People gather where former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley met for a Fair Maps Illinois panel discussion on Aug. 19, 2025. |Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune
By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune
Illinois elections are broken — with roughly half of legislative races uncontested after politicians drew maps to lock in power. Now, two political veterans, one a Democrat and one a Republican, think they’ve found a way to fix it.
One is Ray LaHood, a Republican congressman from 1995 to 2008 and transportation secretary under President Barack Obama. The other is Bill Daley, son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley and commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton as well as chief of staff for Obama. The two met with the editorial board Sept. 23 to talk about gerrymandering and what to do about it. They sit on different sides of the aisle politically, but they’ve come together for a cause that’s bigger than partisan politics — they’re fighting a pernicious problem that has sapped the health of democracy here in Illinois and likely will worsen matters if nothing changes.
We support them in that fight.
Scott Stantis editorial cartoon for Sun, Oct 5, 2025, on gerrymandering reform. | Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune
Last Sunday, in the first part of this two-part editorial, we wrote that in Illinois, the most urgent threat to democracy is the state of play before votes even are cast — political maps drawn deliberately to disenfranchise voters. Unlike congressional maps, which are about federal representation, state legislative maps have a direct impact on who ends up writing Illinois laws and controlling the state budget.
We understand that the national contest over bare-knuckled gerrymandering is one in which Illinois Democrats never would unilaterally disarm, and that’s understandable. We’re focused squarely on the maps that determine who governs the state of Illinois. And right now, the system allows the party in power in Springfield to draw districts to maximize its advantage. Voters don’t choose their politicians; politicians choose their voters.
It’s a reality everyone acknowledges, yet it continues to defy repeated attempts at fixing. On the campaign trail in 2018, Gov. JB Pritzker condemned the practice and vowed to veto an unfair map, but he quickly broke that promise once in office.
So how to change this sorry record of futility?
Daley and LaHood think they’ve cracked the code. And they want to take the issue to voters in November 2026 in the form of an amendment to the state’s constitution.
Read more here.
Related: “Editorial: With mostly powerless voters, Illinois democracy hangs by an elongated thread”
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