Rich Lowry writes for the New York Post about the latest gerrymandering complaints from Democrats.
Let’s take a tour of the 13th Congressional District in Illinois.
It starts in East St. Louis and then moves steadily north.
By the time it gets to Springfield, home of Abraham Lincoln, about 90 miles away, it takes a sharp turn to the east, reaching Decatur and finally Champaign, itself about 80 miles away from Springfield.
It’s a jagged, narrow strip of territory with no obvious rhyme or reason as it traverses six counties.
It’s less a congressional district than a road trip, and bears a resemblance to the original gerrymander, a long, salamander-like state Senate district in Massachusetts in 1812.
The only point of the new 13th District lines, fashioned in the redistricting after the 2020 Census, was to gather together far-flung Democrats to create another Democratic congressional district.
Mission accomplished: The 13th went from being a competitive district long held by a Republican to flipping to the Democrats in 2022.
Overall, Illinois lost one district after the 2020 Census and managed to write lines that changed the congressional ratio from a 13-5 Democratic advantage to a 14-3 Democratic advantage.
The political analysis website 538 called the new map “the worst gerrymander in the country drawn by Democrats.”
This makes it especially inapt that a contingent of Texas Democrats fleeing the Lone State State to try to stop what they consider unfair new congressional boundaries found a safe harbor in Illinois.
Next time, their travel agent should do a hypocrisy check before booking a destination.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed the self-exiling Democrats and hailed their courage.
He told them that he and other top Democrats in the state were pleased “to stand in solidarity with you and send a clear message to all Americans.”
His conscience showed no sign of being pricked by the fact that he signed into law the redistricting that saw Republicans in 2022 win nearly 44% of the popular vote in Illinois congressional races — and only 18% of the congressional seats.
