Kankakee Times

Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) was confused when a witness admitted to opposing redistricting.

During an Illinois Senate Redistricting hearing, Barickman heard from witness Erica Austin, a Springfield School Board member who opposes the redistricting process because of fear of losing her community’s representation.

"When I was elected as a school board member, I got into the electoral process understanding the bills that would affect the east side of Springfield, specifically where I serve," Austin said. "Therefore, I wanted to get here and let you know that I'm a proponent of not redistricting."

Helping to clear Austin's point further, Barickman questioned the witness. "If you could just help me understand, Miss Austin, your point is that you don’t want to see the state redistrict?"

"I do not want to change the boundaries. I want the boundaries to be the same," Austin answered.

During her earlier speech introducing herself as a witness, Austin who resides in the 96th House District represented by Rep. Sue Scherer (D-Decatur), explained to the Senate her concern of losing her community's representation once the redistricting process commenced.

"I am a proponent of keeping the boundaries the same, as they are because of the representation that we have here," Austin said. "I believe that if we split, we will not have a strong representation for the East Side of Springfield."

Barickman is just one of the many Republican state lawmakers calling for an independent redistricting of legislative districts. They accuse the Democratic majority of working to create a partisan map that uses inaccurate data.

To bolster Republican opposition, he filed Senate Bill 1325 which aims to introduce reform legislation amending the Democratic lawmaker's version of the redistricting process. The bill utilized a similar language from SJRCA 0004, a constitutional amendment for an independent redistricting commission that was introduced by Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield) in 2019.

The state remapping has been a concern for both political parties. The parties have not reached an agreement on how this decennial process should be executed this year.  Then-gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker advocated for an independent redistricting commission but he's been quiet about redistricting since then. Barickman and state Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) authored a letter to the governor requesting that he testify before the April 19 joint House and Senate Redistricting Committee hearing but neither Pritzker nor his office responded to the appeal.