Red States Rising (Part Deux)...

Earlier this month, I posted some projections from an organization called Polidata that looked at the potential for Electoral Votes shifting to Red States after the 2010 Census. The news was good for the GOP.

Well, James Taranto's Best of the Web from Friday features more long range projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you look at the 10 "biggest" States in terms of population and the 10 "fastest growing" States, the numbers paint a rosy picture for Red States. USAToday has a table with the data.

The top 8 fastest growing States are all Red: Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Utah, Idaho, North Carolina & Georgia. Washington and Oregon are numbers nine and ten, respectively. An A/P story looking at the data reports that the most Liberal region of the country, New England stands to lose about 20% of its Congressional seats (and Electoral Votes) over the next twenty-five years and the demographics suggest that much of the population will by dying off during that time.

Population projections released today by the US Census Bureau project much slower growth in New England. They also paint a picture of a region that is increasingly elderly, especially in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, where statisticians expect a dramatic spike in the number of residents 65 and older.

If the projections hold true, Massachusetts would lose two of its 10 congressional seats, Connecticut would lose one of its five, and Rhode Island would lose one of its two, according to an Associated Press analysis of the data.

Vermont only has one Congressional seat, so they can't get any more irrelevant. With my luck most of the people fleeing my own State of Connecticut will be of the "center-right" political philosophy, making my environment "Bluer". This sucks for me, but at least a more Liberal New England will have less political influence on a national level.

Interestingly enough, the one New England State expected to show significant growth is New Hampshire. Of course, NH has no State income tax and no State sales tax. Says a lot about the other five States, doesn't it?

But the A/P story did have a dissenter about the region's waning influence:

''It's not our electoral college base that's been the source of political clout in New England," said Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont professor who also has taught classes on New England politics at Boston College. ''Massachusetts has been losing seats for a while, since 1930, yet three presidential nominees have come out of Massachusetts in the last 50 years." [emphasis mine]

Yeah, and the only one of the three that actually won - Kennedy - did so 45 years ago. Moron.

Posted by: Gary at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 454 words, total size 4 kb.