North Cook News

Illinois state Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) recently released a statement on her website condemning the state's practice of gerrymandering and pushed for a more independent political district map-drawing policy.

Gerrymandering occurs when a state's majority political party attempts to structure district maps to best fit their political needs and strategically gain more votes in elections. In Illinois, the Democratic Party holds the main responsibility of map drawing for electoral districts.

"Our democracy is built upon the premise that voters choose their elected officials," Hammond said in her statement. "But in Illinois, a partisan map-drawing process that allows majority-party lawmakers to draw their own maps and essentially choose their voters is used. This procedure protects incumbent legislators and solidifies majority-party control. The process . . . stifles democracy and undermines our representative form of government."

Mark Cramer

North Cook communities have had their own concerns with gerrymandering and also support independent map drawing. North Cook conservative activist Mark Cramer finds that gerrymandering has prevented many Republican candidates' public opinions from being voiced.

“I would want to emphasize that the system right now does not adequately address the voice of the minority, gerrymandered amount of people in the district,” Cramer told North Cook News. “They can essentially be ignored, and that their representative or state senator, and in some cases even congressmen, will be reelected so they are less apt, in my opinion, to listen to the minority in their own community or district. That has a reverse negative effect on the gerrymandering process, which the gerrymandering process, in one case, is trying to avoid.”

Cramer believes that a separate committee can solve the issues with the state’s current map-drawing process, although it may take some time before it can function properly. 

“My concern is a fully independent, non-partisan binding committee would work,” said Cramer. “The problem is I don’t know how the non-partisan committee would be selected. Would they be selected by the governor? Would they be selected by the legislature, which would throw another whole level of confusion on how the process works.”

Those in favor of independent map drawing can sign the HJRCA 10 petition that Hammond publicly supports. This petition aims to remove the power of map drawing from state legislators and hand it over to independent commissions.

Cramer expresses that a more effective communication plan from Illinois Republican representatives that reaches out to the general public will generate more followers to the cause. 

“I’ve seen snippets of why people think that this effort should be supported, but I don’t see a widespread PR campaign to actually get it out to people who can push for it in their own district,” Cramer said.

Democratic Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, as well as numerous state House representatives, were contacted but were not available to make comments.