the republicans must do better in the chicago-land suburbs in order to win illinois.
the gop did impriove in the suburbs in 04, but not well enough, obviously/
Going by the % Winning Margins, the Democrats did better in all suburban Chicago counties except for Will and McHenry. Will County is apparently having a population boom these days, gaining 100,000 people in 4 years. I wonder why, thats unusual outside the Sunbelt.
Will, McHenry, Kane, and Kendall and experiencing extremely rapid growth. Much of it comes from buyers from Cook, DuPage and Lake moving out to new subdivisions away from the perception of old, dense inner suburbs. Kendall is the second fastest growing county in the US. The big question for the GOP is how long do the transplants from older towns transform to the typical politics of the new areas.
Past trends have been from Dem to GOP as families become established in new areas. The voting patterns usually begin at the local level and reach the national vote some years later.
Many parts of DuPage are aging and turning over to young starters. I wouldn't characterize the county as a Levittown, however. It is more like Westchester, NY than Nassau. It has a number of pockets of old money and history filled around with newer subdivisions. Like Westchester a few of the older communities had distinct blue-collar roots and have supported more immigrant populations in the last decade.
The Democrat excess in Chicago for Kerry was 655K, and Cook was +842K for Kerry. Only the NW and SW parts of Cook had a Kerry deficit.
[/quote]