Monday evening, June 23, state Senator Don Harmon held the annual summary of last year’s legislative session, with his cohort state Representative Camille Lilly. After reviewing the state’s new budget, Harmon and Lilly took questions, with his response partially attributing the session’s disappointments to the “two chamber” problem; bills get passed in the House but not the Senate, and vice versa, which set up my question.
In 2020, after the Illinois House passed a bill to create an independent legislative mapping commission and forwarded it to the State Senate, Don Harmon pocket-vetoed the Senate version, never letting it get to the floor for a vote. A lot has happened since then, specifically last November’s election included a “fair maps” referendum for the creation of a state independent legislative mapping commission. The referendum passed with an 81% majority of Oak Park Township voters. So with the 2030 U.S. Census looming, I asked Sen. Harmon if he was going to rebuff the will of his constituents by continuing to block “fair maps” in Illinois. His short answer was “Yes.”
As he has done when I previously asked him about “fair maps,” Sen. Harmon defended the existing redistricting procedures, including the red-herring argument that if gerrymandering is still allowed in Red States across the nation, he would not stand for a threat to Illinois’ version.
However, it was another part of his argument that should strike a nerve for the thousands last November who voted “Yes” to the creation of an independent legislative mapping commission. Harmon dismissed the value of advisory referendums as no reason to change things in Illinois.
In light of the current investigation of his possible campaign finance violations, my final rebuttal was that, during the next district community meeting, we could discuss ethics.
Chris Donovan
Oak Park