2004 Democratic Primary

[minionofmidas]

That would be the 12th district?

It's nowhere near the twelfth district. It's at the southern end of Brooklyn. I think it's split between the 8th and the 11th. (It might depend on which part of that area exactly is usually referred to as Coney Island).
"Once upon a time in America" is set there. Woody Guthrie lived there in the forties and fifties.

[minionofmidas]

I'll give my names in Geographical order (as per the Census Bureau), not in Aphabetical. I believe it's easier readable that way.
Also, let's not forget that Bureaucrats would be giving out these names, so let's not be too imaginative.

ME 1 Maine South
ME 2 Maine North
NH 1 New Hampshire East
NH 2 New Hampshire West
VT     Vermont
MA 1 Massachusetts West (or, Pittsfield & Leominster)
MA 2 Springfield
MA 3 Worcester
MA 4 Taunton & New Bedford* (asterisks mark districts that are an eyesore. Absence of asterisks does not necessarily imply that all is well, though)
MA 5 Lowell
MA 6 Salem
MA 7 Medford & Framingham*
MA 8 Boston North
MA 9 Boston South
MA 10 Plymouth & Cape Cod
RI 1 Rhode Island East
RI 2 Rhode Island West
CT 1 Hartford
CT 2 Connecticut East
CT 3 New Haven
CT 4 Bridgeport & Stamford
CT 5 Waterbury (or, Connecticut Northwest)

[minionofmidas]

NY 1 Long Island East (or, Brookhaven, or, Suffolk East)
NY 2 Brentwood (or, Suffolk West)
NY 3 Levittown (or, Nassau East)
NY 4 Hempstead (or, Nassau West) All these towns are the largest of their districts and pretty centrally located
NY 5 Queens North East
NY 6 Queens South East (or, Jamaica)
NY 7 Bronx East - Queens North
NY 8 Manhattan West Side - Coney Island* (to please miamiu)
NY 9 Jamaica Bay (or, Queens South West)
NY 10 Brooklyn Central
NY 11 Flatbush
NY 12 Williamsburgh* (two thirds of the District are in Brooklyn, WIlliamsburgh seems to be pretty much in the middle, I may be mistaken)
NY 13 Staten Island
NY 14 Manhattan East Side - Queens East (or, Hyde Park)
NY 15 Harlem
NY 16 Bronx South
NY 17 Bronx North & Yonkers West
NY 18 Yonkers East
NY 19 Lower Hudson Valley
NY 20 Upper Hudson Valley
NY 21 Albany
NY 22 Binghampston & Catskills
NY 23 Oswego & Saint Lawrence
NY 24 Utica
NY 25 Syracuse
NY 26 Amherst* (largest township in this Buffalo and Rochester suburban district)
NY 27 Buffalo South
NY 28 Rochester & Buffalo North*
NY 29 Elmira*
NJ 1 Camden
NJ 2 New Jersey South
NJ 3 Pinelands* (or, Pinelands South, or Dover after the largest township)
NJ 4 Trenton South & Freehold* (or Trenton South & Pinelands North)
NJ 5 New Jersey Northwest (or, Ramapo Mountains)
NJ 6 Edison & Plainfield*
NJ 7 New Jersey Central* (these two could also be called Edison East and West, as Edison is the largest city in both of them)
NJ 8 Paterson
NJ 9 Bergen (after the county) & Jersey City North*
NJ 10 Newark West & Elizabeth*
NJ 11 Morris (after the County)
NJ 12 Trenton North & East Brunswick*
NJ 13 Newark East & Jersey City South*
The tenth and thirteenth both include parts of Newark, Jersey City and Elizabeth.
Pennsylvania, corrected
PA 1 Philadelphia South
PA 2 Philadelphia Central
PA 3 Erie
PA 4 Beaver Valley*
PA 5 Alleghany Plateau
PA 6 Norristown & Reading East*
PA 7 Delaware (County)
PA 8 Bucks (County)
PA 9 Altoona
PA 10 Pennsylvania North East
PA 11 Scranton & Wilkes-Barre
PA 12 Westmoreland North & Cambria (Counties)*
PA 13 Philadelphia North
PA 14 Pittsburgh
PA 15 Allentown (& Bethlehem)
PA 16 Lancaster & Reading West
PA 17 Harrisburg & Pottsville
PA 18 Westmoreland South (County) & Mount Lebanon (Pittsburgh suburb)*
PA 19 York & Gettysburg

[minionofmidas]

OH 1 Cincinnati West
OH 2 Cincinnati East
OH 3 Dayton East*
OH 4 pick two from Lima, Masfield and Findlay
OH 5 Ohio North West
OH 6 Ohio River Valley
OH 7 Columbus SOuth & Springfield (or, & Lancaster)
OH 8 Dayton West*
OH 9 Toledo
OH 10 Cleveland West
OH 11 Cleveland East
OH 12 Columbus East
OH 13 Akron West  & Lorain
OH 14 Ohio North East (or, for the historically minded, Connecticut Reserve)
OH 15 Columbus West
OH 16 Canton
OH 17 Youngstown & Akron East
OH 18 Zanesville (former state capital)
IN 1 Gary
IN 2 South Bend
IN 3 Fort Wayne
IN 4 Tippecanoe (largest county, and famous battle, of course)
IN 5 Marion & Indianapolis East
IN 6 Muncie
IN 7 Indianapolis
IN 8 Evansville
IN 9 Indiana South East (or, Bloomington & New Albany)
IL 1 Chicago South East. I don't know enough about Chicago for these names to be anything but geographical. Sorry!)
IL 2 Chicago South
IL 3 Chicago SOuth West
IL 4 Chicago West & Cicero* (the only honest way to name this absurdly shaped district is CHicago Mexican)
IL 5 Chicago North West
IL 6 DuPage (County)
IL 7 Chicago West Side*
IL 8 Schaumburg
IL 9 Chicago North (& Skokie)
IL 10 Lake (County)
IL 11 Joliet & Kankakee
IL 12 Illinois South West*
IL 13 Naperville*
IL 14 Aurora
IL 15 Champaign - Urbana*
IL 16 Rockford
IL 17 Rock Island*
IL 18 Peoria & Springfield North*
IL 19 Illinois South East (or add your favorite town name) & Springfield South*
MI 1 Michigan North
MI 2 Muskegon (or, West Shore)
MI 3 Grand Rapids
MI 4 Michigan North Central (or, Midland & Traverse City)
MI 5 Flint
MI 6 Kalamazoo
Mi 7 Jackson & Battle Creek*
MI 8 Lansing*
MI 9 Pontiac* (town, but of course there's the car too)
MI 10 Port Huron & The Thumb
MI 11 Livonia*
MI 12 Warren
MI 13 Detroit East
MI 14 Detroit West
MI 15 Ann Arbor*
WI 1 Kenosha - Racine
WI 2 Madison
WI 3 Wisconsin South West
WI 4 Milwaukee
WI 5 Waukesha (County)
WI 6 Sheboygan - Oshkosh
WI 7 Wisconsin North West
WI 8 Green Bay
 

[minionofmidas]

MN 1 Minnesota South
MN 2 Twin Cities SOuth (or Eagan, after the largest town)
MN 3 Twin Cities West (or Bloomington, see above)
MN 4 Saint Paul
MN 5 Minneapolis
MN 6 Twin Cities North (or Blaine) & Saint Cloud
MN 7 Minnesota North West
MN 8 Minnesota North East (or Duluth, of course. Mn NE is just for consistency's sake)
IA 1 Dubuque & Davenport (that okay with you, hughento?)
IA 2 Burlington & Cedar Rapids
IA 3 Des Moines
IA 4 Ames
IA 5 Iowa West (or Sioux City & Council Bluffs, whic sounds much nicer and is also totally accurate)
MO 1 Saint Louis North
MO 2 Saint Charles
MO 3 Saint Louis South
MO 4 Missouri Valley
MO 5 Kansas City East
MO 6 Saint Joseph (or, Missouri North West)
MO 7 Springfield (and Ozarks)
MO 8 Missouri South East (or, Cape Girardeau)
MO 9 Missouri North East (or, Columbia)
ND    North Dakota
SD    South Dakota
NE 1 Lincoln (or, Nebraska East)
NE 2 Omaha
NE 3 Nebraska West
KS 1 Kansas West
KS 2 Topeka (or, Kansas East)
KS 3 Kansas City East
KS 4 Wichita

[minionofmidas]

After a blackout killed my south atlantic names just as I was going to post them, I went to have lunch. Now I'm back fresh:
DE    Delaware
MD 1 Maryland Eastern Shore
MD 2 Baltimore North*
MD 3 Baltimore East & Annapolis*
MD 4 Prince George's (County)*
MD 5 Maryland South (or Saint Mary's, colonial capital)
MD 6 Maryland West (or Frederick & Hagerstown)
MD 7 Baltimore West
MD 8 Montgomery (County)
VA 1 Williamsburg (former capital)
VA 2 Virginia Beach
VA 3 Norfolk & Richmond East*
VA 4 Chesapeake & Petersburg*
VA 5 Virginia Central (or Danville)
VA 6 Roanoke & Shenandoah (sounds lovely, don't you think?)
VA 7 Richmond West*
VA 8 Arlington
VA 9 Virginia South West
VA 10 Manassas & Winchester
VA 11 Mount Vernon (George Washington's old plantation, now a DC suburb, right in the middle of the district)
WV 1 West Virginia North
WV 2 West Virginia Central
WV 3 West Virginia South
Corrected North Carolina
NC 1 Rocky Mount*
NC 2 Raleigh East*
NC 3 Pamlico Sound*
NC 4 Durham
NC 5 Winston-Salem North*
NC 6 Greensboro West*
NC 7 Cape Fear
NC 8 Charlotte East & Concord*
NC 9 Charlotte West & Gastonia*
NC 10 Catawba (County)
NC 11 Great Smoky Mountains (or Nantahala)
NC 12 Winston-Salem South & Charlotte Central* (this terrible district also takes in part of Greensboro)
NC 13 Raleigh West & Greensboro East*

[minionofmidas]

SC 1 Charleston
SC 2 Columbia West
SC 3 Anderson
SC 4 Spartanburg
SC 5 Rock Hill
SC 6 Columbia East
GA 1 Georgia Southeast*
GA 2 Columbus South & Albany
GA 3 Macon (or Georgia Central)*
GA 4 DeKalb (County)
GA 5 Atlanta
GA 6 Alpharetta*
GA 7 Gwinnett (County)*
GA 8 Columbus East & Peachtree City* (Hey, it's the Peachtree State!)
GA 9 Georgia North East*
GA 10 Georgia North West
GA 11 Columbus North & Marietta
GA 12 Savannah River
GA 13 Clayton (County)*
Or the Greater Atlanta Area could be treated as "Atlanta":
GA 4 Atlanta East
GA 5 Atlanta Central
GA 6 Atlanta North Central
GA 7 Atlanta North
GA 8 Atlanta South & Columbus East
GA 11 Atlanta West & Columbus North
GA 13 Atlanta South Central

FL 1 Pensacola (or East Florida East)
FL 2 Tallahassee* (or East Florida West)
FL 3 Saint Johns River* (includes parts of Jacksonville, Gainesville and Orlando)
FL 4 Jacksonville North*
FL 5 Pasco - Hernando (Counties)
FL 6 Gainesville* (includes parts of Jacksonville and Tallahassee)
FL 7 Saint Augustine & Daytona Beach
FL 8 Orlando South
FL 9 Clearwater
FL 10 Pinellas (County)
FL 11 Tampa
FL 12 Lakeland - Winter Haven
FL 13 Sarasota
FL 14 Fort Myers (or, Naples & Fort Myers)
FL 15 Melbourne - Palm Bay
FL 16 Lake Okeechobee* (district stretches right across Florida, including East Coast and West Coast suburbs)
FL 17 Miami North - Miramar*
FL 18 Miami South - Key West
FL 19 Palm Beach West
FL 20 Hollywood - Sunrise* (the largest town fragments in this district)
FL 21 Hialeah
FL 22 Palm Beach East*
FL 23 Fort Lauderdale*
FL 24 Orlando East*
FL 25 Tamiami

[minionofmidas]

KY 1 Kentucky West
KY 2 Owensboro (& Bowling Green)
KY 3 Louisville
KY 4 Ashland (or Kentucky North East)
KY 5 Kentucky East (or South East)
KY 6 Lexington (& Frankfort)
TN 1 Blue Ridge (or Johnson City, named for a president from the state)
TN 2 Knoxville
TN 3 Chattanooga
TN 4 Cumberland (or Tennessee Central, but Cumberland is nicer)
TN 5 Nashville
TN 6 Murfreesboro (if there had to be a Lower Cumberland, it's this one)
TN 7 Clarksville East & Memphis East*
TN 8 Clarksville West & Jackson (or just Tennessee North West)
TN 9 Memphis
AL 1 Mobile
AL 2 Montgomery South & Dothan
AL 3 Montgomery North & Talladega
AL 4 Alabama North Central (or Gadsden)
AL 5 Huntsville (or Tennessee River Valley)
AL 6 Birmingham North*
AL 7 Birmingham South*
If they's be named thus, they might actually start to look the part after the next redistricting...
MS 1 Delta Country
MS 2 Mississippi North East (or Tupelo - sounds nicer)
MS 3 Mississippi Central
MS 4 Mississippi Coastal (or Gulf Coast)
AR 1 Arkansas North East
AR 2 Little Rock (or Arkansas Central)
AR 3 Fort Smith (or Arkansas North West, or Ozark)
AR 4 Arkansas South
LA 1 Pontchartrain (after the lake)
LA 2 New Orleans
LA 3 Acadia (in the sense of land of the Acadiens)
LA 4 Shreveport, or Louisiana North West
LA 5 Monroe - Alexandria, or Louisiana North East
LA 6 Baton Rouge
LA 7 Lake Charles, or Louisiana South West
OK 1 Tulsa
OK 2 Oklahoma East
OK 3 Oklahoma North West
OK 4 Oklahoma South West (or SOuth)
OK 5 Oklahoma City
There cannot be enough districts named Oklahoma as it's just about the most beautiful word in the English lexicon

[minionofmidas]

Pennsylvania

01. Philadelphia South
02. Philadelphia Central
03. Erie
04. Beaver Valley
05. Alleghany Plateau
06. Chester-Berks
07. Chester-Delaware
08. Bucks
09. Pennsylvania South
10. Pennsylvania North East
11. Scranton and Wilkes-Barre
12. Johnstown-Alleghanies
13. Philadelphia North
14. Pittsburgh-Steel Valley*
15. Allentown-Bethlehem
16. Reading-Lancaster
17. Harrisburg-Pottsville
18. Westmoreland-Washington
19. York-Gettysburg

*Although "Pittsburgh" would be easier, "Pittsburgh-Steel Valley" is more accurate as the old PA-14 was in effect abolished by re-districting, with the City of Pittsburgh being added to the old PA-18 (which lost Monroeville to the new PA-18).

Aha.
We're quite close apart from that. Let's see.
4 Beaver Valley - nice
5 Alleghany Plateau - okay. I'll take those
6 & 7 too complicated
9 too inaccurate
12 mmh...don't like it...don't really like my own name for it either
14 I'll stick with Pittsburgh anyway
15 just as well
16 the city of Reading is split pretty exactly down the middle according to the census bureau
17 What's Pottsville? Harrisburg is not exactly in the center of the district though, so a double name makes sense
18 Mount Lebanon sounds cooler
19 Good. I'll take that one, too

[minionofmidas]

MT   Montana
ID 1 Idaho North West
ID 2 Idaho South East
WY   Wyoming
CO 1 Denver (or Denver Central, if we define Denver as MetroDenver)
CO 2 Boulder
CO 3 Colorado West
CO 4 Colorado East
CO 5 Colorado Springs
CO 6 Littleton (or Denver South)
CO 7 Arvada - Aurora (or Denver North)
NM 1 Albuquerque
NM 2 New Mexico North
NM 3 New Mexico South
AZ 1 Flagstaff (or Navajo, or Arizona North East)
AZ 2 Glendale (or Maricopa North) & Grand Canyon*
AZ 3 Phoenix North
AZ 4 Phoenix South
AZ 5 Scottsdale (or Maricopa North East)
AZ 6 Mesa (or Maricopa South East)
AZ 7 Tucson West (- Yuma)
AZ 8 Tucson East (- Tombstone, of Wild West fame)
UT 1 Utah North
UT 2 Utah East*
UT 3 Utah West*
NV 1 Las Vegas (North)
NV 2 Nevada. Just like that.
NV 3 Henderson (or Las Vegas South)

[minionofmidas]

WA 1 Redmond
WA 2 Bellingham (or Washington North West)
WA 3 Vancouver - Olympia West (or Washington South West)
WA 4 Yakima (or Washington Central)
WA 5 Spokane (or Washington East)
WA 6 Tacoma West - Grays Harbor
WA 7 Seattle
WA 8 Bellevue
WA 9 Tacoma East - Olympia East
OR 1 Portland West
OR 2 Oregon East
OR 3 Portland East
OR 4 Willamette
OR 5 Salem
CA 1 Lost Coast
CA 2 Sacramento Valley (or Redding)
CA 3 Sacramento East
CA 4 Roseville - Lake Tahoe (or California North East)
CA 5 Sacramento
CA 6 Marin - Sonoma
CA 7 San Pablo Bay (or East Bay North)
CA 8 San Francisco
CA 9 Oakland
CA 10 Fairfield & Antioch (or East Bay North East)*
CA 11 Stockton North*
CA 12 Daly City (or San Francisco South. Daly City just makes me think of Daly City Train by Rancid)
CA 13 Fremont (or East Bay South to keep with that theme)
CA 14 Silicon Valley
CA 15 San Jose East
CA 16 San Jose West
CA 17 Monterey
CA 18 Stockton South & Fresno North*
CA 19 Fresno East
CA 20 Fresno South & Bakersfield North*
CA 21 Visalia
CA 22 Bakersfield
CA 23 Ventura South - Santa Barbara
CA 24 Ventura North. (Ventura refers to the County here, though the city is also split. The part of Santa Barbara County in the 24th is very sparsely populated)
CA 25 Santa Clarita - Victorville (Death Valley is in this district, but only 30,000 people live in those two Northern counties. 22,000 of the district's inhabitants are within Los Angeles city limits!) Santa Clarita and Victorville are the largest cities in the district's parts of LA and SB counties, respectively)
CA 26 Arcadia - Rancho Cucamonga
CA 27 San Fernando Valley North
CA 28 San Fernando Valley South
CA 29 Glendale - Pasadena
CA 30 Hollywood
CA 31 Los ANgeles Central
CA 32 El Monte - West Covina
CA 33 Los Angeles South Central
CA 34 Los Angeles East - Downey
CA 35 Los ANgeles South - Inglewood
CA 36 Los Angeles South West - Torrance
CA 37 Long Beach North
CA 38 Pomona - Norwalk*
CA 39 Whittier - Paramount* (nowhere near the largest towns, but fairly well known and sum up the area well. The largest places are called South Gate and Lakewood)
CA 40 Orange
CA 41 San Bernardino East - Redlands
CA 42 Yorba Linda (cuz Nixon was born there, and it's centrally located)
CA 43 San Bernardino West - Ontario
CA 44 Riverside
CA 45 Palm Springs
CA 46 Long Beach South*
CA 47 Santa Ana
CA 48 Irvine*
CA 49 Oceanside
CA 50 San Diego Noirth - Escondido
CA 51 San Diego South - Imperial (County)
CA 52 San Diego East
CA 53 San Diego Central
AK      Alaska
HI 1 Honolulu
HI 2 Hilo (or Hawaii Outer)

[minionofmidas]

Texas pre- and post re-redistricting
OLD
1 Texarkana - Nacogdoches
2 Huntsville
3 Plano
4 Tyler - Denison
5 Dallas South - Palestine
6 Arlington South - Corsicana
7 Houston South West
8 Houston North - The Woodlands
9 Beaumont - Galveston
10 Austin
11 Waco, or Texas Central
12 Fort Worth West
13 Amarillo - Wichita Falls
14 Victoria
15 McAllen - Edinburg
16 El Paso
17 Abilene (- San Angelo)
18 Houston Central
19 Lubbock - Midland
20 San Antonio Central
21 Austin West - San Antonio North
22 Fort Bend - Brazoria (Counties)
23 Texas South West
24 Fort Worth East - Arlington North
25 Houston South East
26 Denton (more the county than the place, I guess)
27 Corpus Christi - Brownsvile
28 Rio Grande City - San Antonio East
29 Houston North East
30 Dallas Central
31 Bryan
32 Dallas North

NEW (numbers in brackets denote incumbent running in this district)
1 Tyler - Nacogdoches (1)
2 Beaumont - Houston North (9). Error corrected.
3 Plano (3)
4 Texarkana - Denison (4)
5 Mesquite - Palestine (5)
6 Arlington - Corsicana (6)
7 Houston West (7)
8 Huntsville - The Woodlands (
9 Houston South (25)
10 Austin North - Harris (County) West (open)
11 Midland - San Angelo (open)
12 Fort Worth West (12)
13 Amarillo - Wichita Falls (13)
14 Victoria - Galveston (14)
15 Edinburg - (some place in this district's pretty pointless northern extension) (15)
16 El Paso (16)
17 Waco - Bryan (11)
18 Houston Central (18)
19 Lubbock - Abilene (17, 19)
20 San Antonio Central (20)
21 Austin West - San Antonio North (21)
22 Fort Bend - Harris South West (Counties) (22)
23 Texas South West (23)
24 Grand Prairie (open)
25 Austin South - McAllen (10)
26 Denton - Fort Worth East (26)
27 Corpus Christi - Brownsville (27)
28 Laredo - San Antonio East (28)
29 Houston East (29)
30 Dallas Central (or South) (30)
31 Temple - Killeen (31)
32 Dallas North (24, 32)

[minionofmidas]

North Carolina

01 Roanoke Valley
02 Raleigh East
03 Pamlico Sound
04 Durham
05 Winston-Salem North
06 Greensboro West
07 Cape Fear Valley
08 Concord and Kannapolis
09 Charlotte-Gastonia
10 Catawba
11 Great Smoky Mountains (or Blue Ridge Mountains)
12 Winston-Salem and Charlotte*  
13 Raleigh and Greensboro

*Aaaagh!

01-not really a valley. How about "Great Dismal Swamp"?
03-yeah, why not?
07-Cape Fear will do.
08-It's got quite a bit of Charlotte, too
11-I used Blue Ridge in Tennessee
Aagh-Georgia and Florida are even worse. Those two tie for worst place, definitely.

[minionofmidas]

Hmmm... Only differences in or south of WV as far as I can see... I never heard of the Clinch Mountains. Whenever I've come upon references to that corner of Va. that is (apparently-I've never been there) way more like WV or KY than like the rest of Virginia, they called it South West Virginia. So I figured that even though it's highly boring, it'd do.
Same goes for the WV names, really. Highly boring, but there's only three districts in the state, so what's the point in giving them nice names? Especially as lots of people would probably react by saying "I live nowhere near these two cities! Is that really my district?"

[minionofmidas]

I'll grant you that the insistence on making all districts within a state identical is a wee bit silly gven the large differences between the states. But I made 'em equal or almost equal in rounded thousands anyway.

[minionofmidas]

That rule is an invitation for gerrymandering...

It's not even really a rule. The Supreme Court has struck dow a law that allowed a 5% variation but upheld another one that allowed a lesser variation (I don't remember how much that was, 1,5% maybe?)
There's a number of states which don't make them exactly equal.
But yes, of course, it's used as an excuse for gerrymandering.

[minionofmidas]

I know that WV uses whole counties and that the WVDP didn't gerrymander Capito out of her seat... and that Iowa was drawn by a non-partizan group of people...

Arkansas also uses whole Counties.
Minnesota, Arizona, Washington and Oregon all redistrict by commission, I may be forgetting one state here. The MS map was draw up by a Court, not the legislature.
Note that AZ screwed it up a bit despite having a commission. They too can be lobbied...But it's still not as bad as Representatives electing their voters and not vice versa, as happened in California, Illinois, parts of Virginia...

[minionofmidas]

The only good thing about that rule is that it stops malapportionment (see Queensland for more information)

that's how it came about. once upon a time districts in America were malapportioned (and often gerrymandered as well, though not nearly as badly as nowadays). Tennessee continued to use its 1870s apportionment for the state house until the supreme court finally told em to stop it in -was it 1964? Around then, anyway.

[minionofmidas]

As a native, let me put my two cents in for IL. I do like hugento's 4 criteria: natural names, dominant jurisdiction, name matches, historic designation.

IL1: Chicago - South Cook
IL2: Chicago - Calumet (The old harbor area and river distinguigh this from the more westerly part of the south side and south Cook)
IL3: Chicago - Midway (Southwest doesn't capture it the same way the old airport does. We all know what the Midway area means.)
IL4: Chicago - Little Village/Hermosa (I picked two prominent neighborhoods on opposite arms in this intensely gerrymandered district.)
IL5: Chicago - Northwest (I was born here and there are too many distinct neighborhoods to pick one, the northwest side works well.)
IL6: DuPage (It only has half the county's population, but it has the right feeling.)
IL7: Chicago Loop/West (One has to put the Loop somewhere in this state's names.)
IL8: Chain-o-Lakes (The most prominent local feature for this upscale subrban district)
IL9: Chicago - North Cook
IL10: Great Lake (After the large naval training center, to distinguish it from the western half of Lake County.)
IL11: Heritage Canal (The National Historic Landmark I&M canal runs through the district and is easily recognized here.)
IL12: Great River South (Using the Mississippi as the marker of this diverse district.)
IL13: Naper (This uses the historic settlement name rather than the suburb that makes up 1/6 of the district's population.)
IL14: Fox Valley (Over half the district's population is in Kane and Kendall Counties on the Fox River, and the area is easily identified in the state this way.)
IL15: University (Three of the major institutions are here: Univeristy of Illinois, Illinois State University, and Eastern Illinois University.)
IL16: Rock Valley - Highland (This works better to encompass the areas in the district south and west of Rockford, but I could live with the name of city that is about 1/5 of the district's population.)
IL17: Great River North (See IL 12, and I can't imagine any other way to name this icon of gerrymandering.)
IL18: Illinois Valley (The river is the common feature.)
IL19: Kaskaskia (It's a good historic name, the community college in the district takes that name, and I'll overlook the fact that the actual site of the historic fort is in IL 12.)

Well done, nice work!
...though I dislike "University" because nobody outside IL will probably be able to place it, and "Great River South" because to me that would be in Louisiana if anywhere. (In other words, names have to mean something to Illinoians (?), but they should also make sense outside the state.)

[minionofmidas]

The NDP are a Democratic Socialist/Social Democratic party, while the Liberals are an old fashioned "Lloyd George/Woodrow Wilson" style liberal party, that somehow managed to suvive as the "Natural party of government" (and that's one hell of an achievment)

The NDP got founded during the Great Depression and quickly soked up the previously existing Labour Party. It used to be known as CCF until 1962 (or 1965, or...anyways, until the 1960s), short for Cooperative Commonwealth Foundation.

[minionofmidas]

Doesn't Martin still have bags of time till he has to call an election. Like, till late 2005?
Oh, and, Siege, I think Michigan was a better fit than South Carolina.

[minionofmidas]

Obviously, before the Sponsorship Scandal, everything suggested Martin should call a vote quickly. By now, I'm not so sure anymore. I'll admit there's still a good argument that now's better than next year, but victory doesn't look a certainty now, and who knows what next year will bring?

[minionofmidas]

I'd prefer an NDP majority government.

[minionofmidas]

I'd prefer an NDP majority government.

So would I But sadly I have to have some sort of sense of Reality. That or other Canadians laugh at you.

Thankfully I can act without such constraints.

[minionofmidas]

I'd prefer an NDP majority government.

So would I But sadly I have to have some sort of sense of Reality. That or other Canadians laugh at you.

I wonder if the NDP find a strong issue to run on could they make it to 30% cause that could be enough to form a government or is it 40%... can't remember...

Siege40

Siege40
you don't have to sign at the ens of post, it got your name near the avatar

I guess he knows that. It's a style thing, he's not the only one to do it. So do Kevin Lamoreau (kevinstat), HoopsCubs, and Saratoga.