State Races, Redistricting, and Other Updates

 

It appears that all the legislation dealing with redistricting has finally passed now that the Illinois Judicial District legislation has passed the General Assembly (just awaiting a likely Governor's signature). The Champaign County and C-U Local Cheat Sheets focus almost entirely on local government and local candidates, but the State redistricting runs right through our local communities. 

For a lot of information on the legal process, dates, before and after maps, etc Ballotpedia's redistricting page on U.S. Congressional and State of Illinois General Assembly districts has a lot of helpful information.

The most detailed maps with zoom functions and comparing before and after are on the Ballotpedia website here. There are also some additional maps at the Illinois Democratic Party's page here. Direct links to maps:

• U.S. Congressional District Map
• State of Illinois General Assembly, Senate and House Maps
• Illinois Supreme Court district map (it appears Champaign County is still in the 5th District compared to the current map here).

 

The General Assembly's passage of the new State judicial circuit and sub-circuit maps just happened this week. The changes appear to give some Illinois Counties with likely Democratic Party majorities, like Champaign County a bit more party representation opportunities on the court compared to circuit-wide elections that include far more surrounding rural populations and lean more Republican overall. The Springfield State Journal-Register had Capitol News Illinois coverage of the bill and its passage:

Democrats in the Illinois Senate and House pushed through legislation Wednesday night that would create new judicial “subcircuits” in Sangamon, Madison and DuPage counties.

Before sending House Bill 3138 to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk with no Republican votes, Democrats who control the General Assembly defended the new proposed subcircuits and other changes in residential qualifications for elected circuit judges in the Chicago area the counties of Peoria, Champaign and Rock Island. They said the plan would give Black and Hispanic judicial candidates more of a chance to get elected...

Republicans said the move is a brazen attempt to fill the bench with Democratic judges who would support Democratic initiatives and philosophies in court rulings.

Full article with more details here. The News-Gazette's Jim Dey had an article critical of the changes here, but it included some helpful descriptions of how some of the court seats would end up elected within Champaign County as opposed to across the full Sixth Circuit region:

Champaign County is among many affected counties. The evolving proposal calls for all three local circuit judges currently elected from the six-county Sixth Circuit to run only in Champaign County in future elections.

This change was proposed several months ago by state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, who complained that judges are overwhelmingly White and male.

The transition takes effect on the retirements of circuit judges Jason Bohm, Randy Rosenbaum and Roger Webber.

Champaign County has six circuit judges — three at-large and three resident. The resident judges are Ramona Sullivan, Ben Dyer and Sam Limentato.

That full opinion piece here. More information on the structure of the Sixth Circuit here, list of judges here, map here, and an explanation of circuit versus associate judges here. The Cheat Sheet's judges page is dire need of an update and on the to-do list.

For previous coverage of the redistricting of the County Board districts, see this previous Cheat Sheet post or the News-Gazette coverage here.

Race and Candidates:

There were a couple recent news items highlighting potential candidates for these new districts. The Cheat Sheet won't have a lot of further information and updates about them, but the Champaign County Voter Alliance has had some great non-partisan candidate guides in recent years. The League of Women Voters of Champaign County has candidate events to keep an eye out for as well!

The News-Gazette had updates on incumbent representatives at the State level of government running again. The list includes Representatives Carol Ammons (D - 103rd), Mike Marron (R - 104th) and Tom Bennett (R - 106th). It also includes Senators Chapin Rose (R-51st) and Scott Bennett (D - 52nd).

It could be the first part of 2022 before they know the territory they’d represent — pending a ruling by a federal panel of judges on redrawn maps — but five local state legislators say they all plan to run for re-election 11 months from now.

Full article here.

Now that the U.S. Congressional races this year finally have districts after a convoluted process by the State of Illinois government to deal with late census data and lawsuits. it's becoming more clear who may run for which seat. Some early updates on potential candidates are available for the IL-13 Congressional District candidates so far: Democrats David Palmer and Nikki Budzinski. The News-Gazette's Tom Kacich had some early fundraising information for the IL-13 candidates here. The very recently announced candidates for the IL-15 here (Republicans so far) started off with some fireworks almost right out of the gate.

October County Roundup

There was a lot going on at the County level this month. I'm still not caught up with the latest on the Jail discussions, but there are links to last night's meeting below. Redistricting and budgeting priorities once again dominated the conversations.

The News-Gazette had coverage of the discussions going into the federal relief funds (ARPA) and how the various Board members were prioritizing plans from progressive projects to local facility needs. Excerpt from the News-Gazette coverage earlier this month:

While board Democrats are noting the categories of projects they want to prioritize, specific projects within those categories will need to be studied before projects can proceed, Patterson said.

A substantial amount of the federal money will be spent on county facilities, he said, and while the jail is one of those facilities in need of attention, it’s unlikely that a large portion of the $41 million would go toward a jail project...

Republican board member Brad Passalacqua said Republicans haven’t drafted a formal proposal for where the $41 million should be spent, but have made their views known at public meetings.

Republicans support a significant amount of the funds going to solve some of the problems with the county jail in downtown Urbana and the satellite jail and for much-needed broadband infrastructure throughout the county, he said.

That full article here. WCIA had a more extensive look at the jail consolidation needs and cost issues earlier in October here. There was a Jail Facilities Committee meeting last night, but I haven't had a chance to review it yet. The video is available here on the County's YouTube channel.

In addition to the latest jail discussion updates, the Board approved funding for two more Sheriff's deputies. Republicans had pushed for adding funding for four more deputies during the debates on budget and need. Excerpt from the News-Gazette coverage prior to the regular Board meeting vote:

Heuerman said his recommendation would be to add four deputies, but he welcomed the addition of two more.

“We could always use more deputies,” the sheriff said Wednesday. “I could absolutely use the four.”

The additional two deputies had been negotiated as part of the budgeting process with County Executive Darlene Kloeppel based on what money the county has available, he said.

Heuerman said adding two deputies will cost the county $242,000, including salary, benefits, equipment and training.

That full article here. WCIA's coverage, including a video segment, also noted the Sheriff's hope that the additional funding for two more deputies may come with the next budget.

Another big issue this month was finally working out the last details of the County Board district map with the late census data. The delayed census meant that the various proposed maps were working off of estimates to meet the usual deadlines. There was a lot of fighting within the local Democratic party in addition to disputes with the Republicans leading up to this point. The final map was approved over the objections of the Democratic County Executive and Republicans on the board. The News-Gazette had the map and coverage of the disagreements. Excerpt:

[County Board member Jim Goss] said Friday that while Democrats did their job in coming up with a map that equalized population variance among districts, this latest map also leaves his district, District 1, with an area of 388 square miles.

“It’s just ridiculously large,” he said.

Under the new map, seven board districts favor Democratic candidates, three favor Republicans, and one, District 5 in northwest Champaign, is a toss-up.

That full article here. The News-Gazette also had an article previewing this month's map debate here. Illinois Newsroom had coverage of the latest map approval here.

There was a Victory over Violence town hall and panel discussion including local activists, organizations, and the Champaign County Sheriff. The full video is available on the Champaign Government TV channel online here.

The News-Gazette also had an overview of the history and latest updates on the Champaign County Crime Stoppers program. Excerpt:

Today, the process is significantly more sophisticated.

When calls come in, they’re routed to a company in Canada called Northern Communications, where identifying information is stripped. A random number is then given to the caller, who is answered by employees of a company called Alternative Answers. Information is taken down and recorded in an app called “P3 Tips.” Tipsters can also submit directly to the app or at champaigncountycrimestoppers.com.

The fact that calls are routed to Canada is not random happenstance. Canadian law protects the information that might identify a tipster, Geoff Coon, the agency’s current law-enforcement coordinator.

That full article here. WCIA reported that there were some unusual thefts of weather research equipment highlighted by the Crime Stoppers program this month here.

There were many other County items in the news this month as well:

• C-U at Home homeless shelters are extending their hours according to WCIA.

• The eviction moratorium has ended, spurring local protests reported on by the Daily Illini as well as WCCU.

• Smile Politely has links for the public health district's Community Needs Survey here.

• Central Illinois on track to a record harvest this year from Illinois Newsroom.

• WCIA had an investigative report on habitual offenders and the criminal justice system in Central Illinois, including Champaign County.

• The News-Gazette had an interview with the new executive director of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District.

• Proposed County staff bonuses in the new budget (still pending final approval), also from the News-Gazette.

• MTD updates, including staff shortages and a new zero-emission bus from the Daily Illini. More on the hydrogen bus from Illinois Newsroom here.

• More Democratic infighting and dirty laundry shared in conservative Jim Dey's opinion columns in the News-Gazette.

• Illinois Newsroom also had a great deal of news on the news itself, declining newspapers and alternative media, etc. There's a list of the latest articles under the "journalism" tag on their site here.

May and April County Board Roundup

The most recent June update on the County Board is available here.

In April, the County Board:

• Seated a new County Board member Samantha Carter sworn in as recently appointed member Cameron Raab had to resign after moving to a new local home that is outside the District 6 boundaries. 
• Renamed the Shields Meeting Room (also known as Meeting Room 1 and the primary meeting area for the County Board) to the "Shields-Carter Meeting Room" to additionally honor Champaign County Board Member, Lloyd Carter Jr.
• There was also a lot of the ground work for May's redistricting map fight with two tracks of County Board members and the County Executive working group also working on maps and asking for public input.
• Board members explained threats and safety concerns on why some listed the County's administrative building as their address.
• The County Board sought input on reforms to the County's Animal Control department (WCIA. More from WICS here).
• The Municipal Consolidated Election results for many local governments were certified. Smile Politely's editorial board had analysis of the results here.

The April Committee of the Whole agenda packet is available here, minutes here, and the video is available here. 

The April regular County Board meeting links: agenda packet, minutes, and video. The County Clerk's presentation slides on election cost savings are available here. There was a brief discussion of why the County Board videos are no longer available at the IBM streaming link. From the minutes:

Board Chair Patterson asked why the meetings are no longer being streamed via IBM, leaving Facebook Live as the only available streaming of the meetings, and that not all past meetings are available on Facebook. County Executive Kloeppel stated IBM has ceased operations and the County is exploring other options; the unavailability of past meetings is due to technical issues with the recording.

May:

The big news from May was the Champaign County district map fight which ended with the Democratic majority choosing the map they preferred over the County Executive's veto (and support of her own redistricting group's recommendations). From the News-Gazette:

As expected, all 14 board Democrats at the Friday evening meeting again voted in favor of the reapportionment map they’d voted for May 20, easily overriding Kloeppel’s veto.

The new map, called the “equity” map, will affect the next decade’s worth of board elections by adjusting boundaries for the 11 districts.

The work of Democratic board Chairman Kyle Patterson, the equity map designates two districts, 6 and 11 in northern Champaign and Urbana, as majority-minority districts intended to maximize minority-voter impact.

More at the full article here. It details Republican complaints on the timing of the Special Meeting for the veto and some technical issues on census requirements that could cause legal problems depending on how closely the late Census data matches two different estimates used by the redistricting maps. Illinois Newsroom had more coverage on the redistricting issue and the veto override here.

There is additional coverage of May County Board meeting specifically over the redistricting map fight from the News-Gazette here and WCIA here.

Links for the Committee of the Whole meeting: agenda packet, minutes, and video.

Links for the regular County Board meeting: agenda packet and video.

There was also the first "Finance Committee Study Session" which had a great deal of community input on various uses for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) relief funds coming to the County: agenda packet, minutes, and video. The minutes have run down of the public input at the meeting here on page two. The agenda packet also has public input in the form of numerous letters sent to the committee starting on page two of the packet.