The collar counties are the five counties of Illinois that
border on Chicago's Cook County. The collar counties (DuPage,
Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will) are tied to Chicago economically,
but, like many suburban areas in the United States, have very
different political leanings than does the core city. Chicago
has long been a Democratic stronghold, and the collar counties
are known for being historically Republican strongholds. While
the demographics of these suburban Chicago counties are fairly
typical for American metropolitan areas, the term is apparently
unique to this area. And because Chicago is so firmly entrenched
in the Democratic column, and rural Downstate is so
overwhelmingly Republican, the collar counties are routinely
cited as being the key to any statewide election. However, that
conventional wisdom was challenged by the fact that in 2010
Democrat Pat Quinn became governor while winning only Cook, St.
Clair, Jackson and Alexander counties. All five collar counties
went Republican, so the key to