I want the west. I love the Rockies and the National Parks. I also want Alaska. Sorry Palin - better luck next time, biatch. I kept a northern passage open between the northeast and the west for ease of transportation should relations become tense.  I had to concede a few eastern states in order to keep all the western ones I wanted (following the rules of keeping the electoral count close to even), so sadly, I gave up Maryland and DC - goodbye Smithsonian and Federal Government. Also New Jersey and Delaware, in order to keep states in our new Blue America contiguous.  I would have liked to keep all the Great Lakes states, but couldn't, so Illinois and Indiana had to go. The only reason I kept Ohio and North Dakota is to maintain a “land bridge” between sections.  I'm not sure I kept us enough agriculture, but California's central valley, North Dakota's wheat and sunflowers, Montana and Wyoming, too, and eastern Colorado, eastern Oregon… and we'll have lots of free-range beef, too. I think it works!  Oh, where should the new seat of government be, since I've given up DC? Hmmm. Probably California, but I'm flexible about that. As long as I can be Queen.