US with Canadian parties

[Jackson]

Do you have any more guesses, Hatman?

[Jackson]

Are the Progressives/United Farmers in green?

[Jackson]

In the case of your Idaho districts Hatman, I would move Ada, Gem, Boise, Payette, and Canyon counties into Panhandle-Idaho Falls and rename it Boise-Panhandle. I would then remove all the counties east of Valley and Idaho counties and move them into the other riding which I would rename Snake Valley.

[Jackson]

I think both your Alabama and Mississippi maps are acceptable from a communities of interest perspective.

[Jackson]

I have some pretty serious misgivings about several of those ridings, especially the Phoenix area- ridings, one of which appears to cross a mountain range.

[Jackson]

In all honesty, the old map wasn't necessarily that bad, it was just that the Glendale-West Phoenix was comprised of two separate regions that did not form a community of interest
(They still do that in the new map btw.)

If I may, could I humbly suggest this as an alternative?



Judging from a glance at the demographics of the districts in question, the partisan breakdown would be as follows-

Mogollon(light green) Tory (would probably swing to the NDP given a few more years )

Tuscon(cyan) Currently NDP, would have been Liberal prior to either 2011 or 2008

Sonora(dark red) Marginal Tory(Would ordinarily be a Tory-Grit swing district)

Colorado River(light blue) Tory

Phoenix-Glendale(green) Marginal Tory(Would ordinarily be solid Grit)

Phoenix-Lake Pleasant(purple) Tory

Phoenix-Tempe(blue) NDP (would ordinarily be Grit vs. NDP)

Mesa-Scottsdale(yellow) Tory

Chandler-Gilbert(red) Tory


Essentially not much of a major change, but it fixes the problem in the Phoenix metro.

[Jackson]

One thing, though: The main centers of the Mogollon culture were slightly to the south-east of most of your riding named after it, and the Mogollon Mountains are in New Mexico. Might I suggest Anasazi?

Possibly, however that might cause exacerbate significant tensions between several of the native peoples in the riding, especially the Hopi and the Navajo.

 I actually didn't name the riding after the Mogollon culture, but rather after this geographic feature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogollon_Rim which occupies much of the central part of the riding.

Also, I like your Colorado districts, but I would want to see if Xahar/Hatman have any objections to them before finalizing them.

[Jackson]

The entire central part of the state is simply an abomination.

[Jackson]

Washington:



Riding names

1-Seattle

2-Lake Washington

3-Tacoma

4-Kitsap Peninsula-Olympia

5-Skykomish-White River

6-North Puget Sound-Olympic Mountains

7-Grays Harbor-Vancouver

8-Tri Cities-Yakima

9-Spokane-Okanagan

[Jackson]

I see no particular reason to respect county lines in the case of a densely populated metropolitan region, particularly one in which many cities cross said county lines. In any case, while it is true that you could split fewer county lines, such a map would wholly ignore the actual communities of interest that this map represents.

The reason for the cross sound district is largely because Clallam and Jefferson, much like San Juan, Island, and Whatcom counties, are chock full of rural hippies and organic farmers, among others, thus making those counties much unlike Grays Harbor, filled with decaying mill towns and working-class social conservatives, or Mason, which is Seattle exurbia.

Klickitat also has similar demographics to Grays Harbor, making it a better fit for the southwestern district.

[Jackson]

I think that the states that have been finished are:

South Carolina
Louisiana
Maryland
Washington
Indiana
New Jersey
Michigan
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Texas

Also, hold off on drawing Kentucky. I'm going to draw a counter-proposal to Hatman's plan