Today House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (Savanna) was joined by State Representatives Ryan Spain (Peoria) and Dan Ugaste (Geneva) for a press conference in the State Capitol to discuss their latest litigation effort to combat legislative gerrymandering. McCombie, in her official capacity, filed a lawsuit with the Illinois Supreme Court to declare the current map unconstitutional and ask for a special master to draft a redistricting plan that complies with the Illinois constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court has given the responsibility of ending extreme partisan gerrymandering to the states, and now Illinois will potentially join other states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina who have had redistricting plans struck down on the basis of identical or comparable constitutional provisions.
McCombie’s lawsuit filed today will address the 2021 enacted maps at the state level and challenge two key features of the maps: the compactness of the districts (Article IV, Section 3) and the partisan gerrymandering (Article III, Section 3).
“Illinois’ State House District Maps are the byproduct of extreme partisan gerrymandering,” Leader McCombie said. “They are drawn by the political party in control and intended to entrench the Democratic Party in power and prevent voters of the minority party from electing candidates of their choice. The general election outcomes are rigged.”
In addition to seeking legal remedy through this announced lawsuit, State Representative Ryan Spain has filed House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 05 in the 104th General Assembly to enact a Fair Map Amendment.
“Instead of a promised New Day by Speaker Chris Welch, we have instead seen Democrats opposing democracy through a multitude of efforts, but the most egregious remains the map,” said Spain. “When we say the map is rigged, we mean that the better Republican candidates do, the more effective the Democratic gerrymander is.”
In 2016, over 600,000 Illinoisans joined an effort to end partisan redistricting through a Fair Map Ballot Initiative. The measure would be thrown out by the Democrat-controlled Illinois Supreme Court after former Commonwealth Edison executive John Hooker filed suit. Mr. Hooker would later be convicted of charges related to bribing former Speaker Michael Madigan, who now sits awaiting a verdict in his own federal corruption trial.
State Representative Dan Ugaste has long advocated for fair maps, in addition to larger ethics reform the House Republican caucus seeks.
“The recently completed election cycle made clear how successful the partisan gerrymandering deprived voters of their voice,” said Ugaste. “Of the 2024 Illinois House elections, Democratic candidates won 55% of the statewide vote. But Democratic candidates won a super-majority of seats (78 of 118, or 66.1%).”
Dr. Jowei Chen from the University of Michigan is the leading academic researcher on partisan gerrymandering in the nation and contributed expert research for the complaint. Ugaste discussed the impact of Chen’s research in today’s press conference.
“I support expanding recall elections for all elected officials, strong ethics reform, and changing the corrupt way Democrats have perverted the system to draw legislative maps which provide them with what our expert witness, Dr. Chen, describes as an “insurance policy” for the House Democrats,” continued Ugaste. “Voters across our state deserve to be heard, and we will not stand for them to be silenced any longer.”
While HJRCA05 awaits further consideration in the Illinois House, a full copy of the complaint filed today can be found online at RedoRemap.com.