IL-17: Cheri Bustos Announces Retirement from Congress

Cheri Bustos

Going into the congressional remap and after 5 terms, Bustos’ retirement give Democrats the district to eliminate?

With a H/T to commenter “Correcting”, 5-term Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D, IL-17) announced her retirement at the conclusion of the 117th Congress.

If not for the remap year, Bustos’ announcement would create an open seat, but in 2022 and the congressional remap by the Illinois General Assembly, it’s unknown that this means.

Thus far, 2020 Republican nominee Esther Joy King, who gave Bustos a run-for-her-money last year, had already announced she’s running in 2022.

Depending what happens in the remap, there will likely be more.

Does Bustos’ departure give Democrats in Springfield ability to draw the current IL-14 represented by Congresswoman Lauren Underwood further west to include the city of Rockford?

Is it the IL-17 which gets eliminated, though Democrats eliminating a Democrat seat, albeit a purple one, not likely.

Here’s her video announcing her retirement from Congress:

Developing story…


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IL-17: Cheri Bustos Announces Retirement from Congress — 6 Comments

  1. Illinois’s 17th congressional district, 2020
    Democratic Cheri Bustos (incumbent) 156,011 52.02 -10.07%
    Republican Esther Joy King 143,863 47.97 +10.06%
    Write-in 21 0.01 N/A

    King was pretty competitive last time. She did a little better than I expected.

    So did Oberweis.

    Without Bustos, a Republican could flip that seat, depending on who is running and how Dems draw it.

    I too don’t believe this district will be eliminated.

    They’ll go for a GOP district, not a purple one.

    ————————–

    Hey, what’s the deal with redistricting anyway?

    I was told they had to get rid of the least populated district and that it would be the 15th.

    Now every person on Twitter is talking about Kinzinger’s district being on the chop block.

    What gives???

    What’s the truth?

    Do Dems have to chop the least populated district or can they chop whatever they want?

  2. Bastos was a turd eater. But at least she wasn’t a turd herself, unlike so many of the delegation of communists.

  3. **I was told they had to get rid of the least populated district and that it would be the 15th.**

    That is not accurate. There is no requirement to get rid of a certain district due to population. They can draw the new maps however they want.

    I suspect that they’re now going to essentially get rid of 17, make 12, 13, 14 more Democratic. Kinzinger stays in 16, Davis runs statewide and that seat goes to Dems, and Bost has a tough campaign. Lauren has a safety district, the rest of the Dems will all be fine.

  4. How can they make both 12 and 13 more competitive?

    If I make one district bluer by putting in more city/slashing rural area then that city is not in the other district to make it bluer, and that rural area would be which would make it redder.

    You can gerrymander some districts some of the time but you can’t gerrymander every district all of the time.

    You’ll run into a little known problem called “people in rural Illinois hate Democrats.”

    You’ll read about it in political science books soon.

    I coined it.

    Anyway, I’ve seen a map where they give Davis a skinny district that had E St Louis and went up to Springfield or maybe Bloomington, but that’s going to make other districts redder.

    It’s a zero sum game.

    I agree they want to make 14 bluer that’s obvious after Underwood nearly got beat by an old unpopular milkman with zero charisma and she also outspent him by a huge margin.

    In regard to 17, why would they give that up?

    Rock Island, Freeport, possibly Rockford, maybe Peoria?

    Look at elections even at a county level and you’ll see northwest IL and southwest WI are bluer than you’d expect them to be.

    They could keep that district blue (slightly blue).

    How difficult would that be? Give it more of Rockford or something.

    Why are you surrendering?

    What the hell are you thinking talking about Mike Bost?

    That man is going to destroy Democrats like he always does, why don’t you focus on something believable lest you go crashing into the Sun.

    They could probably get 14 and 13 bluer but I don’t know what you can do with 12; it’s southern Illinois.

    They probably still have sundown towns there.

    You know in Anna, Illinois there is a little saying… AINT NO (racial slur that starts with the letter n) ALLOWED.

    I’ve met people from southern Illinois with heavier accents than people from northern Alabama.

    16 is the logical one to destroy because you can absorb it into other GOP districts like 13, 18, and 15 which are close by (well probably moreso 18 and 15 since you’re trying to pick up 13).

    If I were a map maker for the Dems I would try to weaken some of the blue districts too.

    Look at the margins Danny Davis and Jesus Garcia and Robin Kelly have.

    You could give them a bigger district with more suburbs or rural area and they’d still win.

    16 is occupied by a Republican, unlike 17 which is occupied by a Democrat.

    That alone is a reason…

    You keep 16 and what are you gonna do with that?

    It’s already super red and if you make Underwood’s district shift away from McHenry County then what?

    I guess McHenry could go into 8 or 6 or something, but then what are you gonna do with the old 17?

    Point being, I don’t see how you’d make 16 more competitive, and you’re slashing one of your own districts (17), then even if you pick up Davis’s seat that’s a wash (and I already said you’re not getting Bost AND Davis).

    It makes more sense to absorb 16 into the other districts.

    16 is that weird L looking district that basically acts as a firewall between Illibama and Chicago Metro.

    I would take out a red district like 16 or even 15 or 18 because that’s a known known.

    You know Republicans are going to lose a seat, and since it’s in the middle of nowhere, you can absorb it into other rural GOP districts.

    What I’d do if i drew map for democrats:

    get rid of 16 (offense)

    make 13, 14, 17 more blue (offense defense defense)

    make hard blue districts in the Chicago area a lighter shade of blue (invincible pawns who are used in a sacrificial way but are not sacrificed)

    make other red districts (12, 15, 18) even more red (because it doesn’t matter)

    If you’re not going to weaken 16 at all (which I don’t see how you could if you’re going to be strengthening 14 and getting rid of 17) then you’re not going to flip it.

    You’re trying to do all this hocus pocus in central and southern Illinois; why don’t you just focus on doing a few things well instead of all this outlandish wacky crap in places that are like 90 percent white and eat chitlins?

    Democrats are sounding like those gamblers who win 20 thousand dollars and then put all their winnings up for another spin. Bost and Davis both exceeded expectations in 2020.

    I could see Kinzinger winning re-election too despite all the huffy puffy from primary voters.

    Like I said or 15 because that’s Miller and I know Democrats don’t like Miller.

    They probably hate her the most out of any of the Republicans Illinois has in congress.

    They didn’t like that thing she said about Hitler, even though there was no problem with what she said.

    I also liked how Miller voted NO on condemning the Myanmar coup.

    That was based!

    Oh, and her husband was at the Jan 6th event in DC lol.

    But yeah Democrats say she’s “problematic” or whatever weird effeminate phrase they use, so she’d be a natural contender to have her district eliminated.

    TBH I think it makes a lot of sense to get rid of 16, but DISCLAIMER on a personal level I don’t want to hear about Catalina Lauf or Jack Lombardi or Adam Kinzinger and this whole freak show.

    I am not free from bias.

    Kinzinger is a big dumb idiot for betraying Trump and MTG and for constantly going on CNN in his undersized suits to complain about his own party.

    I’m sick of him and REALLY sick of Lauf.

    I don’t want some 20 something year old in congress smh

    And that’s all I got to say about that.

  5. Correcting, that’s an interesting piece, thanks.

    Alabama, the question for you is which side of the firing squad are you gonna find yourself in 2026?

    (I’d start thinking hard about how you’re going to answer the blindfold and cigarette questions.)

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