Illinois' new congressional districts maps are set — or are they?

It's the Republicans against the Democrats in a federal lawsuit filed over the newly drawn Illinois congressional map.

But the Democrats' solidarity is in jeopardy now that three of their members have carefully studied the new map and concluded that, even though it's gerrymandered to defeat Republicans, it's not gerrymandered enough to absolutely guarantee their re-election.

Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis and Bobby Rush — three Chicago-area members of Congress — have decided not to chip in their share of the cost to defend the lawsuit filed by Republicans challenging the map, and say they may even speak out in court against it.

"I have serious concerns that are likely to be aired in the legal process between the sides," said Jackson.

Keep your eye on this lawsuit because it has the potential — emphasize potential, not probability — of turning the new congressional district map so lovingly crafted by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his minions upside down.

The Madigan map is a gerrymandering work of art, one designed to protect Democratic incumbents while throwing some Republican members of the U.S. House into the same districts with other Republicans or giving them maximum geographic problems.

Take the new 13th congressional district. The residence of U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, the Urbana Republican, is located in the farthest eastern corner of a district that goes all the way to the Missouri border.

There's no reason to shed any tears for Johnson or any other Republican or Democratic House members from Illinois. But there is a real problem here — the map was drawn by the Democrats to elect Democrats, not to create competitive districts that provide voters a real choice.

Jackson, Davis and Rush are invoking the voting rights act as the pretext for their complaints, charging that the new map does not protect minority voting rights. But what they're really concerned about is that, although their district have a solid black majorities, those majorities are not big enough to absolutely guarantee their re-elections.

Jackson already is facing a primary challenge from former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorsen, who is white, and he's afraid she might make a strong run against him.

Map-drawing is not an easy business, and Democrats faced the challenge of spreading around Democrats to enough districts to beat Republicans.

Demographic changes in Chicago included large numbers of black citizens who moved from the city. That complicated the challenge of creating three districts with black super-majorities. Instead, the black voters Democratic map-drawers spread around still provide solid majorities, but not super-majorities that would make an electoral challenge impossible. Plus, Democratic map drawers put other black voters in white majority districts where they are expected to vote almost exclusively to elect white Democrats.

The complaints of Jackson et al threatens to unravel those whole map because it provides ammunition to Republicans, who claimed the new map ignores minority voting rights of Hispanics.

Legal challenges of these sort are difficult to win. But this inter-party disagreement will complicate the Democrats' defense of their map, not that Jackson, Rush and Davis care. In politics, an officeholder's greatest interest is what is in his self-interest.