An effort to revive a ballot initiative to remove redistricting from the hands of politicians will not appear on the ballot in November as organizers are suspending their campaign due to a lack of fundraising.
Organizers, led by former Congressman and former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and former White House Chief of Staff and former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, are set to announce the decision this afternoon.
“State legislative gerrymandering reform is deeply needed in Illinois, but the time is just not ripe for a successful effort,” Daley said in a statement. “Illinois has the natural assets and strategic advantages to be a real leader among states, yet the business community and allied good government reform groups must lead the charge to fix the state’s problems, as they have done for generations. We can’t give in to the cynicism that suggests Illinois, and this country broadly, is incapable of systemic reform.”
The group cited polling that showed 75% of the public supports the idea of removing reapportionment from the hands of politicians, but couldn’t raise the funds necessary to gather 329,000 valid signatures (and would have to file significantly more) and win in November.
“The harmful effects of gerrymandering in our state and indeed for democracy will only worsen,” said LaHood. “Extreme gerrymandering is wrong at the Congressional level, and it’s wrong at the state legislative level. Redistricting reform is an essential step to making government more accountable and less captive to the extremism and polarization that defines our national politics. Absurdly drawn districts deny voters a meaningful role in our democracy, and it deepens distrust in government to an increasingly existential level.”
A similar effort was removed form the ballot by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2016 after Illinois Democrats challenged the constitutionality of the ballot question. Organizers believed the updated wording in 2026 would pass muster in the courts.
