Remap forces GOP to pick new districts

By Deanna Bellandi | Associated Press

CHICAGO -- U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger is certain he'll seek a second term -- he just doesn't know in which of Illinois' 18 congressional districts. Veteran congresswoman Judy Biggert isn't sure either, after being drawn out of her district in a Democrat-led state remapping that tries to erase recent Republican gains in Congress.

Across the state, Illinois' GOP members of Congress are being forced to launch their 2012 re-election bids amid an atmosphere of uncertainty as they wait to see whether a federal court in Chicago upholds the congressional map signed into law by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. It throws many of them out of their old districts and into unfriendly Democratic territory or forces them to run against each other.

Kinzinger, whose current 11th Congressional District includes part of the Twin Cities and much of Central Illinois, and Biggert, from the western Chicago suburb of Hinsdale, were among 10 of the 11 Republicans in Illinois' congressional delegation who joined a lawsuit against the state in a longshot challenge over the new map. Democrats were in charge of map-making because they control the Illinois Legislature and the governor's office. Republicans have submitted an alternative map to the court, which is scheduled to hear the case starting on Nov. 17.