Lopsided majorities of Illinois voters, from both parties and all regions, want to take political mapmaking away from the politicians in the biggest blue state that hasn't already given that job to outsiders.
The solid sentiment was expressed in a poll released Tuesday by a coalition pushing legislation that would put creation of an independent redistricting commission to a statewide vote. The 30 groups in the Change Illinois coalition say they'll use the results to pressure Democratic Gov. J.B Pritzker to endorse the idea, which would significantly increase its chances in Springfield.
If such a referendum gets on the November ballot, which for now remains a long shot, Illinois would join Virginia as the biggest states voting to end partisan gerrymandering before the lines are redrawn for the 2020s.
The Illinois plan must get through the General Assembly by May 3 to be on the ballot. The proposed commission would be similar to the one that began work a decade ago in California, a watershed moment in the history of political reform.
Its 17 members would be non-politicians, with a bloc from neither party, and they would be required to set legislative and congressional boundaries that are compact, keep communities together and assure that minority groups have a fair shot at electing a number of lawmakers in line with their population share.
The goal would be to create more competition, both within and between the parties, in a state where those in control have historically minimized the political expense while maximizing their power. Democrats did so with impressive precision a decade ago: More than half the state House and Senate races were not even contested by one of the parties in the last two elections, and only two of the state's 18 congressional districts have changed partisan hands this decade.
In the poll, of 609 likely voters in early February, 75 percent overall supported creation of an independent commission to draw maps — including 82 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Republicans and more than three-quarters of voters in Chicago, its suburbs and the rest of northern Illinois. Support slipped as low as 63 percent only in rural downstate.
Moreover, strong majorities of both parties (and 74 percent overall) urged Pritzker to take the lead in pushing the proposal. While he endorsed the idea of amending the state Constitution to form an independent commission as a gubernatorial candidate two years ago, he has remained steadfastly noncommittal since taking office. Instead, he has said repeatedly that he would veto mapmaking legislation in 2021 if he concluded the lines were too partisan.
Illinois good-government groups have been pushing for an outsider panel all decade, and they have come up short three times so far. In 2016, the state Supreme Court cited technical grounds in ruling Illinois could not vote on a proposal that made its way to the ballot thanks to 550,000 petition signatures.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.