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I didn’t use the adjective “deadbeat” to describe Walsh because his ex-wife sued him for nonpayment of child support; I called him that because he had a long history of not paying his bills, both personal and for his campaign (if you don’t pay what you owe, you’re a deadbeat in my book). But that’s neither here nor there.

Regarding IL-01, is it really “50% Republican geographically”? There are very, very few GOP precincts in Chicago.

It should not shock you that adding 55%-GOP suburbs to 80%-Dem black-majority Cook precincts in JJJ’s CD yields a 70% Dem CD. Maybe 30% of the population of the CD lives in slightly GOP precincts, and a district in which 70% of voters vote 80% Dem while 30% of voters vote 45% Dem will vote 69.5% Dem. And, besides, there are a lot of blacks in Will County, particularly in Joliet (and not just in the prison).

>> Regarding IL-01, is it really “50% Republican geographically”? There are very, very few GOP precincts in Chicago. <<

Here is the new district lines after the 2011 remap. Most of IL-1 is now far outside Chicago City limits -- The suburb of Evergreen Park is at the city's edge. Towns like Frankfort, Mokena, Manhahattan, Elwood, Palos Park, Tinley Park, are all staunchly Republican. Unfortunately, they don't have very large populations. Ironically, Bobby Rush's opponent this time is Mayor Don Peloquin, who is a solid conservative Republican but Mayor of Blue Island, a heavily Democrat town that's about 1/3rd white, 1/3rd black, and 1/3rd hispanic.

Rush's district has been substantically suburban even before the remap, as the 2002 remap put him all the way out in Orland to the edge of Cook County-Will County border. You just never heard about it since Rush ignores 80% of the district and pretends we don't exist outside the city (even the black suburbs of his district get zero representation). Which is why I find it amusing when Kirk/Dold's cheerleaders would make excuses for their liberal records by saying "a congressman has to work his WHOLE district and represent ALL his constituents, you know, he can't just cater to his base". Certainly news to those of us in the south suburbs.