We should cut Cook, Lake, East St Louis, and Cairo loose from the rest of the State.
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The two “cities” of E. St. Louis and Cairo have a combined population of fewer than 30,000. Cairo is about 3,000.
Combined they are politically insignificant.
I live in Wheeling, and I don’t want all of Cook Co. to be separated from most of Illinois. The new state should include Chicago and some of its liberal suburbs that are closest to it, including Evanston, Skokie, Niles, Morton Grove, Calumet City, Chicago Heights, Oak Park, Berwyn, and Cicero.