is it sort of the Chicago area equivalent of the Inland Empire? By that an area that is pretty exurban and far away from the city center and in many ways a metro area of itself (Aurora and Joliet were cities in their own right before the sprawl reached it). It's also an area that tends to be more affordable and certainly more downscale than the Winetkas and Lake Forests of the area. Also, an area that has traditionally been very conservative whose politics have recently changed due to a lot of working class people from the inner city moving there.
You mean non-whites (especially Latinos)?
in the case of the IE, yes. In what constitutes IL 11, there are some latinos but a greater % of the people moving there I would assume are working class whites from Chicago and the inner ring suburbs.
