Illinois Without Chicago? How Would You Vote On The Age Old Idea?

A handful of Illinois counties will get to vote on this question in November, kind of. The question is on separating Cook County from the rest of the state and creating a new state. Seven counties will have this question on their ballots this November. Iroquois County (south of Kankakee, North of Danville and Champaign) is the most northern county participating. Greene, Jersey, Calhoun, Madison, Clinton and Perry counties will also weigh in.

This concept has been an interesting thought exercise for people on both sides of the issue/county lines in Illinois.

With a city the size of Chicago tipping the scales of balance politically, the rest of the state has often dreamt of what a Chicago free Illinois would look and function like. Chicago in turn doesn’t pay much attention to the rest of the state, labeling anything south of I-80 as “southern” Illinois.

The “Chicago way” of politics that has legitimized corruption at so many levels of business and government is something that the rest of the state finds distasteful and something that influences so many of the decisions in Springfield.

To many outside of Illinois, Chicago IS Illinois. How many of us have had to explain to people that just because we live in Illinois doesn’t necessarily mean we live near Chicago?

Chicago is a big city, but Illinois is a big state. Chicago and Marion share almost nothing in common culturally except a highway. But, Chicago has a say over things in Marion in a way that Marion can’t affect Chicago. Even if Marion teams up with Danville, Quincy, Rock Island, Lincoln, Belleville, Galesburg, Mattoon, Crystal Lake and almost every other city in the state, if Chicago mostly votes one way the other municipalities have to bend to Chicago. Year after year, political cycle after political cycle, issue after issue Chicago decides. This fact has convinced many Illinoisans that state wide issues aren’t worth expending anything more than nominal energy on.

When someone wants to argue for the ending of the electoral college nationally all you have to do is point to Illinois. Chicago decides. If there were an electoral college in the Land of Lincoln and each county had an electoral weight the state would be far more politically interesting and dynamic.

The outsized BIG city as a focal point in a state isn’t unique to Illinois. I’m sure Michigan has a similar relationship traditionally with Detroit, Nebraska with Omaha, Georgia with Atlanta, etc.

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The fascinating question to ask is “Would Cook County vote to become independent from the rest of Illinois?”

For what it’s worth the separation vote in the seven counties in November is “non-binding”. But so was the recreational marijuana vote at first. When those numbers came back hugely positive a binding question was proposed.

How’s that new flag design proposal doing on unifying Illinois?