Census Bureau : Texas wins 4 seats !!!! What do you think about it ?? (Bowie: movers, house)

[brien51]

After the dust settles, I think one will notice that those states that over tax their residents are losing seats like Mass and NY, and those states without income tax and more business friendly are gaining seats, like Fla and Tx..

[Kibby]

Originally Posted by Lucidus

Its good news for Texas.

One thing I found surprising though is how slow the U.S. grew during the decade. It seemed like it was growing fast, but it was actually the slowest population growth since the 1930's. I guess a lot of illegals went home when the great recession hit.

It's true that a lot of the illegal immigrants left the US after the recession, but part of the slow growth was also due to a change in the US immigration policy after 9/11. Bush slowed it way down - Obama changed that after he came to power.

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by Kibby

It's true that a lot of the illegal immigrants left the US after the recession, but part of the slow growth was also due to a change in the US immigration policy after 9/11. Bush slowed it way down - Obama changed that after he came to power.

Do you have source? I am not doubting this, but I would like some more detailed information. I had heard recently that the Obama administration was deporting more illegals per year than the Bush administration. I don't know if that is true though.

After looking at the historical data on the census bureau site, it seems to me that the real story is not that Texas grew fast, but rather Texas grew at its normal rate while the rest of the U.S. grew slowly. Since 1910, Texas has grown at about 20% per decade except during the 1930's when it grew at only 10%.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

^^^Bush may have been conservative, but I would actually call him left of center as far as immigration is concered (the same way Perry is). He wanted to make it very easy for illegals to gain work permits. I was all for it, but he lost some favor in his party because of it.

Texas Republicans dont tend to bite the hand that feeds (big business). The hand that feeds likes cheap labor and tons of it.

[Wonderful Jellal]

Perry obtained 38% of the hispanic vote, it's pretty good.Few republicans had that.If he continues to attract them he could be reelected again.

[catman]

DFW is growing in population way too fast. Too much traffic!

[Bo]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

How is it bad news for Democrats? Are you saying when people move to Texas they are automatically forced to vote Republican?

The state legislature in Texas will draw the new Texas Congressional district map. The state legislature is controlled by Republicans. Those Republicans will shape as many Congressional districts as they possibly can to be winnable for Republicans.

The states that lost seats are mostly blue states, so it is likely that some Democrat seats that disappear from the Northeast in 2012 will be replaced by Texas Republicans.

[mezman]

Originally Posted by Bowie

The state legislature in Texas will draw the new Texas Congressional district map. The state legislature is controlled by Republicans. Those Republicans will shape as many Congressional districts as they possibly can to be winnable for Republicans.

The states that lost seats are mostly blue states, so it is likely that some Democrat seats that disappear from the Northeast in 2012 will be replaced by Texas Republicans.

Texas has to get it's redistricting approved by the Justice Department so as not to marginalize minority voters. So a couple of the new seats may actually end up being Democratic districts (though that's based on the assumption that Latino voters vote Democratic which I'm not sure they do anyway). We'll just have to wait and see.

[Wonderful Jellal]

Originally Posted by mezman

Texas has to get it's redistricting approved by the Justice Department so as not to marginalize minority voters. So a couple of the new seats may actually end up being Democratic districts (though that's based on the assumption that Latino voters vote Democratic which I'm not sure they do anyway). We'll just have to wait and see.

In November some hispanic republicans won in mostly hispanic districts (Bill Flores for example).So I guess the new hispanic districts won't be necessarily democrats.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by RenaudFR

In November some hispanic republicans won in mostly hispanic districts (Bill Flores for example).So I guess the new hispanic districts won't be necessarily democrats.

For anyone who wants to do a deep dive into the implications of this, check out this NY Times blog article: Hispanic-Majority Districts: Boon or Burden for Democrats? - NYTimes.com

Here's a quote from that article that addresses the point you made above.

Hispanic-majority districts are actually more helpful to Democrats than black-majority ones precisely because Hispanics are less reliable Democratic voters than African-Americans are, giving perhaps 60 percent or 65 percent of their votes to Democrats rather than 90 percent or 95 percent (although there are significant differences in the Hispanic vote based on regional, generational and ancestral patterns).