Reapportionment From the Census: ARGH!!!

The numbers are in and although the trend is good for the long term, but in the short term, it could not have been much worse.

Eight states will gain congressional districts, including five that backed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president two years ago. The big winner was Texas, a state that routinely backs Republicans for president. Its population has swelled by about 21 percent since 2000 and as a result will add four House seats.

The gains come at the expense of some states whose growth has been stunted by the decline of manufacturing. Many of them have been historically Democratic; of the 10 states losing seats, eight backed President Obama in the 2008 presidential election. New York and Ohio took the biggest hits, losing two congressional seats each.

Much of the population spike in states that gained congressional districts, such as Texas and Arizona, is due to an influx of Hispanics, who tend to vote Democratic. But it is viewed as a net benefit for Republicans because the growth occurred in Republican-leaning states, and because so many state legislatures shifted to Republican control in November. In most states, it is the legislature that is in charge of the politically charged job of redrawing congressional boundaries.

The changes were announced as part of the first release of Census 2010 data, which found that the nation had 308,745,538 residents on April 1, 2010, up about 9.7 percent from 2000. It is the slowest rate of growth since the 1930s, Census officials announced at a media briefing Tuesday…

…The shift will change the partisan lean from blue to red of a net of six electoral college votes. Obama beat McCain by 192 electoral college votes in 2008.

Overall, 18 states lost or gained congressional districts. Texas, as expected, gained the most seats, moving from 32 to 36 seats. Florida was the only other state to gain multiple seats, adding two and bringing it to 27 seats.

Six other states gained a single seat: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

The biggest losers were New York and Ohio, which each lost two seats. Eight other states lost a single seat: Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Republicans will control the redistricting process in eight of the states experiencing changes, while Democrats will control it in two. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

As a rule, Democrats tend to do their redistricting fairly in most states, creating voting districts on natural boundaries.  I can’t speak for Florida, but that will probably be the case in Washington.  However, in Republican States redistricting is generally handled by the law firm, Gerry, Mander and Associates, especially in Texas and Arizona.  The big hit is the loss of six electoral votes by blue states.

Long term, some red states will be turning blue.  For example, white population growth in Texas was completely flat.  The entire population increase there was Hispanic.  But in the short term, convoluted redistricting there will make sure that Latinos get no more representation.

Now why did Batshit Bachmann do all that screaming?