DIXON, Ill. (MCT) — Don Manzullo may or may not represent Dixon in 2012, and he may or may not have a challenger in the March primary.
Waiting to find out those answers has been "absolutely frustrating," Manzullo said Saturday during a meet-and-greet with Lee County Republicans at the Comfort Inn in Dixon.
Manzullo, R-Egan, announced last month that he is seeking an 11th term in Congress. Saturday was his first campaign stop in Dixon, which will be redrawn into the 16th Congressional District that Manzullo serves — if a legal challenge to the new political maps is rejected.
Manzullo is among Illinois Republicans leading the lawsuit against the redistricting done by the Democratic-majority state Legislature. The new congressional map pairs some Republican lawmakers in the same district.
That isn't the case for Manzullo, but he very well may have get a challenge from a Republican colleague next March.
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Manteno, represents the 11th District. The remap has put Kinzinger's and Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in the same district. So Kinzinger has said he will run in the 16th District. While he doesn't live within the new boundaries, the redrawn 16th includes many areas Kinzinger currently serves, including Mendota and Princeton.
The redrawn 16th District wraps around the collar counties of Chicago, circling the Chicagoland area from the Wisconsin border to the Indiana border.
It includes Dixon and Amboy, now represented by U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield, and Oregon and Rochelle, represented by Manzullo.
Both Manzullo and Kinzinger are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit to throw out the new boundaries and install a map put forth Republicans.
A decision is expected soon.
Manzullo told Sauk Valley Media on Saturday that the waiting period is "absolutely frustrating."
He also criticized the current map, saying that it splits Rockford into two congressional districts along "racial lines."
"That's just wrong," Manzullo said.
A major issue facing the 16h District, as well as the rest of the country, is job creation, Manzullo said.
"The government can't create jobs, only the private sector can," Manzullo said. "And so, the government has to do as much as it can to step away."
One way to do that, he said, is to reform the tax code to help companies create more jobs and level the playing field for small business owners.
Manzullo said Saturday he remains hopeful that the vacant Thomson Correctional Center, located in Carroll County, will be sold to the Bureau of Prisons and opened as a federal prison.
The prison, which was closed by the state in April 2010, was appraised at $220 million. The 2011 federal budget includes $170 million to buy Thomson, while the 2012 budget includes $67 million more to open and operate it. Neither budget has been approved.
President Barack Obama wants to buy the prison, built for $143 million almost a decade ago, to ease overcrowding in other federal lockups.
He had wanted to use the prison to house detainees from the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which he has vowed to close, but since has backed off those plans.
Manzullo, a strong opponent of the Gitmo plan, said he and other lawmakers still want assurances that Obama or U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder won't bring detainees to Thomson.
Once that happens, the money can be released to complete the sale, he said.
Turning the facility into a federal prison will create hundreds of jobs, which will revitalize the local economy, he said.
"It's a real bargain, it you're in the business of buying prisons," Manzullo said Saturday.