West Central Reporter

Hancock County GOP chair Kathy Sparrow opposes the retention of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, saying the judge does the bidding for politicians such as House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago).

“Kilbride took an oath to uphold our constitution, instead he only defends the corrupt ways of politicians like Madigan,” Sparrow told the West Central Reporter. “Illinoisans tried to break Madigan’s stranglehold on the state with citizen-driven reform, but Kilbride stood in the way to protect Madigan’s power.”

In 2016, the judge voted to kill a “Fair Map” constitutional amendment that would have allowed a non-partisan committee, rather political parties to draw election districts.

Illinois district Lines are redrawn every 10 years based on U.S. Census data. The political party in control is in charge of the redistricting.

The Fair Map proposal would have have created an eight-member independent commission to decide where the lines are drawn, the Daily Illini reported.

"Illinoisans tried to break Madigan’s stranglehold on the state with citizen driven reform, but Thomas Kilbride stood in the way to protect Madigan’s power," Sparrow said. "Kilbride blocked term limits and wrote the deciding opinion striking down fair maps. Kilbride took an oath to uphold our constitution, instead he only defends the corrupt ways of politicians like Madigan."

A non-partisan, nonprofit group, CHANGE Illinois, has pushed for redistricting reform for the past three elections, the Daily Illini reported.

“We believe that cheating the system is being done on both parties, and we want to create an independent districting commission that would be fair and transparent,” Liliana Scales, advocacy director for CHANGE, told the newspaper.

Former U.S. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood is among those opposed to Kilbride’s retention for another 10 years on the Supreme Court.

“Tom Kilbride is on the bench almost solely because of nearly $4 million in campaign cash provided by Mike Madigan, the corruption-tainted speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and longtime head of the Chicago Democratic Party,” LaHood wrote in a recent opinion piece in the Rock Island Dispatch Argus.

In 2016, 600,000 Illinois citizens signed petitions to place the Fair Map amendment on the ballot, LaHood said.

“Kilbride wrote the 4-3 decision that, on a technicality, denied the voters their constitutional right to vote on the issue,” said LaHood.