SPRINGFIELD — Even though a proposal to redraw legislative district lines hasn’t been finalized, local incumbent lawmakers are planning their political futures as if it is.

If the map is approved, Republican state Rep. Chapin Rose said Monday, he will run in a new Senate district that includes large parts of southern and western Champaign County and stretches to the Decatur area. The 51st Senate District includes all or parts of 10 counties: Champaign, Vermilion, Douglas,
Edgar, Piatt, McLean, DeWitt, Macoun, Moultrie and Shelby.

Under the proposed legislative maps unveiled last week by state Democrats, Rose would be thrown into the same House district as another GOP representative, Bill Mitchell of Forsyth.

“If the map holds,” Rose said, “Bill Mitchell is going to support me. And Jason (Barickman, the Champaign County Republican Party chairman) said he’d be on that plan as well. If the map changes, then everyone re-evaluates.”

Some version of the legislative map, which would become effective for the 2012 elections, likely will be approved in the next week. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn by June 1.

The proposed 51st Senate District that Rose plans to run in does not have a sitting senator.

“My current House district spans that Senate district,” he said. “And the parts that I don’t have, I’m right next to already and know the folks.”

For example, Rose said, his current district doesn’t include St. Joseph, Ogden or other parts of eastern and southern parts of Champaign County — but allies in those areas already have said they’d support him.

“B.J. Hackler (the mayor of St. Joseph) has already told me he’d be happy to call all the mayors for me, which was very nice of him,” Rose said. “But everyone understands right now that this could change.”

Rose said the proposed Senate district “is about 65 percent Republican.”

“McCain was the low man two years ago at 58 percent against favorite son (Barack) Obama. Mark Kirk got 68” percent, he said.

Rose would lose his home county, Coles, in the new district.

“When I saw the House map Wednesday night it was awful because they took Coles County out of the House district,” he said. “My wife and I are high school sweethearts at Charleston High School. That’s our hometown. That’s like a kick in the teeth. I love Coles County.

“But I pick up a big chunk of Champaign. And Edgar County, I’m already into it. I just pick up more of it. I pick up the southwest corner of Vermilion County.”

The Senate district is large, he said, “but about 70 to 75 percent of the population of it is within a 45-minute drive of my house (in Mahomet). So from a management standpoint it gives me a chance to really serve my constituents well.”

In his current 110th House District, Rose noted, his district office in Charleston is 63 miles from his home.

Meanwhile, Barickman says his options include running in the new 101st House District that also includes Mitchell’s home, moving north to a new, sprawling 106th House district that includes much of his current district, or moving northwest to a new 105th House district that includes the Town of Normal and northern parts of McLean County plus a small section of Livingston County, where he grew up.

“I just need to take a deep breath and let the redistricting maps finalize themselves before deciding anything,” he said.

Barickman said Rose “has absolutely earned the right” to move up to a Senate seat.

“I think he will be a great senator for those areas and when he expressed an interest to me I told him I’d be behind him 100 percent,” he said. “He and I are too like-minded with what we went to do in Springfield to ever butt heads on a political issue.”