Michigan likely to lose a Democrat in Congress under proposed new congressional map

Michigan, the only state to lose population in the last decade, will lose one of its 15 congressional seats and House Republicans in control of redrawing the boundaries aim to make sure it's one held by a Democrat.

While legislative maps won't see a high degree of change, congressional districts will look a lot different, in part because of population loss in Detroit and in the 1st Congressional District that includes the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula.

The 1st will drop down further to pick up Grand Traverse and Manistee counties. In southeast Michigan, Democratic U.S. Reps. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Hills and Sander Levin of Royal Oak would be placed in the same district. A new 5th District would include the cities of Bay City, Saginaw and Flint.

In the state House, where Republicans currently have a 63-47 majority, the map retains the competitive edge the GOP currently has, but lost in the 2006 and 2008 elections when Democrats won majorities in the chamber. It does create a 2012 primary that pits Kent County Republicans Lisa Posthumus Lyons and Ken Yonker against each other.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/michigan_likely_to_lose_a_demo.html

Redistricting. How come Republicans know when a mid-term election is vital and WE DON'T? How come we allowed that lackadaisical response from our people? WTF were we thinking?

New Democrat tool.