Republican-controlled state redistricting plans might kick Democratic Sen. Patrick Welch out of DeKalb County and leave a district here with no sitting senator.

Welch, D-Peru, whose 38th senatorial district is mainly comprised of DeKalb and La Salle counties, said he already has seen a Republican-drawn map of his district that drops DeKalb County from it. He said he’s seen different proposals that either split DeKalb County up or include it in a senatorial district with much of Lee and Ogle counties to the west.

Rep. Brad Burzynski, R-Sycamore, said he also has looked at a preliminary map of his own representative district, comprised mainly of DeKalb County, showing it to be relatively unchanged.

However, Burzynski also said the map he saw showed land west of DeKalb County as part of a new senatorial district.

The land is now part of the 35th district represented by Sen. Harlan Rigney, R-Freeport. Rigney leaves office in 1993.

Welch said the map showed his district stretching from Spring Valley to Kankakee, west to east, and including mostly La Salle and Grundy counties.

Worse still, Welch said, the district, which is only 48 percent Democratic, would also include the home of fellow Sen. Jerome Joyce, D-Reddick, effectively eliminating one of them from office in 1992.

Welch said the present lottery-like determination of the state’s Legislative Redistricting Commission is a “big mistake” caused by the lack of legislators at the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention.

“A lot of do-gooders and theorists who developed a pie-in-the-sky view of what politics is are responsible for this,” Welch said.

Welch said it is likely the Republicans, who have a 5-4 edge in the commission after last Thursday’s random drawing, can easily damage the Democrats’ strength as theirs was in 1981. In that year, a Democratic majority commission wiped out a slight GOP edge in the House and instituted a veto-proof Democratic majority.

Choosing three or four acknowledged non-partisan members for the commission would be one way to promote fair reapportioning, Welch said.

Burzynski also admitted the present redistricting procedure is far from perfect, though his party stands to gain.

“I think it definitely needs some revision. There ought to be a more fair way to come to up with boundaries,” he said.

Burzynski said lawmakers could solve the mapping problem by using computers to draw fair maps but the computers only are being used to develop partisan districting.

There is little chance for a successful court challenge to a blatantly Republican-leaning map, Welch said, unless gerrymandering was obvious. “Judges are political as well,” Welch said.

Welch said his party should respond by recruiting good candidates to contest those districts that seem to be politically balanced.

The commission must come up with a map by Oct. 5. Legislators are meeting in Springfield this week to further discuss map proposals.