For Control of Congress?

Beneath the silver dome of the Illinois statehouse at Springfield there were cartographers enough for Rand McNally. Republican mapmakers and Democratic mapmakers, pressure-group mapmakers and reform-minded mapmakers, all were busily plotting their own charts for redistricting Illinois--and the outcome of their efforts may have a lot to do with who controls the U.S. House of Representatives after next year's elections.

As a result of the 1960 census. Illinois must give up one of its 25 House seats. Democrats now hold 14 of these places--including all ten from Chicago, where the surge to the suburbs lowered the population from 3,620,962 to 3,550,404 between 1950 and 1960. Called into special session to work out a reapportionment plan, the Illinois legislature last week was puzzling over Democratic Governor Otto Kerner's suggestion that the Democrats sacrifice one of their Chicago seats. Even more surprising was the fact that Kerner's plan was approved by Chicago's tough Democratic Mayor Richard Daley, a man never noted for his political generosity.

But on second thought. Illinois politicians soon realized that Daley was simply trying to fend off a worse possibility than the loss of a single seat. For unless the deadlocked Illinois legislature agrees on a redistricting plan, all 24 U.S. Representatives will be picked next year in statewide at-large elections. This prospect is not displeasing to many Republicans: they hope that in a nonpresidential election year, their outstate strength might overcome Chicago's Democratic vote. Explains a Daley aide: "With 48 candidates running all over the state, people will get confused and tend to vote according to party. I think the Republicans figure that an at-large election will result in 24 Democrats or 24 Republicans, and they're willing to take the gamble."

The Pennsylvania legislature is similarly deadlocked over the method of dropping three of the state's congressional seats. Although the Democrats seem to have the edge in any at-large election, they are no more eager than the Republicans for a showdown. But unless the Pennsylvania and Illinois legislatures pass redistricting plans, 51 congressional seats will be up for grabs next year in a wild, free-for-all fight to control the House of Representatives.

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