By Jim Leach Illinois House Democrats map For all of the outrage and outcry since Illinois Democrats unveiled their proposed legislative district maps late Friday night, let’s be honest: no one was expecting anything different. Republicans who are decrying the timing, the process, and the results of the remap effort knew all along how this would play out, as did everyone else watching the process. We’ve all seen this movie before. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still bemoan the lost opportunity to really set a new standard for fairness in this decennial process. Democrats did have a chance to say that creating maps for the benefit of voters, not politicians, was truly their top priority. But saying that left too much up to chance, and so the Democrats went with the method which they have used here for decades – and which Republicans have used in the states where they control the process (and, let’s be honest, would have almost certainly have used here had they been in a position to do so).