Florida and Illinois are both hugely important. They have both been horribly gerymandered and the out party could squeeze several seats out of a compromise map in 2012.
Illinois was actually a Republican/compromise map in 2001. It eliminated downstate Democrat Dan Phelps by throwing him in a Republican district with John Shimkus.
Correct. The legislature was divided, and the congressional delegation wanted to avoid the map going to court as it had before. With a sitting Speaker, a compromise was struck within the delegation to eliminate a D seat but strengthen the others. The delegations compromise map was presented to the legislature for approval. It resulted in the expected 10R-9D makeup after the 2002 election. Since then three suburban R seats have flipped leaving the current composition.
That map is part of the reason so many of those suburban seats are in play this year. They were all balanced to a GOP lean in a neutral year. The compromise also heavily protected Lane Evans in CD-17, and without that Hare's chances would be remote this year.
Hastert and Bill Lipinski were the members that orchestrated the compromise. Both are gone now. If Brady wins, it will be interesting to see if the congressional delegation wants to work out a compromise themselves or risk a legislature-drawn compromise or a court-drawn map.
