree the new maps reduce the numbers of majority Black voting age population districts and majority Latino voting age population districts,” the statement added. “The Latino Policy Forum asked Pritzker to veto the maps for the same reason.”

With a June 30 state constitutional deadline looming, Democratic lawmakers pushed forward with the maps during the spring session, even though they hadn’t yet received the U.S. Census Bureau data typically relied on for the job of drawing districts.

Pritzker closed the deal on the latest maps after Democrats called a special session to adjust them after official population numbers proved the variances between districts were far outside what is allowed under U.S. constitutional law.

The matter is now before the courts with Republicans demanding that the once-every-decade job of drawing the maps be left in the hands of a bipartisan commission.