Federal Court Upholds Illinois Redistricting Map

  A federal court panel Thursday upheld the Democrat drawn redistricting Illinois congressional map over the objections of Illinois Republicans. The Chicago Tribune says the court agreed with the GOP the map was a blatant political move to increase the number of Democrat congressional seats, but concluded the Republican challenge failed to present a workable standard by which to evaluate such claims. The new map was drawn by Democrats who control the Illinois Legislature without any input from Republicans.The court also rejected Republican arguments the new map sought to dilute the voting strength of a growing Latino population by packing Latinos into a congressional district that is currently home to Luis Gutierrez.  Illinois loses one congressional seat in the 2012 elections. The new map forces some Republicans to run against each other in primaries. Meantime, because of the redrawn map, freshman Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who now represents the Bloomington Normal area in the 11th district, announced Thursday he is running in the newly drawn 16th district. Kinzinger says he's running in the new district because it encompasses more of the current 11th congressional district than any other district of the new map.