New Year's Census Count Promises to Rejigger Political Map [View All]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

>>>>The federal government has hired tens of thousands of temporary workers to prepare for the 2010 Census -- a population count that could remake the political map even as the foreclosure crisis makes it more difficult to account for millions of dislocated Americans.

Early analysis indicates that Texas will likely be the biggest winner since the prior count a decade ago, picking up three or four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and Election Data Services Inc., a political-consulting firm. Other states poised to gain at least one seat include Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Florida and Utah.

Growth in these states is driven by factors including migration from other states, immigration and birth rates. The economic crisis has put the brakes on some of this expansion -- Florida just reported its first year-over-year population decline since 1946 -- but in general, Sun Belt states have grown faster than others over the past decade.

Since the number of seats in the House is capped at 435, the gains in the South and West have to be offset by losses elsewhere.
New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts and the recession-battered industrial states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania each stand to lose a House seat. So does Louisiana, where the population still hasn't rebounded from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which displaced so many residents that census takers face a difficult task in tallying them all.>>>>

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125114932446354887.html

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It's unfortunate that in many ways this reapportionment looks like it will be a replay of 2000, with the bulk of gains going to red states and the bulk of losses going to blue states. However, it also looks like it may not be that cut-and-dried, as several of these "Sun Belt" states are trending purple; the new congressional districts in these red states aren't necessarily going to be red districts.

**Mods, I apologize if this article doesn't qualify as LBN. I posted it here because it is the first place that I've seen the projected House seat gains and losses for the 2010 reapportionment.