By David Stanczak
In my past commentaries, I noted that support for the Independent Map Amendment was bipartisan. Last week, I discovered that opposition is as well. Republicans are not united in support for the Independent Map Amendment. The reasons for opposition are two-fold.
One source of opposition comes from entrenched office-holders. Republicans occupy some of the 60% of the seats which are safe because they are unopposed. With a gerrymandered map, there are safe Republican seats just like safe Democratic seats, just not as many of them. Incumbents of either party have an interest in the current system, which might be best expressed in the immortal words of Gov. Richard J. Lepetomaine: “Gentlemen, we have to protect our phony baloney jobs.” Never mind the rights of voters to a choice. The current motto of Illinois is “I got mine.”
The second source of opposition to the Independent Map Amendment among Republicans comes from those who are looking forward to the political advantage that comes with a change of political fortune: “When we are the majority, we get to do it to them.” Aside from the fact that the imbalance has reached the critical mass necessary for it to be permanent for all practical purposes, this rationale exalts politics over government. In the political sense, Democrats are the “them” that Republicans would be able to “do it to”. But in the more important governmental sense, the real victims of the gerrymandering are not the opposition political party but the voters, who are effectively deprived of a meaningful choice. In a “safe” district, Republican or Democratic, voters get to vote only for the candidate nominated by the prevailing party. In these “safe” districts, more often than not, that candidate is the one backed by the local party, regardless of whether he or she reflects the views of the people in the district. The candidate, particularly an incumbent, may not reflect the views of most voters in the district, but even if totally irresponsible and ineffective as a legislator, there is no mechanism for ouster at the polls.
The voters deserve better.
David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media Inc.
