Ill. Rep. Tim Johnson Says Redistricting Challenge Useless

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today the bulk of the Illinois GOP delegation to Congress put out a letter decrying the badly gerrymandered recreation of Illinois’ congressional districts. The redistricting mess was denounced by every Illinois Republican Congressman but one.

Recently, a lawsuit has been filed to fight the redistricting that Illinois Democrats pushed through to fruition. The letter from the GOP delegation supported the lawsuit saying, “We look forward to an impartial hearing in court that exposes the fatal flaws in the Democrats’ Illinois congressional redistricting scheme and recognizes the fact that creating fair, compact, and representative congressional districts is not only possible, but necessary.”

One Illinois GOP congressman, though, did not sign onto the letter. That one Republican was Representative Tim Johnson (15th District) of Urbana, Illinois.

I gave a call to Phil Bloomer, Johnson’s Communications Director, and he told me that the congressman was not interested in the redistricting court fight and was instead focusing on his re-election campaign.

In a statement, Johnson’s office said:

While Congressman Johnson believes the redistricting process leading to this map was unfair and a distortion of the people’s wishes, these challenges have not ever succeeded, so he has decided to devote his energy and resources to his reelection campaign. He hopes that an impartial court will modify the map in a way that will better serve the voters of the state.

It is a pretty clear statement. Johnson just didn’t want to waste his time on an effort he thinks is, well, a waste of time. I’m not sure what it would have cost him to just sign onto the letter with the rest of the GOP delegation, but there’s a little independent streak in Rep. Johnson, anyway.

The 15th District currently covers the eastern, central part of the state.

***UPDATE**

A further statement from Rep. Johnson has been released: “I continue to believe this reapportionment process was unfair and that voters were done a grave disservice. I will run for another term wherever the district lines eventually fall. I have represented voters of Central Illinois to the best of my ability for my entire career and have every intention of continuing to do so.”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


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