Illinois Valley Times

In a recent caucus podcast, Illinois State Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) talked about a sundry set of issues that included the need for regular redistricting of Illinois, fair maps, and the practice of gerrymandering that he says is continuously blocking a successful bipartisan approach in the House.

On the issue of redistricting, Spain said "Some states had taken the approach to use principles of fairness, independence in disregarding partisanship as the primary needs to draw legislative districts. Illinois has done the opposite and we're one of most heavily gerrymandered or politically motivated legislative mapping processes in the United States."

His statement on the podcast followed his own proposal early this year of creating an 11-member bipartisan committee to be tasked upon on re-drawing Illinois' congressional district lines every ten years.

“You cannot use as the deciding factor whether someone is registered to be a Republican or a Democrat. We need to be agnostic about those partisan labels as we draw and create these districts,” Spain said during a news conference in January, NPR Illinois reported. 

When asked about his take on politicians drawing maps privately, Spain stressed that people of color should be heavily represented during redistricting.

Other Republican lawmakers also supported Spain's proposal. Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) said “I think the idea that the legislators get to draw the maps — get to draw the districts that they want is something that the people, I think, are just sick and tired of.”