U.S. House Redistricting: Illinois

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

If I were Pat Quinn, I wouldn't be planning gerrymandered maps right now.  I would be meeting with Snyder and/or Kasich about a bipartisan move to independent redistricting.

No, that's what you'd be doing if you were yourself and somehow found yourself Governor of Illinois by magic. If you were Pat Quinn, IL D internal politics would probably keep you from even consciously entertaining such a commonsense idea. After all, you'll want these people, some of which will hope to serve in Congress soon, to support your administration.

A man can dream, right?  I wonder, for the states that currently have independent redistricting and didn't get it by referendum, did it always come up during a deadlock with divided government, or do we ever see examples of one party acting "altruistically"?  I put altruistically in quotes because I would expect that after rare takeover by the permanent outparty (ex. a GOP takeover of Maryland or something like that), there would be every incentive to block the normal winners from their advantage in the future.

New Jersey's was passed by Democrats in a lame duck session in 1991 after they lost control of the state legislature. The state constitution was amended in 1995.

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

What I support is common sense redistricting that respects communities and are derived from natural boundaries.

Like the proposed Michigan map?

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

BK thought it was probably possible to draw two 54% Hispanic seats, with the earmuff connector in existence but only a small part of the southerly Hispanic area appended by it. That's probably a more worthwhile idea than the Elgin maps.

You mean like this? These two monstrosities are 51.5% Hispanic each.