First the 8 seater.
So Ive done MN several different ways now, so here’s a new one, the compromise version, that creates several swing districts within the metro area of Minneapolis/St Paul and does a better representation for Greater Minnesota. Peterson is given an even more Republican district to give the GOP representation in central MN and giving the DFL a Safe DFL district in Northern MN. I decided the “make compact districts” thing is crap because it’s all just packing, so instead I made just one central one and spread out the remaining 4. They all do adhere to major metro areas dictated by the transit and freeway systems used. There is a southern, northwestern, western, and northeastern.
The 8 seater is projected at 1 Safe DFL, 1 Safe GOP, 2 Likely DFL, 1 Lean GOP, 1 Lean DFL, 2 Swing if they were all open.
MN-1 Rep. Walz
I did do a little gerrymandering up the NW part of the state to make the district to creep north. I wanted to keep MN-7 as a central MN district, as that is one complaint of Republicans and would give it a better shot of going GOP, at the expense of MN-1 going a point more Democratic. Nonetheless this is still only like D+1 and is a good swing district.
MN-2 Rep. Kline
Kind of the same configuration, but shifted over to the east a bit and now contains all of Dakota county. The districts shifts a bit further into Walz’s district, which makes way for CD3. This is the other swing district, and it barely went for Obama. It is quite the hybrid district of it being minutes outside of downtown St. Paul to being far out into some of the best farmland in the country.
MN-3 Rep. Paulsen
This district no longer includes any northwestern metro portions and strictly goes straight west from Minneapolis and also includes the two southern burbs of Richfield and Bloomington. It’s a slight bit more Democratic, which reflects how the western burbs have changed.
MN-4 Rep. McCollum
A touch more Republican and CD-5 does cut into McCollum’s Ramsey county base. The district still includes all of St Paul and is more of a NE suburb district+ St. Paul. It evens out to a pretty solid DFL seat. And some of the suburbs given to CD5 out of Ramsey county are barely DFL anyway.
MN-5 Rep. Ellison
Still a compact district. Minneapolis is still the major anchor, and then it expands going north and east. CD4 has usually had all of Ramsey county but this was the best way to achieve a compact central district for MN-5 and to make CD-4 more like the others..
MN-6 No incumbent
This is the suburban GOP district. This seat is trending our way and will be ours by the end of this decade (2020) as many people are moving here and turning it more swingish, or at least not quite 60-40. But for now, it’s a St. Cloud/Nw suburbs seat and is a very quickly growing corridor (the one I’m from.) This version has more suburbs and less teabagger territory, which is given to MN-7. Clark maybe be able to win this one, but it’s still quite Republican on the local level, save for the a couple of the suburbs.
MN-7 Rep. Peterson
His seat becomes much more Republican. The current seat was a McCain by 2%, the one I propose McCain won by 12%. Peterson may still win, but this is the compromise and this is very Republican area and they should get a solid Greater MN seat in this compromise. But, a DFLer may always still win. We’ve got a pretty even number of DFL and GOP state legislators and someone like Peterson can certainly win.
MN-8 Rep. Oberstar
This district is now an entirely Northern Minnesota district. I put it as likely DFL but it’s pretty much a solid seat. We control a very large majority of the state legislative seats and these areas still have a heavy tradition in progressive politics.