New York to lose two House seats

http://www.theithacajournal.com/arti.../101221016/-1/

New York to lose two House seats
By Brian Tumulty •Gannett Washington Bureau • December 21, 2010, 11:37 am

WASHINGTON — New York will lose two of its 29 House seats as a result of reapportionment, the Census Bureau announced this morning.



The population of the United States grew 9.7 percent over the last decade while New York's population grew only 2.1 percent.
The total national population on April 1 was 308,745,538.
New York is the country's third most populous state and the only state to remain in the top five since the first census in 1790.
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Well WNY ..........you know what seats the DEM's in NYC will get rid of; WNY will have no representation in the House for ten years at the least now.

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New York state will lose two seats in the House of Representatives under new census data released Tuesday. New Jersey, as expected, will also lose a seat.

Every ten years the U.S. government adjusts the state-by-state apportionment of seats. In recent decades, as national population shifts delivered the biggest increases in states like Texas and Florida, this has meant congressional power has migrated from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt.

That shift is expected to boost Republicans’ political prospects nationally, as WSJ’s Patrick O’Connor explains. Our colleagues at WSJ’s Real Time Economics blog have generated a list of states that lost and gained House seats.

Tuesday’s results are the latest evidence of a half-century of declining political clout for the Empire State, which also lost two seats as a result of the 2000 Census. The state’s congressional delegation has been shrinking since 1950, when it had 45 seats — or more than 10% of the entire chamber.

New York currently has 29 members in the House. Democrats dominate the downstate area, while Republicans will represent most of the upstate regions starting in January. The new figures also mean New Jersey’s congressional delegation will shrink to 12.

The new data does not decide which congressional seats in will be eliminated; that is up to the state legislature. Most experts believe the most likely part of New York to lose a representative is western region between Syracuse and Buffalo, which has seen its population stagnate or decline in some places.

The elimination of a second seat also means a congressional district around New York City may also be lost.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_census2010_count

Census shows slowing US growth, brings GOP gains

By HOPE YEN and CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Hope Yen And Charles Babington, Associated Press – 30 mins ago


WASHINGTON – Republican-leaning states will pick up a half dozen House seats thanks to the 2010 census, which found the nation's population growing more slowly than in past decades but still shifting to the South and West.

The Census Bureau announced Tuesday that the nation's population on April 1 was 308,745,538, up from 281.4 million a decade ago. The growth rate for the past decade was 9.7 percent, a slower pace than the 13.2 percent population increase from 1990 to 2000.

Only one state, Michigan, lost population during the past decade. Nevada, with a 35 percent increase, was the fastest-growing state.

The new numbers are a boon for Republicans, with Texas leading the way among GOP-leaning states that will gain House seats at the Rust Belt's expense. Following each once-a-decade census, the nation must reapportion the House's 435 districts to make them roughly equal in population, with each state getting at least one seat.

That triggers an often contentious and partisan process in many states, which will draw new congressional district lines that can help or hurt either party.

Texas will gain four new House seats, and Florida will gain two. Gaining one each are Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

Ohio and New York will lose two House seats each. Losing one House seat are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Florida will now have as many U.S. House members as New York: 27. California will still have 53 seats, and Texas will climb to 36.

In 2008, President Barack Obama lost in Texas and most of the other states that are gaining House seats. He carried most of the states that are losing House seats, including Ohio and Pennsylvania. Each House district represents an electoral vote in the presidential election process, meaning the political map for the 2012 election will tilt somewhat more Republican.

For the first time in its history, Democratic-leaning California will not gain a House seat after a census.

Starting early next year, most state governments will use detailed, computer-generated data on voting patterns to carve neighborhoods in or out of newly drawn House districts, tilting them more to the left or right. Sometimes politicians play it safe, quietly agreeing to protect Republican and Democratic incumbents alike. But sometimes the party in control will gamble and aggressively try to reconfigure the map to dump as many opponents as possible.

Last month's elections put Republicans in full control of numerous state governments, giving the GOP an overall edge in the redistricting process. State governments' ability to gerrymander districts is somewhat limited, however, by court rulings that require roughly equal populations, among other things. The 1965 Voting Rights Act protects ethnic minorities in several states that are subject to U.S. Justice Department oversight.

The U.S. is still growing quickly relative to other developed nations. The population in France and England each increased roughly 5 percent over the past decade, while in Japan the number is largely unchanged, and Germany's population is declining. China grew at about 6 percent; Canada's growth rate is roughly 10 percent.

The declining U.S. growth rate since 2000 is due partly to the economic meltdown in 2008, which brought U.S. births and illegal immigration to a near standstill compared with previous years. The 2010 count represents the number of people — citizens as well as legal and illegal immigrants — who called the U.S. their home on April 1.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sought Monday to downplay the possibility that 2010 census results would be a boon for Republicans. "I don't think shifting some seats from one area of the country to another necessarily marks a concern that you can't make a politically potent argument in those new places," he said.

States losing political clout may have little recourse to challenge the census numbers. Still, census officials were bracing for the possibility of lawsuits seeking to revise the 2010 findings.

The release of state apportionment numbers is the first set of numbers from the 2010 census. Beginning in February, the Census Bureau will release population and race breakdowns down to the neighborhood level for states to redraw congressional boundaries.

Louisiana, Virginia, New Jersey and Mississippi will be among the first states to receive their redistricting data in February.

The 2010 census results also are used to distribute more than $400 billion in annual federal aid and will change each state's Electoral College votes beginning in the 2012 presidential election.