East Central Reporter

Given that he charges that Democrats conspired to create the new Illinois legislative maps, gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Darren Bailey says he saw this one coming.

Bailey implored voters as far back as in late May to get involved by calling the governor's office to demand he honor the pledge he made while still a candidate to veto any map drawn along partisan lines.

“Friends, as we expected, we are back in Springfield to correct these hyper-partisan maps pushed by J.B. Pritzker and the Democrats behind locked doors,” Bailey posted on Twitter. “These politically-motivated maps were drawn to benefit politicians over working families.”

Even now, he vows to continue pushing for what he sees as a fair process.

“I will keep fighting for fair and independent maps where voters pick their elected officials and not the other way around,” he added in another Tweet. “I will keep you posted, friends. We are standing up for you, fighting back, and not backing down."

Bailey is far from the only Republican lawmaker crying foul over the way they argue Democrats were only concerned with retaining power when the maps were drawn.

Typically maps are drawn with updated demographic figures from the U.S. Census, but with the collection of the data slowed this cycle by the COVID-19 pandemic Bailey charges Democrats pushed forward with incomplete, inaccurate figures.

"Games are being played," he had said in June, according to SE Illinois News. "It's up to you to stop it. Please reach out to the governor's office and implore him to hold up his campaign promise of vetoing these maps that are being dropped right now because they are being drawn behind closed and locked doors."

Bailey, who recently launched his campaign for the GOP nomination for governor, argues that’s just the start in getting the state back on track. He recently introduced a zero-based budget that would include a spending freeze and no tax increases.

"Every department would start at zero and they would have to show why they need this money," he told SE Illinois News. “Right now, no one in Springfield is talking about any solution. They’re just covering their eyes and either waiting for the system to crash or hoping for something miraculous to happen."

Bailey recently told WAWV-TV he thinks his message is starting to really take hold with voters.

“I think that when people begin to meet me, they get to know me and see the sincerity is real,” he said.  “When we travel, we go to places with people that have been with us for a long time and they vouch that ‘this guy is who he says he is.’”

Bailey also points to state’s long-troubled pension system as another issue that lawmakers can no longer avoid.

He recently filed a bill that “provides that nothing in the Illinois Constitution shall be construed to limit the power of the General Assembly to reduce or change pension benefits or other benefits of membership in any public pension or public retirement system,” SE Illinois News reported.