Illinois Congressional District

Illinois Congressional District

Consider the issue.

"the state of illinois" could lose one of its congressional districts "after the census".

"the district" includes: "edgar", "clark", "crawford" and "lawrence counties".

It's all due "to dwindling population" in the state.

News 10's "dominic miranda"..

Spoke "with the clar county census chairman" today.

He explains..

What "the change" could mean "for the district".

/////// domini} susie... i'm standing here on the outskirts of marshall illinois.

It's got a population of about 4 thousand people.

It's cities like this one in clark county and all across illinois 15th congressional district that would be affected by this redistricting.

Something that clark county census chair warren lefever says will diminish their representation.

The 15th district stretches across 15 thousand square miles in southern and central illinois.

Lefever says it's the largest congressional district east of the mississippi.

He says residents have a lack of job opportunities and they pay higher taxes.

This makes it harder to live in illinois causing people to leave.

As it stands...the 15th district's representative is republican.

But ... democrats hold the state majority.

The majority party lawmakers can redraw congressional district maps in the redistricting process.

Lefever feels this could create inaccurate reprsentation for the area.

He says there are politics at play.

"they want to cut the number of republican congressman in illinois.

That's the name of the game.

So it's not rural...it's politics."

Now coming up at the top of the hour..

You'll hear what lefever has to say about what this means for the future if this redistricting were to happen.

Reporting live in marshall illinois... i'm dominic miranda..

News 10