It's too bad I missed this. I actually plan on doing Minnesota when I get some time (when that is who knows) and will compare it to Lewis's. A few quibbles for now:
2 Carlton - Aitkin - Lake Superior 102372, 93, 58.7% Obama
ick. I see what you were trying to do in keeping this area separate from the mining belt, but that area doesn't really extend into Grand Rapids either. I'd rather pair Carlton and Pine (as they are in the State Senate) and would be fine with adding the mining towns with the northeastern corner. Northern Pine should not be lumped in with the exurbs
7 Fargo - Detroit Lakes 98881, 92, 50.4% Obama
Everyone in Moorhead hates you.
10 Sherburne - Benton 98058, 95, 59.2% McCain. His best result in the state.
Rural Benton doesn't really belong with those places in southern Sherburne. A bit tricky to draw though I'll admit, I'll see when I take a stab at it.
11 Saint Cloud 103664, 87-6b, 51.0% Obama. Includes the suburban municipalities of Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Waite Park and Le Sauk, is in three counties like the city is, and is technically noncontiguous because the city is towards the southwest and I didn't want to split another municipality (couldn't cover it whole).
Most people in St. Cloud don't care about being split. Not only is the southern part of the city rather rural despite incorporation, the different neighborhoods are so different and don't really affiliate with each other. The people in the liberal part think of the people in the south and west (and most of the suburbs) as dumb rednecks just as much as Twin Citians do. Of course not anywhere else you could've put this, so good job.
12 Stearns - Pope - Stevens 96591, 95, 55.4% McCain
This might look good on a map, but the way people travel makes it a little odd. Look at I-94. Of course you don't want Alexandria in with western Stearns so I'll forgive this.
16 Mankato 104100, 91, 52.4% Obama. Really hard to tell on the map, but does include the city of North Mankato.
17 Nicollet - Le Sueur - Sibley - McLeod 98913, 92-5h, 53.1% McCain
No No NO. You do not split Mankato and Nicollet. The southern tip of Nicollet (North Mankato) is so integrated with Mankato the sign when entering says "Mankato" on one line and "North Mankato" on a bottom one with the combined population (and that's not just one sign, it's literally every sign when you enter either one.) and there's no street sign when you cross from to the other (a county one though yes.) Also you don't split St. Peter from Mankato either. And this area does not belong with McLeod. Also you can split Mankato from the rest of Blue Earth and no one cares, Mankato is more associated with the towns along the river in Nicollet than the rest of Blue Earth, since that area aside from a couple towns that could be considered suburbs really doesn't think of Mankato as much than the place they have to travel to when they go on big shopping trips and where they might want their kids to go to college just so they can stay close to home. Same with Waseca, which is more closely affiliated with Owatonna.
20 Winona - Houston - South Olmsted 95895, 95, 53.3% Obama
21 Rochester 104220, 79-7a-6b-5h, 53.7% Obama. Excludes the two southernmost precincts which are in 20.
Rochester is just over 100k in population. Is it split?
23 South Dakota 96589, 90, 50.0% McCain
24 North Dakota 99074, 78-10h, 57.5% Obama. Eagan and Inver Grove Heights split.
In reality there would no doubt be an -ern added to the first words in this seats to avoid confusion, but I'm sure Lewis loves that.
29 Eden Prairie - Minnetonka (bulk - Bloomington NW) 104622, 85-6a, 52.6% Obama
I'd rather pair Eden Prairie with Chanhassen than with Minnetonka and Chanhassen with the rest of Carver.
33 Minneapolis Southwest 97285, 84-5b, 80.3% Obama
34 Minneapolis South 97652, 48-23h-19b, 84.0% Obama. Best in the state. White majority VAP.
35 Minneapolis East 97009, 73-9b-7h-6a, 77.2% Obama. Includes Saint Anthony (portion in Hennepin)
I don't like this. You have me in the same district as the southeast corner and the airport, even though no sane person would drive to the airport from where I live without crossing through the SW Minneapolis district (unless you wanted to swing by the Lake Street Target first or were trying to avoid the Interstate because of fear of being stranded there in a snowstorm, since I work near the airport I'm VERY familiar with how this works), and while the light rail and Highway 55 serves as a connection to the region, you also awkwardly sliced off part of SE Minneapolis and put the Hiawatha neighborhood in the same district as the U. I'm thinking of the places in SE Minneapolis I like to visit and realize a lot are for no reason connected with Nordeast instead of the other places in the SE. There's no reason to use Highway 55 as a border. I get you were trying to include the minority areas in Phillips and around the I-35 corridor out of the white areas in the SW, but people care more about neighborhood than race in regards to this. I'll see what I can do.
