CENSUS ANNOUNCEMENT: "As of the 2010 Census, the resident US population is 308,745,538 persons." (applause)
There was a round of applause at the National Press Club in Washington at the announcement of the new national numbers. But, there wasn't much for Ohio to cheer about. The state now boasts over 11 and a half million people --- which is a slight increase over the last census --- but other states like Texas and Florida have been growing much faster. The net result is that Ohio will lose two members of Congress. The U.S. Census Bureau has been doing a head count every ten years, since 1790. Forty years ago, Ohio had 24 congressional representatives. In 2000, that dropped to 18, and with the latest numbers, we'll be down to 16.
SALLING: The interesting thing about this is the next step.
Mark Salling heads the Cleveland-based Northern Ohio Data and Information Service.
SALLING: The Republicans have taken control of the Ohio General Assembly, so they will be drawing the 16 new districts in this next year for the election of 2012. They will really determine the political landscape for the next ten years.
Political analyst John Green, of Akron's Bliss Institute says the redrawn districts could pit current Democrats against each other.
GREEN: The district held by Dennis Kucinich might be combined, for example, with the district currently held by Betty Sutton. And that would mean that those two Democrat members of the Congress would have to either run against each other or move to another district.
Over the next few months the Census Bureau will roll out even more detailed information on the populations of counties and cities, which will in turn impact the distribution of federal funds for numerous social service programs.
