City Room™ - Politics - Can Politics Be Removed From Redistricting?

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Can Politics Be Removed From Redistricting?
Produced by Sam Hudzik on Thursday, July 30, 2009

Paul Green testifies Wednesday before an Illinois Senate committee. (WBEZ/Sam Hudzik)

Illinois lawmakers are delving into the very political issue of how the state draws its legislative districts.

A state senate committee is holding a few public hearings to take a look at the state's redistricting process. Dale Righter is the top Republican on the committee. He's proposed a constitutional amendment to hire a private firm to carve out the legislative districts.

RIGHTER: Isn't the best way to de-politicize the drawing of the map, is to take the drawing of the map out of the hands of the politicians.
GREEN: Yes. I think that would be it...

Paul Green is a political science professor who testified before the committee.

GREEN: ...but I think that would be very difficult to that because you have incumbency, which is one of the few bipartisan issues that's always been here.

Lawmakers and witnesses Wednesday also scrutinized a much-maligned part of the state's current redistricting process. It calls for a tie-breaking lottery, to ultimately pick which political party draws the map.