I see that there’s a movement to split downstate Illinois from the Chicago area. However dissed the downstates feel that wouldn’t leave a viable state. Of Illinois’s ten largest cities, six are part of the Chicago metropolitan area and an even larger share of the state’s domestic product. Outside the Chicago metropolitan area, the state’s largest city is Rockford at 150,000. Downstate would not be Indiana. It wouldn’t even be Iowa.
If the people living downstate really want to leave Chicago to its own devices, they should divide the state into small chunks of which part would federate with Iowa, part with Wisconsin, part with Missouri, part with Indiana, and part with Kentucky. If I still lived in Missouri there’s no way in hell I would accept East St. Louis.
Indiana might work a trade. IL gets Gary, EChicago and Whiting. IN gets everything east of 57 from Joliet to Mound City.
The goal here is not to make a viable state but to generate 2 Republican senators (plus electoral votes). I will be very surprised if you see these plans put forth in any state that does not usually have 2 Democratic senators and/or won’t result in generating 2 reliable Republicans. If they can do that in 3 or 4 blue states, plus pass all the voter restrictions they want, the GOP maybe able to hold power in the Senate (probably with Congress and POTUS also) while winning much lower percentages of the popular vote, probably down in the low 40s instead of the mid to high-40s like they have been getting.
Steve
Illinois does not “usually have 2 Democratic senators “. It sometimes has two Democratic senators, sometimes has two Republican senators, and sometimes has one of each. Until 2016 we had one of each.
The longest period over which Illinois has had two Democratic senators is 18 years.
I don’t think that party politics is the reason for a separatist movement in Illinois but the sense in downstate Illinois that Chicago’s interests are not their interests. The sense in Chicago is that Mike Madigan’s interests are not Chicago’s interests.
I think dividing present states to make more would only work in a few places – California being the most obvious example. I agree it doesn’t make much sense for Illinois. There was a similar move in Colorado and it was equally dumb.
It does highlight an important point, however, about government serving all the people’s interests.
Dave- Illinois is perceived as a liberal state. The division you are talking about will virtually guarantee 2 more GOP senators. As you have pointed out, it is pretty obvious their preferred division does not leave a viable state, but they dont care. Underneath the verbiage about being dissed or different interests, the Senate and the electoral votes are the real motivation. Why do Republicans push voter ID so much when there is almost no voter fraud of the kind it would stop? This is just another way to continue to stay in power. Dont fool yourself.
Steve