US Census 2010 redistricting data has been released this week for Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota—Colorado came out last week. The rest of the states will be wrapped up soon as the decennial blood sport of redistricting goes public. (The Census Bureau website has a nifty little embedded Flash map for the states and counties that you could click on. Edit: If Flash isn’t playing nice so you get a static screenshot above–I blame that on Steve Jobs. See the screenshot image below.)
Figures are about what I expected. Bozeman, Montana, was the fastest growing city in Montana 2000-2010, so I guess they didn’t miss me much. Larimer County, Colorado, continued to grow, so they didn’t miss me coming or going. Murray County, Minnesota, continued to contract along with much of Southwest Minnesota, so I guess I’m needed right where I am for now. MPR has a bit of perspective on that dark blue line around the Twin Cities, and I expect some interesting wrinkles may emerge as we dig into the data some more.
Minnesota’s Democratic Congressional Districts all need to get bigger— the rural First District (Walz) and the Seventh (Peterson), as well as both big city districts (Ellison-Minneapolis & McCollum-St. Paul), while Michele Bachmann’s 6th District has about 100,000 people to give. Don’t really expect any of these states to sail through re-districting without ending up in front of a judge. Well, except for North Dakota. They’re the new Minnesota Nice.
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STrib
The Economist