Politicians seek to separate Chicago from Illinois to create the 51st state

The so-called "second city" could eventually become the next state after frustration over Chicago's influence over politics in Illinois.

A group of Republican lawmakers recently signed a bill proposing that the country's third largest city become the 51st state.

"It's more of a frustration of politics than of the real belief that Chicago and Illinois would be better off as separate states," said the representative. Davidsmeyer told the State Journal-Register. "I do not believe that Chicago and the state of Illinois should be separated – our relationship is mutually beneficial."

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Davidsmeyer said that he had co-sponsored the bill in order to spark a discussion about the impact of the city's policy on rural residents of Illinois.

"The reality is that the city of Chicago is competing with New York City and LA and San Francisco, and (down the country) competing with rural Indiana and rural Missouri," he said. he told the State Journal-Register. "Chicago's policies prevent us from taking advantage of our economic opportunities."

The constitution of a new state from a part of a current state requires the approval of the Congress and the state legislature, in accordance with the US Constitution.

The bill, HR0101, was introduced in February by state representative Brad Halbrook, who said he would support the city's withdrawal of 2.7 million residents from Illinois because of differing opinions on issues such as abortion and gun rights.

"Our traditional family values ​​seem to be under attack from every angle," Halbrook told the Journal-Register. "We try to stimulate discussion to get people to the table to say that these are not our values ​​here."

Part of the bill states that: "Many counties in southern and central Illinois approve the resolutions to become counties sanctuaries for gun owners, while the city of Chicago has some of the most stringent laws in the country with respect to firearms.

Halbrook co – sponsored a similar resolution last year that failed. This year's attempt is even less likely to succeed and break out of the Democratic-controlled Legislative Assembly Rules Committee, as Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and House and House Leaders. of the Senate of the State are all Democrats of Chicago.

"When you have a large population center that seems to control the agenda of the rest of the state, it just creates problems," he told the newspaper.

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A report released in February by the University of Illinois at Chicago revealed that Chicago was still leading the ranking of the country's most corrupt major cities and that Illinois was the third most corrupted country.

The tension between urban and rural areas is not limited to Illinois. The same thing happened in New York and California, according to an article published last year by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute of Southern Illinois University.

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John Jackson, a visiting professor at the institute and co-author of the journal, told the Journal-Register that it was strange that resentment persists in Illinois, but many politicians from the regions of South and central states often opposed Chicago. "

"We should have leaders who come together and band together for the good of the state," he told the newspaper.

Davidsmeyer said that since the adoption of the resolution, this has sparked a more lively debate about the weight of Chicago's policy on Illinois.

"People say that Chicago is a huge economy, there is no way to survive without them. (But) I have people on the other side who say that Chicago is killing us with its politics, we have to separate" , did he declare. "I'm one of the people in the middle who says, let's see both sides."

Associated Press contributed to this report.