712,813 – Size of New Illinois Congressional Districts – Where the People Came From

Did you know that each congressional district but two in Illinois have 712,813 people?

The other two have 712,812.

The newly-approved congressional map, awaiting Governor Pat Quinn's signature.

So, as far as making them of equal size, Illinois Democrats did a superb job.

The current congressional map for Illinois.

Although the ethnic concentration requirements, which have never held much interest for me, even though they will be the basis of any challenge by Republicans, how the electorate was rearranged does pique my curiosity.

The following table shows this information for each of Illinois’ congressional districts:

Where people were under the 2002 Illinois congressional districts and where they will be starting ni 2012. Click to enlarge.

Let’s take a closer look at the three districts into which McHenry County is or will be.

First, Don Manzullo’s 16th congressional district.  Here’s where the 718,791 people in the current 16th District ended up.

Most remained in the 16th District.

314,072, to be exact.

209,889 were placed in the 17th District.

That’s a district that goes to the Mississippi River hooking around the new 16th District’s north-south portion as it pretty much rings the collar counties from the Wisconsin border on its way to the Indiana border south of Kankakee.

It also hooks around the upper part of the 18th District like a cloud forming into a tornado.

The vast majority live in the City of Rockford.

106,441 were from Alden, Chemung, Coral, Dunham, Grafton,Hartland, Marengo, Nunda, Riley and Seneca Townships in McHenry County.

Basically, the western half of McHenry County, plus Grafton Township and the Crystal Lake part of Nunda Township.

88,389 gave been assigned to the 6th congressional district.

That is the Algonquin Township part of the current 16th District.

They will presumably be represented by Congressman Peter Roskam after the next election.

Congressman Joe Walsh’s current 8th District is split asunder.

104,825 go into the District numbered 6.

That’s the one where House Republican Deputy Whip Peter Roskam now resides.

Most of that population comes from McHenry County’s Algonquin Township, but some is from the lower tiers of townships in southwestern Lake County.

185,195 of the most Democratic parts of the 8th District that could be found were kept in the new 8th District, which is based in Schaumburg, which is no longer the solid Republican territory it was when Don Totten was Republican Township Committeeman.

So the new 8th is less than one-third of the old 8th.

233,771 people in the 8th were assigned to the 10th district.  That’s the part in the upper part of Lake County.  It actually contains Joe Walsh’s Fox Lake congressional office.

Almost as many people–215,049–ended up in the new vertical McHenry-Kane-DuPage County district.  Incumbent 14th District Congressman Randy Hultgren resides just inside its eastern border in DuPage County.  Joe Walsh lives near its northern border–the Wisconsin-Illinois state line, in McHenry.

With more of Joe Walsh’s district’s population going to the new 10th District, which has no resident incumbent, it occurs to me that Walsh might decide to run there, instead of in the 14th.  (The 6th with GOP Leader Peter Roskam in it, is pretty much out of the question, although Walsh has significant connections in the Barrington portion.  That’s where he grew up.)

But, 60% of the voters in the new 10th District were in the old 10th District, which Robert Dold took over from now-U.S. Senator Mark Kirk.

The 431,609 people being carried over from the old 10th District are pretty far from Dold’s home.

As you can see, 1,508 people are shunted to the 14th District.

Finally, let’s take a look at the 14th District.

Randy Hultgren is its congressman and it now butts up against the McHenry-Kane County line.

Similar havoc can be expected in states controlled by Republicans.  See if you can pick them out from the map below, which shows which states got extra congressional seats and which, like Illinois, lost one or more.

The largest portion–293,306 people–are still in the same numbered district.

But 293,306 out of 712,813 is only a bit over 40%.

The next largest contributor of constituents to the 14th District is number 11.   There are 184, 335 from there.

That’s fellow freshman Adam Kinzinger.

The 8th contributes 93,602 from McHenry County.

88,879 come from Congressman Don Manzullo’s district, also primarily from McHenry County.

Finally, 33,641 are now represented by freshman Bobby Schilling.

States who won and lost the population game.


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