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Illinois

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Illinois dKos

Contents

Political Landscape

Illinois is roughly divided into three political parts:

For many years progressive politics was represented by IVI-IPO, Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization. While still in existance this group is now moribund in spite of founding roots of the great Senator Paul Douglas.

Chicago alone accounts for one-fourth of the state’s total population, and the Chicago metropolitan area accounts for two-thirds. Democratic-controlled Chicago and Democratic-leaning inner suburbs within Cook County comprise 43% of the total state population, and gave John Kerry a stunning county-wide vote margin of nearly 800,000 votes. Because of this, Illinois is generally considered a blue state."

Chicago has a very strong Democratic Party "machine" made infamous by the days of the late mayor Richard J. Daley and dating at least to Anton Cermak (who took a bullet meant for Franklin D. Roosevelt) in the early 20th century. Although the machine has supposedly been busted, Chicago's Democrats, led in part by the current mayor, Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley) have a virtual lock on city politics, and their get-out-the-vote efforts can be impressive. City politics have the usual divisions: racial and ethnic groups, downtown vs. the neighborhoods, old guard vs. independent liberals, but most debate takes place within a one-party, almost feudal system of a king and fifty lords (the aldermen, with their wards).

The same can be said for many of the Chicago suburbs, particularly Cicero or west-suburban DuPage County, except that these suburbs have Republican rather than Democratic machines. Both Chicago and the suburbs have a long history of political corruption, and it is common for the local governments to be under investigation by the FBI. In recent years, demographic changes have remade many inner-ring suburbs of Chicago as reliably Democratic, while outer-ring suburbs and exurbs (the "collar counties" surrounding Cook) remain Republican.

To date, 106 Illinoisans have been killed in the War in Iraq.

Illinois Congressional Delgation

(8 Democrats, 11 Republicans)


Illinois State Government

Cities and Counties

Elections

News, Media

Political Blogs

See also

Retrieved from "http://localhost../../../i/l/l/Illinois.html"

This page was last modified 20:57, 3 December 2010 by dKosopedia user Jbet777. Based on work by Christopher Sowa-Maksic, Jeff Wegerson and Chad Lupkes and dKosopedia user(s) Lastoria, Corncam, WarrenCohen, Allamakee Democrat, BartFraden, DJ Jones, Lestatdelc, Paytonc, Bcarlson33, Kagro X, ILDem, JohnLocke, Maxomai, Lapis, Oopy493, Aaron Gillies, Rklau and Centerfielder. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


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