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Mr. Hypocrisy: Pritzker Bashes Texas Maps, Forgets His Own Power Grabs In Illinois

Speaking alongside Texas Democrat legislators who fled their state in order to block the Texas GOP from pursuing redistricting, Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker reached the zenith of hypocrisy, declaring that changing election maps in Illinois was “not something that I want to do,” while rhapsodizing, “We’re fighting for democracy.”

Pritzker presided over a congressional redistricting in Illinois in 2021 that received an “F” for its partisanship from gerrymander.princeton.edu, a website that specializes in tracing gerrymandering across the nation.

In 2018, in his first campaign for governor, Pritzker stressed the need for independent congressional and state legislative redistricting, saying, “We should amend the constitution to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps, but in the meantime, I would urge Democrats and Republicans to agree to an independent commission to handle creating a new legislative map.”

In January 2021, Pritzker reiterated that promise; his spokesman said Pritzker “has been clear he will veto a partisan map.” But by April 2021, he said he trusted state lawmakers — as both chambers of the state government were controlled by Democrats — to draw a fair redistricting map, claiming it was too late for an independent commission. Republican House leader Jim Durkin slammed Pritzker, saying he “seems to suffer from retrograde amnesia.”

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) echoed, “Governor Pritzker lied to people of Illinois, plain and simple. When he was a candidate for Governor in 2018, Pritzker made an ironclad promise to voters that he would veto any redistricting proposal that was drawn by legislators. That turned out to be a lie. Now that he’s in power and the Democrats have maintained their supermajority control of the General Assembly, Pritzker is enabling a partisan redistricting process that will be used to tighten his party’s grip on power for another decade.”

Illinois House Assistant Minority Leader Tim Butler (R-Springfield) pointed out Pritzker had previously said if there were not an amendment, he would support creating an independent commission. “Butler added that he has a bill ready to go, but Democrats have blocked the effort rather than Republicans as Pritzker now claims,” Illinois Policy reported.

“I would say it’s your friends and the Democratic Party that are not engaging. And we need to have you hold to your word, governor, that you will veto, veto, a partisan map like your office has said,” Butler told the Illinois State House.

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