Draw your own CD

[Miles]

Inspired by the Brad Miller thread I made for the 1000 district series. This time, draw your own normal Congressional district.

'What I came up with for myself:



Though its labeled CD6, this is essentially the old CD3; I traded many of the River Parishes for most of Orleans Parish and a hand into Lafayette.

Like the district I drew in the 1000 district series, this is McCain-> Obama:

2008:
McCain: 51.3%
Obama: 46.7%

2012
Obama: 49.4%
Romney: 48.7%

Because I had to work around a VRA district, I ended up drawing the whole map. If you're from a medium/smaller states, bonus points if you draw your entire state!



I ended up merging the old 5th and 6th. During the redistricting session, Republicans criticized Boustany for working with Democrats to pass a selfish map for himself; he'd also like my map as he wouldn't have a primary fight. I'd end up running against Landry, though he'd be too conservative to win.

As usual, I tried to make the CD4 as Democratic as possible. McCain won it 52.5/46.5. Many of the parishes there, including Caddo, swung to Obama, but I don't think it was enough to flip it.

Close up of New Orleans:



I had to give CD2 most of the black areas of Orleans Parish to keep its VRA status. It ended up being 55.5% BVAP. To make my district more Democratic though, I had CD2 take in some Republican areas of the West Bank in Jefferson Parish.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Can't really improve on that.

[ElectionsGuy]

Here's the whole state:



And here's my district:



My district covers all of Waukesha County, the western Milwaukee suburbs within Milwaukee County, and some more rural areas for good measure from Jefferson, Racine, Washington, and Walworth counties. Unfortunately, making a district that far south, would make Paul Ryan's seat from Lean R to Lean D. But all other districts are pretty similar otherwise (WI-4 (my WI-2) is exactly the same).

WI-1 (Blue): 58.5% McCain, 40.3% Obama = Safe R
WI-2 (Green): 74.1% Obama, 24.7% McCain = Safe D
WI-3 (Purple): 57.2% Obama, 41.3% McCain = Lean D
WI-4 (Red): 69.5% Obama, 29.2% McCain = Safe D
WI-5 (Yellow): 58.2% Obama, 40.1% McCain = Lean D
WI-6 (Teal): 52.5% McCain, 46.0% Obama = Likely R
WI-7 (Dark Grey): 53.7% Obama, 44.8% McCain = Toss-Up
WI-8 (Slate Blue): 53.6% Obama, 44.7% McCain = Toss-Up

That could be from 6-2 to 4-4 depending on the year.

[Adam Griffin]

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to draw a district for ourselves in which we could get elected, or a district that more or less is just to represent the area. I did both.

First, a district that could elect me:



There's no way to draw a Democratic district where I live without diving into Atlanta, so I followed I-75 from Whitfield County to Atlanta and incorporated various areas. I didn't want to ruin any potential VRA districts in a scenario like this, and was able to actually carve out two majority-white Democratic districts. I went for two because a) I knew they were there and b) I live in one precinct and vote in another, so I included one precinct in each of them.

The green district follows I-75 and mixes a respectable black population in Fulton and Cobb with Downtown/Midtown Atlanta whites that are overwhelmingly Democratic. There is a small but fairly consistent latino population scattered throughout the district's Cobb & Fulton portions, with the portion of Whitfield County being 40% latino.

The purple district takes in a lot of swing precincts on the northside of Atlanta and the eastern chunk of Gwinnett, which is a reliably Democratic multi-racial area that has the largest population of latinos as a % of anywhere in the metro; it rounds out the numbers with a similar number of black precincts in Dekalb.


Then, here are two districts designed to be more representative of the "region". The first one is designed to be more accommodating of local culture, while the second one is designed for compactness.