census070607
On the homepage
Sunday's paper
Out There
Music
Travel
Minnesota could lose congressional seat after 2010 census
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on DiggMore from Politically Connected
Minnesota is among four states hoping to hang on to a seat in Congress after the 2010 census, the state demographer said.
Tom Gillaspy said Minnesota would lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives if the census were taken today. He said the state is competing with Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Minnesota has had eight House seats since 1960.
"The difference is very, very small," he said, "easily within any estimating error and easily within a slight modification in growth rates."
House seats are apportioned based on population. If current trends hold, that would mean southern states would gain congressional seats after the 2010 census while states in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast would probably lose out.
Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute, said Minnesota's political influence would lessen if it lost a seat. The state would also lose an electoral vote in presidential elections and receive less money from the federal government, which considers population in determining how much to spend on such programs as Medicare and Medicaid.
The state plans to spend $300,000 over the next two years to ensure every Minnesotan is counted during the 2010 census.
State legislators and the governor are required to redraw political maps for Congress and the Legislature following the census. Those in power would decide, for example, which incumbents would have to run against each other.
All the worry could be moot. A confluence of economic or natural factors could change the estimate in 2010, Gillaspy said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
- Republicans send Franken $95K after Senate case
- Obama rejects 2nd stimulus: Give recovery time
- Text of Obama's speech in Ghana
- In personal terms, Obama hails Africa's promise
- Obama home from whirlwind Ghana trip
- Obama hints he'll attend World Cup in South Africa
- Lawmakers seek refuge in Capitol Hill sanctuary
- Obama says he grew up listening to Michael Jackson
Overdraft fees, the bane of Whistleblower readers, are big money for banks, USA Today reports
Maybe I’m naive, but Whistleblower was astonished to read that overdraft fees of the sort that tormented Katie Trottier and numerous other readers are a major profit center for banks, USA Today reporter Kathy Chu reported this week. I guess I labored under the impression that the fees still reflected some actual cost on the [...]
Recent posts
  Buy Foreclosed PropertiesSearch 8500 pre-foreclosure, auction and bank-owned properties in the metro area. Start now! Open positions!A new career awaits. Look through thousands of listings to find your new job. Start now! |
Comment on this story | Be the first to comment | Hide reader comments