US House Redistricting: Kansas

[dpmapper]

Kansas:



If the GOP doesn't want to split the KC suburbs between two districts, then this is the best they can get, barring something really ugly.  Only 4 counties are split in my map; 2 of them because of Fort Riley.  

CD 3 (in purple) loses Lawrence, gains part of Leavenworth County.  I'm particularly tickled that you can make it almost an exact square and be within 263 of ideal population.  Anyway, McCain won the district 50.02 - 48.66, compared to Obama 51-48 in the previous district.  

CD 2 (green) gains Lawrence, so to compensate I put Manhattan in the 1st.  I understand that Kansans prefer to keep Ft. Leavenworth and Ft. Riley in the same district, which is why the lines are a bit erose.  I also rejiggered some of the counties in the south: CD4 (red) took Labette (55% McCain) so that CD2 could take even redder counties farther north (eg, Washington).   Couldn't get CD4 to go all the way out to Pittsburg without getting really ugly, though.  CD2 is at 54-44 McCain, slightly down from 55-43.  

CDs 1 and 4 should still be very safe for the GOP.  

[dpmapper]

http://www.mcphersonsentinel.com/news/x404073585/County-moves-to-2nd-in-controversial-proposal?photo=0

Unclear whether this is a real proposal or just Dems being preemptive.

[dpmapper]

So if KS-1 can't take SE Kansas, and it can't take Manhattan, and it can't take KCK, and it can't split Wichita or Topeka, then the only thing left for it to take is Lawrence, no?  The only state legislators that would annoy are Democrats, I'm going to guess.

[dpmapper]

How about this:



Leavenworth is kept with Riley, Manhattan stays in KS-2, Salina/Hutchinson stay in KS-1, Wyandotte is split between KS-3 and KS-2.  

[dpmapper]

Torie, your KS-4 seems underpopulated.  Not sure one can avoid running it into Montgomery County without shuffling a lot of counties into KS-4 to compensate. 

One thing I noticed is that Leavenworth is part of the KC metro area but Douglas County (Lawrence) is not.  So these last couple maps have the benefit that they'd allow the KS GOP to say that KS-3 is entirely within the KC metro area, with the remainder of the metro area entirely within KS-2.  

If Atchison and the other Missouri River communities complain about being shoved into KS-1, here's an alternative that moves fewer counties between districts: