Although Illinois' legislative redistricting process is flawed, several changes made this year could pave the way for progressive electoral victories in 2012, according to activists who spoke July 21 at a webinar titled "'I've been Gerry…. What?' What Illinois redistricting means for you and the 2012 election."
"How districts are drawn could really impact which laws are passed and which laws are put up for discussion," said Ramon Gardenhire, director of government relations at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago ( AFC ) . "A lot of that begins with who controls the legislature."
Gardenhire moderated the webinar, which AFC sponsored and which featured Anthony Martinez, executive director of the Civil Rights Agenda; Michael Rodriguez, executive director of ENLACE Chicago; and Josina Morita, executive coordinator of the United Congress of Community & Religious Organizations.
Legislative redistricting takes place every 10 years following the release of U.S. Census data. In May 2011, the Democratic-led Illinois House and Senate created new maps that bolster predominately Democratic districts, eliminate several Republican strongholds and stretch many of Chicago's districts westward and southward to include significant portions of suburbs. Gov. Quinn signed off on the maps June 3.
Martinez said the new maps could have a "ginormous impact" on the 2012 election.
"There are many districts that were created that don't have incumbents, that don't have a representative now who lives in the area and can actually run for that new district," he said. "Because of that, there's an opportunity for minority communities to step up and say, okay, this district isn't claimed by anyone, so you can run unopposed."
Victories in 2012 could have a ripple effect through the coming decade. "Once you're an incumbent, it's much harder to defeat you," Martinez said. He has high hopes that many LGBT, racial minority and progressive candidates will step up and run.
Although LGBT citizens are not counted in the census, which is the main tool used to draw district lines, the American Community Survey ( ACS ) measures the number of self-identified same-sex couple households in any given state.
Earlier this year, the Civil Rights Agenda plotted ACS data to pinpoint where queer citizens live in Illinois. About 48 percent of the state's same-sex couples live in Cook County, and another 18.5 percent are distributed among DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane and McHenry counties.
In Chicago, roughly 46 percent of the city's same-sex couples can be found on the North Side—with 12 percent of the city's total in Lakeview, 10 percent in Edgewater, 8 percent in Rogers Park and 7 percent in Uptown.
"It's interesting when you think about the story that's been told about our community, that we live on the North Side of Chicago," Martinez said. "Well, that's not necessarily the case. … We have a very robust presence on the South Side." Martinez said Kenwood, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, South Shore and South Chicago all boast large LGBT populations.
"We're everywhere and we're underrepresented," Martinez said. "We have about a million estimated LGBT voters, but there's only three legislators at the state level, so we're vastly underrepresented in the state legislature… Getting people elected outside of Chicago can be an even bigger wake up call for the legislature."
Not everyone is excited about the new legislative maps, however. State Republicans sued in a federal court July 20 to block their adoption. The GOP legislators are arguing in a seemingly contradictory lawsuit that the Democrats' maps didn't create enough predominantly Black and Latino districts, and that they redrew the 96th Illinois House district to illegally benefit Blacks.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund ( MALDEF ) , which charges there aren't enough predominately Latino districts, is also toying with the idea of a lawsuit.
"This is the map that we have at this point," Morita said, "but local residents across the state are saying, 'We can do better.' We can have more majority minority districts. We can ensure that other communities that are not necessarily protected under the voting rights act, like the LGBT community, can also have more effective districts."
Each of the panelists agreed the redistricting process is largely flawed. When one party controls each house of the General Assembly and the governor's office, it's easy for maps to be skewed. The heavy use of U.S. Census data poses another problem. "The fact is the census isn't very reliable," Rodriguez said. "We know that it's undercounted the African American and Latino communities." It also doesn't count the LGBT community at all.
Still, Morita said, there's hope that redistricting will be more transparent in the future. "This was kind of an unprecedented process," she said. "This is the first time that we've had public hearings after the map was released. In the past, nobody ever saw the map until it was already passed."
