People like to call out odd shaped districts like MD-3, MD-7, IL-4, or IL-7 as partisan gerrymandering...but it really isn't at all, it's usually done either for grouping people together (hispanics and blacks) or just silly incumbent protection districts. Neither of which really helps the "democrats" as whole in any meaningful way.
I've seen Republicans call out IL-4 more times than I can count, but no matter how you draw that district I completely guarantee you it will still be heavily Democratic.
Correct. IL-4 and 7 are legacies of the 1991 map to accommodate botha Latino and black CD on the west side of Chicago. They could have been drawn differently this cycle and looked less gerrymandered, but the incumbents preferred districts that were substantially the same as they have had for 20 years. IL-1 and 2 were gerrymandered much further out to accommodate incumbents as well, since 3 black-majority CDs were no longer required under the VRA. The significant Dem gerrymanders were IL-5, 8 and 11 with Pub packs into IL-6 and 14.
I completely disagree that making a dem pack district (in the range of D+37 or so) in southern Chicago would be a fair map, and if IL-6 and IL-14 are GOP pack districts they sure didn't pack them all that good.
You certainly don't have to make anything like a D+37 pack. The key to the gerrymander was the incumbent protection IL-3 (D+5). In a neutral map it would have been used to bring up the population of IL-1 and 2 after the losses of last decade and they would still be in the D+28 range, just as they are now. The Latino parts of IL-3 would have been used to make a compact Latino VRA district entirely on the SW side of Chicago/Cook and the IL-4 earmuff would be unneeded.
IL-6 and 14 curl around Elgin the way they do to pick up Pub precincts in the northern and western burbs while clearing the way for a Dem IL-8. This was in part the case of a gerrymander to eliminate a specific incumbent. IL-6 and 14 could have been separated north and south rather than both curling around Elgin, and it would have looked better with no negative effect on the Dem CDs. But that would have put Roskam and Hultgren together while leaving Walsh with a solid district in the north. This version was designed to carve up Walsh's base and give the advantage to the other two Pubs, forcing Walsh into the new unfavorable IL-8.
