Dear Mayor Lightfoot, 

We write to share our strong disappointment that you chose to reject the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission’s map, The People’s Map, and go back on your campaign promises to support independent redistricting. Further, after calling for meaningful public engagement and transparency, you turned around and jumped into negotiations among city council members out of the public eye.

The People’s Map is one that delivers a truly transparent and open process. It mirrors precisely what you have been on record as saying is necessary to ensure communities are not needlessly split. The People’s Map protects neighborhoods and communities of color across Chicago, giving those communities the opportunity to elect candidates of their choosing. 

The city council has failed utterly to deliver a process that involves community members. Instead, council members have succumbed to perpetuating the historical backroom deals done in secret that have hurt Chicagoans for decades. The process being used today is the same one used to try to undermine former Mayor Harold Washington’s progressive agenda and the same one you fought as a lawyer when you worked with CHANGE Illinois to attempt to put the Independent Map initiative on the statewide ballot. 

We can correct unjust, historical wrongs against people in communities such as Englewood, Logan Square, Austin, and others by charting a new path forward with The People’s Map. The opportunity is available to all of Chicago, if you will return to your moorings and show the political courage to join us by standing with the people of this great city. 

While city council members might use their power to pick their voters, you don’t get to move your lines to do the same. Chicagoans will remember if you fail to deliver on the foundational promises you made as a candidate to support an independent and transparent ward redistricting process.

Sincerely, 

Madeleine Doubek

Executive Director

CHANGE Illinois Action Fund