Border War
STATE SENATOR JULIE MORRISON OF DEERFIELD IS DRIVING TO SPRINGFIELD ON a Tuesday morning, enthusiastically talking up her provocative plan to reshape Illinois elections: Take the power to draw legislative boundaries out of the hands of sitting politicians and give it instead to an independent commission.
The idea, she says, is to demolish gerrymandered districts designed to protect incumbents, discourage challengers, suppress competitive elections, and favor the status quo in the General Assembly, where last year nearly 50 percent of all races went uncontested. The General Assembly drafts its own legislative boundaries for its 118 House and 59 Senate districts every
