Congressional Remap Includes Gerrymandered 15th District

The proposed 15th Congressional District map is gerrymandering at its finest.

The proposal has the 15th running from Vandalia over to the Indiana border on the southern boundary to just south of Rockford on the northern boundary. The district swings west of the Chicago suburbs.

Along the way, the district avoids Oakland, the home of current 15th District Congresswoman Mary Miller. She is instead lumped into the 13th District with Republican Congressman Darin LaHood of Peoria. Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Taylorville is moved into the 15th District. Davis' current 13th District is just north of the current 15th District. Davis is known by some locally for his work as a staff member for former Congressman John Shimkus before Davis won his own seat in Congress.

Effingham would stay in the 15th District, along with Taylorville, Shelbyville, Mattoon, Charleston, Robinson, Marshall and Paris. 

Illinois currently has 18 Congressional districts, 13 held by Democrats, five by Republicans, but the state is losing another district due to loss of population.