SE Illinois News

Republican gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) says Illinois needs independently drawn legislative maps.

In a May 28 Illinois Senate Republican Caucus video, Bailey urged Illinoisans to call the governor's office and demand he stand by his campaign promise to veto any redistricting map made by politicians. 

"[...] We have had several new maps dropped upon us," Bailey said. "There is no data behind these new map drops. This is political games at its best."

Redistricting is traditionally done with updated demographic figures from the U.S. Census; however, with 2020's data delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Bailey said that Democrats went forward with incomplete, inaccurate figures. 

"Games are being played," Bailey said. "It's up to you to stop it. Please reach out to the governor's office and implore him to hold up his campaign promise of vetoing these maps that are being dropped right now because they are being drawn behind closed and locked doors."

The Xenia Republican wants to see his state's finances improve. He recently introduced a zero-based budget that would include a spending freeze and no tax increases. 

"Every department would start at zero and they would have to show why they need this money," Bailey said in earlier SE Illinois News reporting. 

Bailey also sees the state's pension debt as a problem. In a March 22 Prairie State Wire article, the senator said that attempts to negotiate the pension problem have been ignored for two years. 

“Right now, no one in Springfield is talking about any solution," Bailey said. "They’re just covering their eyes and either waiting for the system to crash or hoping for something miraculous to happen."

Bailey followed his criticisms of the pension debt with a bill that would allow the General Assembly to make changes to the state's pension system, and hopes that the legislation would "open the door to begin a real discussion."