In advance of next week’s Republican presidential primary here in Illinois, electionate.com offers a whole bunch of FASCINATING DATA about our state (including the map above):
Perhaps no state is more representative of the national GOP than Illinois. No, it doesn’t include sparsely populated, Paul-friendly western highlands or the Mormons of greater Utah, but it holds everything else. The Chicago area is among the wealthiest in the country, while southern Illinois, which is physically and politically closer to Alabama and Mississippi than the Windy City, is dominated by culturally southern, working-class, evangelicals. Compared to Ohio and Michigan, Illinois is slightly less evangelical and more affluent, which points toward a narrow Romney advantage.
Although many perceive this GOP primary season as especially volatile, Romney and Santorum’s share of the vote in demographically similar regions has remained remarkably stable. While events could overtake projections, demographics have so far trumped momentum. If past is prologue, then the results in Illinois are nearly a forgone conclusion.
In the 2010 Illinois Gubernatorial Election, there were four counties (Cook, St. Clair, Alexander and Jackson) which supported Quinn. The last three are in Southern Illinois and were all rather close. This is considerably different than the 2008 Presidential Election in which the counties were split more evenly. The upshot is Cook (Chicago) and St. Clair (East St. Louis) carry the state for Illinois. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Obama is from Illinois.
No Mormons in Illinois? There are two temples, Chicago and Nauvoo and there are congregations in communities all across the Prairie State. No the percentages are not comparable to Utah, but we are still here.