Alright, I have never actually done a map of any state other than my homestate of Minnesota. But, I figured a place with 4 districts like Nevada would probably be easiest to start with. I know very little about Nevada, politically or culturally, so communities of interest is almost certainly infringed here. This is from the Democratic legislature's perspective, and I doubt Governor Sandoval would sign it.
This is the macroscopic view of the state.
This is a zoom in of Clark County
This is the Reno-Sparks-Carson City region.
As to avoid any future headaches with potential VRA challenges, I made only one minority-majority district in Las Vegas. I could have easily made 2, but I didn't find a good reason to do so.
District 1: Blue. This is the western half of the Las Vegas, and extends into the Hispanic parts to the W-SW of the city to the California border. 50.6% White
District 2: Purple. This district is the eastern half of Las Vegas with a few inner-ring suburbs (Not Henderson). It is 41% white, but only 37% hispanic, so it is still plurality white.
District 3: Red. This district stretches up the western edge of the state. But the large swaths of land have almost negligible population. This district is dominated by North Las Vegas and Sparks. I threw in a few of the most Hispanic areas of eastern Reno for good measure, but I did so only to balance population. This district is 56% white
District 4: Green, This district is the rest of Nevada. It takes up nearly all of rural central and northern Nevada, as well as the rural parts of Clark County. The population centers here are actually Henderson, the main Republican suburb of Las Vegas, and Reno. These two cities make up over a third of the district's population. It is essentially a Republican vote sink. 68% white.
And NV-02 won’t get anywhere close to Clark County. I have to say I don’t see legislators drawing a map that looks like this.
Different states have different unwritten laws when it comes to redistricting. I know none of them in Nevada
1. Actually, your NV-02 DOES have some of Henderson in it. You actually drew me into it. 😉 So before I get into my critiques of your map, I just wanted to commend you for knowing which parts of Henderson to put in a Democratic district… Without even really knowing us!
2. As I said above, there’s no chance of any sort of Vegas-to-Reno district being drawn. But if you really want to make it more Dem-leaning, I’d suggest adding Downtown Reno and the neighborhoods around UNR to it.
3. The new NV-01 district may get more difficult for Dems to hold onto under this new configuration, especially in lower turnout midterm years. Some of the worst dropoff in Dem turnout from 2008 to 2010 happened in The Northwest and Southwest suburbs and exurbs. That’s where the scary new teabagger legislators were elected, as well as where Sharron Angle performed best in Clark County. While I don’t think either could win this seat next year, State Senator Barbara Cegavske (R-Summerlin) or famed “Chicken Lady” Sue Lowden might be encouraged to run and make a real race happen.