A group of Illinois Republican lawmakers are sponsoring a resolution urging Congress to separate Chicago from the state of Illinois, which would make the nation’s third-largest city its own state. House Resolution 101 is the latest salvo in a nearly century-old tug of war between rural, conservative districts in southern Illinois and urban, progressive districts in the Chicagoland area. Like previous attempts to separate the city from the state, this proposal has little chance of becoming reality. Even sponsors of the resolution admit they don’t actually want to see Chicago separated from Illinois. Instead, they said they’ve signed on to this resolution to express frustration with Chicago’s out-sized presence in state politics. “I don’t believe that Chicago and the state of Illinois should be separated,” Illinois Republican Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, one of the co-sponsors of the resolution, told The State Journal-Register. “It’s more of a frustration of the policies than the true belief that Chicago and Illinois would be better off as separate states.” Instead they say the resolution is intended to shine a spotlight on simmering cultural and financial tensions between urban and rural areas in Illinois. “The case for (House Resolution 101) is the continued onslaught of attacks on our traditional family values, the right to protect ourselves, the right to the way we want to educate our kids,” Illinois Republican Rep. Brad Halbrook explained in a televised interview with Capitol Connection, a broadcast covering Illinois state politics. House Resolution 101 was referred to the Rules Committee in February and appears unlikely to make it out of committee. There is no hearing currently scheduled on the resolution. Illinois is not alone in considering spinning off part of the state. Last year, Proposition 9, which would have split California into three separate states, almost made it to the ballot before it was shot down by the state’s Supreme Court. City Commissioners in South Miami, Florida, passed a resolution in 2014, calling for the southernmost counties in Florida to form the new state of South Florida over concerns that wealthier South Florida was losing too many tax dollars to Tallahassee, a capital city that city commissioners felt was indifferent to the climate change challenges disproportionately affecting their community. The resolution never gained traction. Tensions between urban and rural areas in Colorado lead to a 2013 referendum that would have created the state of North Colorado. It passed in several counties, but went no further. The U.S. Constitution does provide a pathway for creating a new state from a portion of an existing state, though it requires approval from both the state legislature and Congress - something that appears unlikely in any of these cases.<doc-sep>Illinois Republicans recently proposed a bill that would separate the city of Chicago from the rest of the state, a move likely to incite urban versus rural infighting rather than create a 51st state. Illinois Representatives C.D. Davidsmeyer and Brad Halbrook stand behind the February bill, which would separate the overwhelmingly Democratic city of Chicago from the state of Illinois. The legislation, they said, was rooted in "frustration" with liberal policies. The GOP bill, which critics call "bitter," while unlikely to pass, seeks to separate downstate rural economic policies from what conservatives say are pro-immigration, anti-business policies that keep everyone outside of the country's third-largest city from competing against neighboring states. The bill urging the U.S. Congress to set Chicago aside as the country's 51st U.S. state comes amid President Donald Trump's "sanctuary city" threats and a widening divide between rural and urban residents. "It's more of a frustration of the policies than the true belief that Chicago and Illinois would be better off as separate states," Davidsmeyer, of Illinois's House District 100, told The State Journal-Register. "I don't believe that Chicago and the state of Illinois should be separated. Our relationship is mutually beneficial." Davidsmeyer, who has led the House GOP's charge against welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants, added that it's past the time for Chicago to recognize how its liberal policies affect rural Illinois businesses. "The reality is, the city of Chicago is competing with New York City and L.A. and San Francisco, and [downstate is] competing against rural Indiana and rural Missouri," he said. "The policies that come down from Chicago are actually pushing our economic opportunity away." Illinois Democratic legislators, including Governor J.B. Pritzker, have pushed back against a wide range of policies from Republican predecessors. Illinois Democrats and Republicans are engaged in ongoing rifts ranging from local "right-to-work" zones to providing health care coverage and student financial aid to all children, regardless of legal or illegal immigration status. Second Amendment gun rights and abortion debates have also widened the divide between Chicago's 2.7 million residents and the rest of the rural state. Halbrook first introduced the Chicago separation proposal more than two months ago and co-sponsored a similar piece of failed legislation last year. "Our traditional family values seem to be under attack at every angle," Halbrook told The State Journal-Register. "We are trying to drive the discussion to get people at the table to say these are not our values down here. When you have a large population center that seems to control the agenda for the rest of the state, it just kind of creates some issues. The Constitution gives us a pathway, so we'll see what happens," he said. Rural versus urban divides continue to widen across the country, particularly in states with powerful urban centers but vast rural areas, such as New York, Texas and California. A 2018 Pew Research Center study found racial and ethnic differences extend to politics, with urban areas becoming increasingly Democratic and rural areas increasingly Republican. The Pew data showed nearly two-thirds of urban areas identified as Democrat or leaning Democratic, and 54 percent of rural residents leaning right. The idea of Chicago and Illinois splitting up is not new. In 2017, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Robert Marshall suggested dissolving the state of Illinois and breaking it up into three parts: Chicago, the Chicago suburbs and the rest of the state. Also in 2017, Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass floated the idea of breaking up Illinois and giving it to the surrounding state of Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri in a column titled, "What to Do With a Broken Illinois: Dissolve the Land of Lincoln." John Jackson, who co-wrote a rural versus urban divide paper for the Paul Simon Public Policy Instituate at Southern Illinois University, told The Associated Press he hoped Democrats and Republicans could get together and not continue to offer such extreme, divided measures. "We ought to have leaders who get together and coalesce for the good of the state," Jackson told the AP Sunday. "The idea of this being a total zero-sum kind of game, that mentality 'you win, I've got to lose,' seems to be the mentality many have. That's just not the case. The state needs to prosper together." As Newsweek reported Friday, one Illinois Democrat, Representative Danny Davis, is fighting back against what he see's as President DonaldTrump's "vindictive" sanctuary city policy, which he said was "most unfortunate in terms of a way to treat human beings."<doc-sep>
An Illinois lawmaker has filed a bill in the state capital to separate Chicago from Illinois, thereby creating the 51st state and freeing the state from Chicago’s baleful influence. The bill is being cosponsored by Republican C.D. Davidsmeyer, the representative for the 100th House District in Jacksonville, a city in Morgan County, Illinois, in the central west area of the Land of Lincoln. “It’s more of a frustration of the policies than the true belief that Chicago and Illinois would be better off as separate states,” Davidsmeyer said, according to Fox News. Davidsmeyer claimed he cosponsored the bill to spark a discussion about how Chicago’s policy choices affect the rest of the state, most of which are not nearly as left-wing as the Windy City. “The reality is the city of Chicago is competing with New York City and L.A. and San Francisco, and (downstate is) competing against rural Indiana and rural Missouri,” Davidsmeyer told the media. “The policies that come down from Chicago are actually pushing our economic opportunity away.” “I don’t believe that Chicago and the state of Illinois should be separated. Our relationship is mutually beneficial,” he added. HR0101 was initially introduced by state Rep. Brad Halbrook, who insisted that Chicago is at the forefront of launching a full-frontal assault on the values the rest of the state holds. “Our traditional family values seem to be under attack at every angle,” Halbrook said. “We are trying to drive the discussion to get people at the table to say these are not our values down here.” One example of those differing ideals is Chicago’s campaign against the Second Amendment. The bill notes that many of the counties in the state are bucking Chicago’s gun policies by declaring themselves “gun rights sanctuaries.” “Numerous counties in the southern and central parts of Illinois are approving resolutions to become sanctuary counties for gun owners, while the City of Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the country,” the bill states. “When you have a large population center that seems to control the agenda for the rest of the state, it just kind of creates some issues,” Halbrook added. This is not the first time that downstate politicians have filed bills to banish Chicago from the rest of the state. As far back as 1981, a bill was filed to separate all of Cook County — Chicago’s home county — from the rest of the state. Other attempts have also been made to split Illinois into two states to banish Chicago from the rest of the state. One such effort in 2017 would have called the new entity the state of Potawatomi. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.