Thanks to the addition of partisan data to DRA, I've been able to complete a pretty solid Democratic gerrymander of Illinois. I had gone through some precinct reports of the collar counties previously, so I had some guesses as to what would make up Democratic districts, but this is much easier.
One of the things that one needs to be cautious about when using 2008 data for Illinois is that President Obama very much overperformed compared to, say, John Kerry. This results in inflated Obama totals for districts that are otherwise fairly Republican (like IL-06 or IL-13). I've tried to make a map that, at best, would result in a 13-5 Democratic delegation, though at worst it could be a 10-8 Republican one. Maps and commentary are below.
State
Chicagoland
(Open the Chicago map in a new window to see it more clearly.)
IL-01 (blue) - Bobby Rush's district, which has to expand quite a bit, stretches out into the suburbs to take in some Republican votes. It remains majority-black with a 50.6% black VAP. 79.8 Obama, 19.5 McCain.
IL-02 (green) - Like IL-01, Jesse Jackson Jr's district has to expand, and like IL-01, I dragged it out into the suburbs, all the way past Kankakee. It also remains majority-black at 51.0% black VAP. 79.2 Obama, 20.1 McCain.
IL-03 (purple) - Dan Lipinski's district is fairly similar to his existing one, but it takes in some more Hispanic areas and a bit of DuPage County. Notably, it's at 34.7% Hispanic VAP. 62.6 Obama, 36.1 McCain.
IL-04 (red) - Luis Gutierrez lives in this district, and it retains the earmuff shape of the current district. It has a 59.8% Hispanic VAP. 79.2 Obama, 19.5 McCain.
IL-05 (yellow) - Mike Quigley's district had to shift north, but remains safe Democratic. 72.9 Obama, 25.7 McCain.
IL-06 (teal) - This is actually an open seat now; Pete Roskam lives in Wheaton, in the middle of DuPage County. It's reconfigured to be based in northwestern Cook County, with links to DuPage and Kane Counties. Roskam could still run and win here, but it's made tougher for him. 61.4 Obama, 37.2 McCain.
IL-07 (grey) - Danny Davis's district, which again had to expand to maintain majority-black status. It has a 50.9% black VAP. 88.7 Obama, 10.7 McCain.
IL-08 (light purple) - Joe Walsh may or may not live here, but either way, this would be the district he'd run in. It's made safe Republican, and stretches across the state's northern border. 49.6 Obama, 48.8 McCain.
IL-09 (sky blue) - Jan Schakowsky's district snakes up to Lake County to pull some Republican precincts out of IL-10, but remains safe Dem. 65.9 Obama, 33.0 McCain.
IL-10 (magenta) - Kind of a crazy shape to take in all of the Dem-friendly precincts in Lake and northern Cook County. Maybe this will dislodge the Republican hold on the district. 63.6 Obama, 35.3 McCain.
IL-11 (red downstate) - The former IL-19, John Shimkus remains absolutely safe. 55.9 McCain, 42.3 Obama.
IL-12 (light purple downstate) - Helped out Jerry Costello a bit. 57.5 Obama, 40.9 McCain.
IL-13 (pink DuPage-area district) - Dumped all of the most Republican parts of the Chicago suburbs here. Judy Biggert, Pete Roskam, and Randy Hultgren all end up here, though Roskam and Hultgren could try to run elsewhere. 49.4 Obama, 49.3 McCain.
IL-14 (brown) - In honor of this week's Canadian election, I've deemed this district Joliet-Bolingbrook-Aurora-DeKalb. It should be Dem-leaning, at the very least. 64.6 Obama, 34.1 McCain.
IL-15 (orange) - This is a novel way to create a new Dem-friendly district. Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield, and Decatur are all connected into a triskelion kind of shape. Tim Johnson and Adam Kinzinger get dumped in together. 57.8 Obama, 40.4 McCain.
IL-16 (light green) - Don Manzullo is put in an almost entirely new district. It would be safe Republican, so he'd just have to avoid a primary challenger. 51.4 McCain, 47.1 Obama.
IL-17 (pink western district) - I doubly hurt Schilling's re-election hopes by a. making a more Democratic district and b. giving him almost entirely new territory. Takes in west Rockford and parts of LaSalle. 59.4 Obama, 39.0 McCain.
IL-18 (yellow) - Aaron Schock is safe. 55.5 McCain, 42.9 Obama.