Illinois

Daley, LaHood leading revived ‘fair maps’ campaign in Illinois

Published

6 months ago

August 31, 2025

Daley, LaHood leading revived ‘fair maps’ campaign in Illinois

Bill Daley, left, and Ray LaHood, right, speak at a launch event for their campaign to change how Illinois draws its legislative maps.
Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams

Two veteran federal officials from Illinois are relaunching an effort to amend the Illinois Constitution and end partisan gerrymandering in state legislative districts.

Bill Daley, a Democrat from Chicago who served as secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton, and Ray LaHood, a former Republican member of Congress from Peoria who served as transportation secretary under President Barack Obama, hope they can succeed where a similar effort in 2016 failed.

The two spoke with Capitol News Illinois for an episode of the Capitol Cast podcast. The interview is also available on CNI’s YouTube channel.

“We had a very, rather complicated, process that we put forward to the voters, if it had gotten on the ballot,” Daley said of the 2016 campaign, which he actively supported. “What we learned from that, and looking at the Supreme Court decision and looking at prior cases, (was) that we should simplify and not be as complicated as we became in 2016. We have a plan that’s simple. We feel very confident that the courts will approve this.”

The 2016 effort

In 2016, supporters of the “Fair Maps” initiative gathered enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to establish an 11-member commission to redraw legislative maps after each decennial census. Seven of those members would have been chosen by a panel appointed by the auditor general, while the other four would have been appointed by legislative leaders.

But before the proposal got on the ballot, opponents of the measure — including allies of then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan — filed a court challenge and the Illinois Supreme Court struck it down on technical grounds.

The court ruled that under the Illinois Constitution, citizen-initiated amendments must be limited to dealing with “structural and procedural subjects contained in Article IV” of the constitution, which deals with the legislature. By assigning new duties to the auditor general, the court said, the proposed amendment went beyond what is allowed in a citizen-initiated amendment and, therefore, was unconstitutional.

That case was filed by a group called People’s Map whose chair, John Hooker, was an executive at the utility giant Commonwealth Edison. In July, Hooker was sentenced to 1½ years in prison and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine after being convicted as part of the “ComEd Four,” for his role in bribing Madigan with jobs and contracts for his political allies in exchange for legislation favorable to the utility.

‘Picking your voters’

Daley and LaHood said the problem that existed in 2016 still exists today. That is, legislative maps are drawn in a way that protects the majority party.

Currently, that’s the Democratic Party, which holds 61% of the seats in the Illinois House and 68% of the seats in the state Senate, despite the fact that Democrats, on average, have won only about 55% of the vote in recent statewide elections.

“When the Republicans had the majority, they did the same thing that Democrats did,” Daley said. “Whether they did it as well or not, that can be debated. But this idea of picking your voters to maintain control, whichever party it is.”

The new proposal calls for establishing a 12-member “Legislative Redistricting Commission,” whose members would be appointed by the top Democrat and Republican in each legislative chamber. Each leader would appoint one member of the General Assembly and two members who are not lawmakers.

The commission would be barred from using voters’ party registration or voting history data when drawing maps. Districts also would be required to be compact, contiguous and drawn along existing county and municipal lines where possible.

Congress not affected

The proposal would not, however, change the method of drawing congressional district maps, a topic that has made national news in recent weeks when the Texas Legislature held a special session to redraw that state’s congressional maps to create five more Republican-leaning districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Daley and LaHood said the proposal is limited to state legislative redistricting because citizen-initiated amendments are limited to structural and procedural subjects contained in Article IV of the state constitution. Congressional redistricting is a power conferred on state legislatures from the U.S. Constitution.

Neither Daley nor LaHood would predict whether changing the mapmaking process would alter the makeup of the General Assembly significantly or change the kinds of legislation that passes through it. But LaHood — pointing to states like Iowa and California, which have adopted independent mapmaking commissions — said drawing fair maps is important for individuals and communities.

“They’re not splitting up neighborhoods, they’re not splitting up communities, they’re not splitting up counties,” he said. “These maps are reflective of where people live and having their friends and neighbors as their representatives … and so I think in states where they have citizens drawing the maps and keeping friends and neighbors together, the voters are pretty happy.”

Source link

Click to comment

Illinois

Illinois lawmakers consider tightening DUI law to 0.05 BAC

Published

4 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Illinois lawmakers consider tightening DUI law to 0.05 BAC

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (First Alert 4) – Right now, in Illinois, Missouri and most of the country, drivers must be at or over 0.08 to get a DUI. A proposal in the Illinois Statehouse would lower that threshold.

“Make it as safe as you possibly can out there,” said John Sapolis.

Collinsville resident John Sapolis said while lowering Illinois’ DUI threshold would not affect him, as he rarely drinks, he likes the idea of getting drinkers off the road.

“It’s bad enough out there driving around with people who are not drinking,” said Sapolis.

If a bill passes in the Illinois House of Representatives, the blood alcohol limit would be lowered, meaning fewer drinks could put somebody over the line for a DUI.

Two Chicago-area lawmakers propose lowering the threshold from 0.08 to 0.05.

“Your body still is not in a proper state to really be behind the wheel,” said Erin Doherty, Regional Executive Director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Doherty said even at 0.05, drivers are less coordinated and cannot track moving objects as well as when they are sober.

Utah is the only state in the country to have the 0.05 limit, and Doherty said one in five drivers there changed their behavior.

“There are so many other options before getting behind the wheel,” said Doherty.

Sara Floyd used to live in Utah and now calls Collinsville home.

“The Midwest people like to have a few beers while they watch their Little League games

“In Utah, you can barely get alcohol at a gas station,” said Floyd.

She said the culture in Utah is very different and thinks there should be some wiggle room for drivers.

“If one person had a beer within an hour period and then drove, they shouldn’t get a DUI for one drink,” said Floyd.

Doherty said they do not recommend driving even after a single drink.

“You really should not get behind the wheel when you’re any kind of impaired, one drink, five drinks, whatever that looks like, just don’t drive,” said Doherty.

While each body processes alcohol differently, according to the National Library of Medicine, in a two-hour period it takes a 170-pound man three to four drinks to reach 0.05, and it takes a 137-pound woman two to three drinks to reach the same state.

April Sage said she does not think this law would work, saying instead it would help more if the state added more public transit.

“I could have three beers and get a ride home safely,” said Sage.

First Alert 4 reached out to a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation to see if they had any comments on this bill. The spokesperson said they are not going to comment because it is pending legislation.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, fatal crashes involving one driver who had been drinking increased 4% from 2019 to 2022, despite multiple studies showing fewer Americans are drinking.

Source link

Illinois

Voters had no choice in nearly 9-in-10 primary elections

Published

16 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Voters had no choice in nearly 9-in-10 primary elections

Illinois voting data shows voters had no choice of candidate in nearly 9-in-10 Democratic and Republican primaries for state and federal office in 2024.

Voters had no choice of candidate in nearly nine out of every 10 Republican and Democratic primary elections for state and federal office in 2024.

Analysis of Illinois voting data shows Democrats ran one or no candidate in 135 of the 155 primary elections for the U.S. House, Illinois Senate and Illinois House. That left voters with a choice between candidates in just 20 races.

Meanwhile, Republicans only ran one or no candidate in 137 of the 155 primary elections last year for non-judicial state and federal positions, giving voters of a choice in just 18 races.

In total, there were 155 primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois Senate and Illinois House in 2024. Democrats did not run a candidate in 28 of these races while Republicans failed to run a candidate in 50.

And in the 107 Democratic primaries and 87 Republican primaries were only one candidate ran for the position, those candidates secured their spot on the general election ballot with a single primary vote.

To get on the primary ballot for Illinois Senate, the Illinois General Assembly mandates established party candidates to get 1,000 petition signatures from district party members. Illinois House candidates need 500 signatures. For U.S. House, either party’s candidates need signatures from 0.5% of all primary voters from their party in the district.

This lack of choice between candidates for Democratic and Republican party primaries also left general election voters with fewer choices on the ballot.

In the 2024 election cycle, 65 of the 155 non-judicial state and federal general elections had only one candidate on the ballot. That means in 65 districts, it only took one vote for a candidate to win a seat representing the entire district.

Illinoisans already suffer from a lack of choice in candidates. Research shows an average of 4.7 million Illinois voters had no choice in their state representative between the 2012 and 2020 election cycles.

Research shows more choice drives voter participation and makes legislators less susceptible to the influence of lobbyists and special interests. Lightly contested elections also tend to skew policies in favor of powerful special interests.

Illinois should consider reforms that will give voters more choices at the ballot box, such as making it easier for independents to enter the general election like they do in Iowa, Wisconsin and Tennessee.

Until that happens, Illinoisans will continue to see elections with too few choices and too much influence handed to those already in power.

Source link

Illinois

2 men shot, 1 fatally, outside bar in Morris, police say

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

2 men shot, 1 fatally, outside bar in Morris, police say

MORRIS, Ill. (WLS) — A man was killed and another was injured in a shooting outside of a bar in Grundy County.

The shooting happened early Saturday outside of Clayton’s Tap in the 100 block of West Washington Street in Morris, Illinois, officials said.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

The Grundy County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, where they found two men with gunshot wounds. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The victim who died was identified by the Grundy County Coroner’s Office as 35-year-old Julian Rosario of Channahon.

A suspect in the shooting, 22-year-old Marshall Szpara of Seneca, was arrested and “initially charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, pending further review from the Grundy County States Attorney’s office,” Morris police said.

No further information was available.

Source link