Jack Franks Reapportionment Ploy Gets Result He Wants

Jack Franks got this photo coverage in the Chicago Tribune.

Jack Franks got this photo coverage in the Chicago Tribune.

Today in the Chicago Tribune, Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks got the biggest photo.

He’s  making a speech on the House floor, the article below says.

It’s in support of his constitutional amendment to change the reapportionment process.

I have outlined the hypocrisy of his proposal to take legislators out of the process:

Jack Franks on Reapportionment: “Do as I say, not as I did.”

But all was not roses for Franks on Tuesday.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown described what Franks was doing.

He resurrected former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington’s famous description of legislative shenanigans:

“Hocus pocus dominocus.”

He continued, “Politics often involved slight of hand, giving the illusion of doing one thing when quite the opposite is actually what is happening.”

Brown concedes that Franks’ proposal “could very well be the best means to achieve that end [fair districts], although the evidence is that it’s just being used as another maneuver to fool us.”

Jack Franks

Jack Franks

The columnist points out that the Democrats are making this effort “to cover themselves politically” because of the petition-driven constitution amendment on reapportionment.

Constitutional amendments need to be passed by both Houses in the same form by the end of this week.

“Except that does not seem to be the plan,” Brown writes.

“Instead, legislators in both chambers are preparing to ignore the other’s legislation.

“That way they can all say they voted for legislative districting reform–without actually accomplishing anything.”


Comments

Jack Franks Reapportionment Ploy Gets Result He Wants — 9 Comments

  1. Time for some more reform in Illinois Government.

    Franks must go and the only way that can happen is if the people of McHenry County rise up, take notice, and make sure he is voted out of office.

    Vote Steve Reick!

  2. The two redistricting bills are HJRCA 58 (Democrat State Representative Jack Franks) & SJRCA 30 (Democrat State Senator Kwame Raoul) in the 99th General Assembly.

    —————————————————

    The redistricting initiative is called Independent Map Amendment.

    http://www.mapamendment.org/index.html

  3. The concept sounds better than what we have, but it still leaves the possibility of bias and partisan nonsense.

    Computers should be programmed by outsiders to draw up the voting districts.

  4. Especially because the Supreme Court is controlled by Democrats, many of whom Madigan had a say in putting into office.

  5. There is no such thing as non-bias in this world- the map has always reflected the part in power….

  6. The redistricting has become more absurd over time because technology allows access to data to draw the strangest of boundaries, completely ignoring existing taxing district boundaries, making it next to impossible for the local press to adequately cover many political districts (congressional, state representative, state senators).

  7. Cal, I’m not quite sure what your comment is supposed to mean.

    Only two justices of the Supreme Court are involved in the appointment of the independent commission and by the language of the bill, it has to be both a Democrat and a Republican.

    The entire Supreme Court does not draw the districts or decide who will.

    And why would Franks’ go out of his way to write a complex constitutional amendment, something you can’t exactly draw up over night, just for it to fail for bs reasons?

    I think you’re crossing the line from healthy skepticism to foolish cynicism.

  8. This Guy just keeps getting slippery and slippery, like a cobra!

    but then when the heat in the kitchen starts to come in so does the desperation!

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