No big surprise here.
Mike Madigan poured big money to elect Justice Thomas Kilbride over a decade ago.
He won what was a Republican district.
Republicans counter-attacked in the southern most district and took it away from St. Clair County Democrats known for outrageous decisions against big business.
The long and the short of it is that the Democrats control the Illinois Supreme Court and what Mike Madigan really wants, Mike Madigan gets.
Mike Madigan most definitely does not want a map like Iowa’s, one drawn pretty much without partisan influence.
Mike Madigan “confers” with Jack Franks.
He wants one on which he can take the precincts in Spring Grove that State Rep. Jack Franks lost to John O’Neil in 2010 and put them in another district.
And that’s what Mike Madigan has gotten with this decision.
Democrats will get the same treatment from the U.S. Supreme Court for their issues if Hillary Clinton is elected President.
Below is Governor Bruce Rauner’s reaction:
Statement on Redistricting Referendum
Bruce Rauner
SPRINGFIELD – Governor Bruce Rauner issued the following statement today on the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision regarding the redistricting referendum on the November ballot:
“What drives people away from Illinois is the sense that our political system is broken and our government is unaccountable to the people.
“The Illinois system only works for the political insiders who benefit at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable and the middle class.
“Today’s court decision to deny Illinoisans the right to vote on a redistricting referendum does nothing to stem the outflow or change people’s views of how the system is rigged and corrupt.
“When the General Assembly reconvenes this fall, they should put political reform – term limits and independent redistricting – at the top of the legislative agenda so that incumbents aren’t locked into power and democracy is restored through competitive general elections.
“Legislative districts should represent people based upon the community where they live.
“Politicians should not pick their voters by drawing spaghetti-like district lines with the sole intent of keeping one party in power regardless of how the people vote.
“Fair maps create fair districts.
“The system is broken and controlled by career politicians.
“People leave when they cannot hold their politicians accountable.
“This is not a partisan idea; this is the people’s idea.
“Independent redistricting has strong support from both Republicans and Democrats, including President Obama, as well as non-partisan, good government groups.
“More than 500,000 citizens signed the petition to allow the entire state a chance to be heard on this issue of fairness.
“It is an affront to our democracy that the courts struck down yet another citizen-led referendum drive to fix the system that only benefits the people in power.”
What we have here is one more reason in a never ending list
as to why people are fleeing the DEMOCRAT tax hellhole, and
once great state, of Illinois.
As The Great Exodus continues …
This is extremely disappointing.
There isn’t much else to say.
“How Can We Play the Republican Voters in McHenry County”
Maybe Chair of the Democrat Party of Illinois, Michael J Madigan, is speaking to 63rd State Representative Jack D Franks, about how to gain Democrat seats in McHenry County.
Perhaps run a Democrat as a Republican in the March 15, 2016 63rd State Representative District Republican Primary (turns out to be Jeffery Lichte).
Well it can’t be coordinated, but someone could set up an independent expenditure committee with a feel good name (turns out to be Government for the People).
The independent expenditure committee PAC could get contributions from a labor union PAC (turns out to be among others, the IEA teacher union union political action committee, IPACE).
The labor union PAC could send money for mailer to a top Democrat lobbyist who the Chicago Tribune labeled as Madigans top campaign aide (turns out to be Shaw Decremer).
The mailers could be attack mailers against the actual Republican in the Republican primary (turns out the be Steve Reick).
The Democrat could get thousands of votes in the Republican primary (that happened).
Not sure how that actually took place.
When any unit of government wants to extract additional taxes from voters and business via a referendum, has the Democrat party ever sued to stop it?
After this ruling, you can throw in the towel on changing the public sector pension guarantee, changing prevailing wage laws and ever passing right to work legislation UNLESS YOU WORK YOUR TAILS OFF TO GET MORE NON-PROGRESSIVES ELECTED!!
That can only happen if MORE NON-PROGRESSIVES RUN FOR OFFICE!
All Democrats in this state are PROGRESSIVES.
Some Republicans are Progressives.
As long as we keep voting for the Kirks, Kinzingers, in contested primaries, nothing will change.
We had candidates running against both in the primary but they were practically ignored by Republican voters – why?
“Unlike most states, supreme and appellate court justices in Illinois are elected to represent specific districts. The seven justices are divided among five districts (three allocated to Cook County and the others divided evenly among the other four districts) and are voted into office by the residents of their respective regions.[2] Only the states of Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi use a similar system.”
https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_selection_in_Illinois
Three from Cook County!
We can thank the voters in the third district for electing a Democrat Supreme Court Judge.
We would expect all three from Cook to be Dems, but District 3?
Ex Bears kickers, Chicago Aldermans wives and assorted political gadflys are what your so called Supreme Court is comprised of.
Illinois is a joke.
So true, DJ.
If not for connections, most of them would have a very difficult time even getting hired as an associate by a decent law firm in Chicago.