Washington Post By Liz Weber 5/20/2019
Brad Halbrook stood in front of a crowd of more than 1,600 people on March 10 in Effingham, Ill., roughly 200 miles south of Chicago. According to supporters who were there, the rallygoers went wild when Halbrook — a Republican state lawmaker — talked about his big idea: a resolution to separate Chicago and its 3 million residents from the state of Illinois.
If Halbrook and his supporters have their way, the 51st state would not be the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico. It will be the Windy City.
Halbrook, who represents a district east of Springfield, Ill., reintroduced a bill in February to create a new state around Chicago. According to Halbrook, there are eight co-sponsors, up from three when it was introduced last year. The bill has a long way to go; it needs at least 60 votes to pass the Illinois House of Representatives, to say nothing of the state Senate or the governor.
And yet the bill’s supporters are hopeful, pointing to a rising tide of frustration toward what they see as Chicago’s overstated influence in Illinois politics, namely around issues of gun rights, debt, immigration and abortion. After the 2018 election, Democrats now control the state Senate, House and governor’s office.
“This isn’t an idea that’s going to go very far,†said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D).
Yet the call for separation has picked up speed in part because of the work by grass-roots movements such as Illinois Separation and New Illinois to spread the movement to the county level in the past year.
“The movement is building,†Halbrook said.
Collin Cliburn, 32, started the Illinois Separation blog in 2018. Cliburn, who is a carpenter and works on the separation movement part-time, has lobbied counties throughout the state to introduce a nonbinding resolution to the ballot.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/20/these-illinois-republicans-are-rallying-around-bill-kick-deep-blue-chicago-out-state/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bf779405ca17
