From the Chicago Tribune:

A group of legislators that examines U.S. Census data plans to study redistricting over the next few months. A resolution by Republican Sen. Mike Delph of Carmel that prompted the study says the panel should make recommendations to promote easily identifiable boundaries that don’t split up communities.Under the current system, lawmakers in Indiana draw new legislative maps. That’s expected to make the 2010 legislative campaigns more intense — especially in the narrowly divided House — because the parties in power will wield the mapmaking pens following the 2010 Census.

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Apparently Tennessee Republican State Representative Stacey Campfield doesn’t like this piece of redistricting legislation we covered earlier this month. In fact, Campfield calls out this certain Democrat U.S. Congressman from Tennessee for this bill.  From Campfu :

Tanner is all upset that Republicans could re draw his Congressional district for the first time. It seems some people only get righteous when it is their job that they got through a slanted political system is suddenly put in jeopardy because political winds change.

Where was the urgency when he was in the state legislature? Did Tanner send in articles to the paper then? Did Tanner vote against his district being drawn for him? Did he vote against Republicans being lumped together in one district? Did he think districts should be drawn by a non biased system or that the system was not fair then?

You can read Campfield’s entire post here.

From the Associated Press:

MILWAUKEE – A state lawmaker is proposing that prisoners not be counted as part of the census when Wisconsin redraws its political maps.

When the state updates its political boundaries every 10 years, it uses the census to make sure every district has an equal population.

The census currently counts prisoners where they’re incarcerated even though they can’t vote.

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From the Denver Daily News:

With the 2010 census under nine months away, community groups are starting an education campaign to raise awareness in lower income and minority-dominated areas about the importance of the federally mandated count.

In the 2000 census, approximately 3 percent of the nation’s Latino community was undercounted, according to Jessie Ulibarri of Mi Familia Vota. Because the census information is used to distribute congressional seats to states, make decisions about what community services are provided and as the basis for the distribution of around $300 billion in federal funds, the undercount count resulted in fewer resources for communities that needed them, according to Ulibarri.

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It’s a small mention, but an important mention just the same.  The redistricting field of battle will be vast and expensive.  From the LA Times Blog:

While much of the focus will be on the next presidential race, the 2010 midterm elections also loom large: seven of eight states in the Intermountain West will be electing governors, and Nevada and Colorado will hold two of the highest-profile Senate races in the country. Also of import: the fight over redistricting, which will be in the hands of state lawmakers elected next year. The West is expected to pick up four House seats after the once-a-decade redrawing of political boundaries post-census. In the last 20-odd years, Democrats have made California, Oregon, Washington state and Hawaii an integral part of their national political base. But the Rocky Mountain region, like the Midwest, will likely remain a battleground for years to come.

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