The Illinois Capitol building. | Photo Courtesy of Jim Brown/Flickr
The Illinois Capitol building. | Photo Courtesy of Jim Brown/Flickr
Plainfield Pride executive director Jes Mcllvain wants to ensure all Illinois factions are accurately represented in the new map redistricting.
“I live in Plainfield. My mom is still living out there," Mcllvain said while giving testimony during a recent Senate Redistricting hearing. "She is in the south side of the city, and we see a lot of issues with the LGBTQIA community and the lack of services available there. We are already marginalized, and I want to make sure our voices are heard, and we are accurately and fairly represented.”
With legislators embroiled in heated debate over how to best and most fairly split up districts, Mcllvain has added motivation for making sure lawmakers get things right this time when it comes to their once every decade endeavor.
While the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and delays in the U.S. Census data needed for the remapping have only made the challenge even more daunting, Mcllvain’s vision remains undeterred.
“We have a lack of representation, and I want to make sure we’re heard in the redistricting,” she added. “I just want to ensure we’re represented and we have advocates across the state and not just in central and north central Chicago.”
Illinois State Conference NAACP President Teresa Haley is likewise intent on making sure the voices of minorities are heard this time around.
"Every voice is important," Haley said in another Redistricting Committee public hearing. "The NAACP is opposed to so many things, such as packing and stacking and cracking, and we've seen it over and over again."
Republican lawmakers haven’t been shy about demanding the Gov. J.B.Pritzker to honor his word in insisting he would veto any map drawn by legislators. As a candidate, Pritzker vowed to do just that when the time came for redistricting.
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