Prairie State Wire

Former state Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard) is leading the charge for a constitutional amendment on the 2020 ballot that would create fair legislative maps for Illinois, launching a new website today.

“If you despair over the future of Illinois … if you’re frustrated about the stranglehold of a corrupt political machine over Illinois politics … if you worry about whether your friends and family—and even you yourself—will be able to make a home in Illinois in the years to come … then this message is just for you,” Breen, a constitutional attorney by trade, said in the opening statement on the new Fair Maps Illinois movement website.

“Fair Maps Illinois uses the ability to amend the Illinois Constitution by referendum to rip the power to draw our legislative maps out of the hands of Mike Madigan—and anyone else who wants to be 'the next Madigan,'" Breen added. “Fair Maps Illinois immediately returns political power to you, the voter, and breaks the hold of the corrupt machine that’s gripped our state for decades.”

With the next redistricting scheduled to take place just months after the 2020 census, Breen warns voters the time to act is now.

“The map drawn then will govern the elections for the Illinois General Assembly until 2033,” he said. “With Fair Maps Illinois on the 2020 general election ballot, you guarantee maps that allow you to elect legislators that represent your community and your interests, not operatives chosen by a disconnected political Machine.”

Breen said he is hoping to recruit as many as 36,000 volunteers, assuring that each of them working as little as an hour each to collect as few as 10 signatures apiece can go a long way toward changing history.

“Your decision to volunteer that one hour brings Fair Maps that much closer to reality,” he said. “Doing nothing only means more pain. Ignoring the problem only lets the corruption grow and fester, at your expense.”

Finally, Breen warned voters the fight for change begins and ends with their involvement.

"Prosecutors and judges won’t save us,” he said. “Getting new reform-minded legislators elected is certainly positive, but without Fair Maps there’s no mathematical way to elect enough true public servants to uproot the corrupt Machine controlling the General Assembly.”