100 Senate Seats by population

[cinyc]

The arbitrary county chops in IL make no sense except to create marginally straight lines. Given the large populations there's no reason to chop any county except Cook. In chopping Cook more weight should be given to minority interests.

This plan maintains townships in Cook and neighborhoods in Chicago. It creates a strong minority district with a plurality Black population that is only about a third white. By linking the north side of Cook with Lake and Kane the large Hispanic populations in suburban Aurora, Elgin, and Waukegan are grouped together.

Politically the Cook districts are both strong D, the remaining suburban-NW IL district is lean R and the downstate district is strong R.

It looks like you've chopped the city of Chicago, which gives it outsized influence in two districts instead of just the one that it deserves.

[cinyc]

Except that the VRA does not apply to plurality districts, and Illinois does not have a Florida type law, so you are making a political-policy choice here.

Well, you split Los Angeles into 3 districts for no apparent reason, too.  

I dissent from the party line that counties need to be kept whole but cities do not - especially where city boundaries cross county lines.  I think incorporated cities should be kept whole first, to avoid the largest cities from having undue influence over the rest of the state. People have more allegiance to their city than their county, anyway.  

The part of Chicago in DuPage County has little to no population, anyway, so putting O'Hare in a Chicago-only district would be a microchop of a county at best- and utterly meaningless if the few people who used to live near the airport in DuPage Chicago have been moved due to the runway reconfiguration project, anyway.  Who cares if boundaries cross county lines to keep a city intact if nobody lives there?