Thursday, February 17, 2011

Redistricting: U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2010 County Level Counts

The U.S. Census Bureau this month started releasing 2010 Census details, including data on race, Hispanic origin and voting age data for multiple geographies within each state.

The U.S. Census bureau today delivered Texas' 2010 census details, including first look at race and Hispanic origin data for legislative redistricting.

Texas is a majority-minority state for the first time in a redistricting period, according to the just-released census data, a fact that could complicate Republicans’ hopes for a partisan gerrymander—and make the state competitive for Democrats in future years.

Anglos now account for just 45 percent of the state's population, down from 52 percent a decade ago. The Hispanic population is now 38 percent of the total population—growing by 42 percent—while the African-American population grew slightly and is now 12 percent of the total population. The voting age population is a little different: 49.6 percent Anglo, 33.6 percent Hispanic, 11.4 percent black and 3.9 percent Asian.

The decennial census for Texas totaled 25,145,561 people living in the state in the first half of 2010 for a 20.6% increase over the number of people living in the state in 2000, courtesy of the burgeoning Texas Hispanic and black populations. Almost 90 percent of the state's growth was from minorities.

The local level data released today will serve as the starting point for a lengthy political and legal battle over how to redraw the political boundaries around Texas. (Census data release | Texas redistricting information | View proposed redistricted maps at the Texas Legislative Council's district viewer | Brown's Census Viewer)

The Texas Legislative Council, which handles the mechanics of redistricting for the Legislature, will make the detailed census data available for download to Texas lawmakers’ computers in the coming days. Lawmakers can than begin to draw new district lines using redistricting software applications already provide by the legislative council. In recent weeks, lawmakers and their staff have been learning how to use the software using old census data.

A fair redrawing of new district lines must allow the minority groups, who accounted for 90% of the population increase, the opportunity to share in the four additional U.S. House Texas earned by Texas' overall population increase. When the legislature completes its redistricting task Texas will have 36 rather than 32 seats in the reconfigured 435-member U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans under former Rep. Tom DeLay re-redistricted the state in 2003, gerrymandering and tearing apart districts held by Democrats to create new districts favoring non-minority Republicans. The plan was a big success for Republicans: The U.S. House delegation from Texas went from 17-15 Democrat earlier in the decade to 21-11 Republican in 2004. Republicans now hold 23 of the 32 House seats after picking up three districts in the 2010 election.

Republicans performed relatively well among Texas Hispanics in the 2010 elections. Gov. Rick Perry took 38 percent of the Hispanic vote last year, better than other Republicans in recent years, and the GOP picked up two majority-Hispanic House seats. While whites made up about 45 percent of the population in 2010, they accounted for about 68 percent of the turnout; Hispanics, with 38 percent of the population, accounted for only about 20 percent of the vote

State Sen. Kel Seliger, one of the Republicans in charge of the redistricting process, has suggested there would be one additional Hispanic district in the Rio Grande Valley. Democratic State Rep. Garnet Coleman predicts Republicans will draw two new Republican districts, one near Dallas and one near Houston, and "pack" heavily minority Democratic districts in the Rio Grande Valley and Houston.

Texas Democratic strategist and Lone Star Project Director Matt Angle believes the new congressional districts should clearly represent minorities. Angle believes one Hispanics district can be drawn in north Texas in the Dallas area, a second Hispanics district should be drawn in the San Antonio to Austin corridor, and the remaining two districts should be drawn elsewhere to represent the voting strength of minorities.

Now that the still growing Hispanic population makes up 38 percent of Texas residents Republicans must increasingly compete for the Hispanic vote in the future to win statewide as well as local elections. The Hispanic population is very young and trends progressive, and as more Latinos turn 18, become citizens, and register to vote, Texas could become a swing state sooner rather than later, if Republicans do not make strong inroads with the Hispanic electorate.

Based on the 2010 census count of 25,145,561 people now living in Texas, the ideal population count for each of the 36 Texas congressional districts is 701,901, the ideal Senate district is 811,147, the ideal state House district is 167,637, and the ideal State Board of Education district is 1,676,371.

Should the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature gerrymander the new districts to disenfranchise the larger minority populations, the gerrymandered congressional map would likely be challenged by the Obama Administration Justice Department, which under the Voting Rights Act must approve any changes affecting minority representation. The George W. Bush Justice Department all but ignored enforcement of the Voting Rights Act after Republicans gerrymandered the state in 2003. According to Matt Angle, "Texas redistricting plans will be reviewed by the Justice Department, and partisan Republicans will no longer be able to count on partisan operatives within DOJ to subvert the law. . . This puts harshly partisan Republicans on notice that they must respect and abide by the Voting Rights Act or face objection from the Justice Department."

Given Collin County's 60 percent population growth from 491,675 residents in 2000 to 782,341 residents in 2010, it seem likely the county will see some adjustment to some or all of the various district lines, including for the Congressional, Texas House, Texas Senate and State Board of Education districts.

It is, however, unlikely that Collin County will see a new congressional district or other major changes in the various district lines that crisscross over the county.

Collin Co. ranks seventh in population size after Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis and El Paso Counties. The county also has a substantial percentage of residents with Hispanic, Asian, and African American heritage. (U.S. Census Bureau 2010 Custom tables Excel)

Hispanics now make up the majority of Texas public school students. About 50 percent of the state's 4.9 million students are Latino, up from 40 percent a decade ago.

A little more than 20 percent of Plano ISD students currently are Hispanic, up from 10 percent a decade ago. Nearly 18 percent of Plano students are Asian students up from 13 percent in the 2000-2001 school year. The percentage of black Plano students has gone from 3 percent to almost 10 percent over the last decade while the percentage of white students has dropped from 91percent to 50 percent. The notion of "white flight" from Dallas to Collin Co. suburbs is no more.

Collin County currently holds most of Texas Congressional District 3, represented by Republican Sam Johnson since he first won election in 1991. The 3rd congressional district includes the county's densely populated southwest quadrant and a small corner of northern Dallas county.

The remaining three quarters of Collin County's more sparsely populated geographic area is included in Texas Congressional District 4, currently represented by Republican Ralph Hall. Hall's District 4 geographic area includes all or parts of Bowie, Camp, Cass, Collin, Delta, Fannin, Farnklin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Lamar, Morris, Rains, Red River and Rockwall counties.

Other districts in Collin Co. include State Senate Districts 8 and 30, State House Districts 66, 67, 70 and 89, and State Board of Education Districts 9 and 12.
County 2000 2010 Change
Harris County 3,400,578 4,092,459 20.3%
Dallas County 2,218,899 2,368,139 6.7%
Tarrant County 1,446,219 1,809,034 25.1%
Bexar County 1,392,931 1,714,773 23.1%
Travis County 812,280 1,024,266 26.1%
El Paso County 679,622 800,647 17.8%
Collin County 491,675 782,341 59.1%
Hidalgo County 569,463 774,769 36.1%
Denton County 432,976 662,614 53.0%
Fort Bend County 354,452 585,375 65.1%
Most of the state's other largest counties kept pace with the statewide population growth rate of 20.6 percent, but Dallas County's population only increased by 6 percent, from 2.21 million to 2.36 million residents. The city of Dallas' population increased less than 1 percent, a fact that's likely to cause Dallas to lose two of its 16 House seats during redistricting.

Suburban areas around Dallas County had strong growth throughout the last decade. Denton counties grew by more than 53 percent, and Rockwall County lead all counties in growth at a rate of 81 percent. Seventy-nine of the state's 254 counties lost population during the decade, most of them clustered in West Texas.

Another 97 counties grew less than 10 percent, and another 41 grew between 10 and 20 percent. The fastest growing 37 counties were clustered in the Hill Country, the Metroplex, the Valley and around Houston with growth rates that range between 20 and 82 percent for the decade.

  1. Communities of color are driving population growth in Texas. Texas is one of five states in the country where people of color make up the majority of the population. Between 2000 and 2009 Hispanic population growth accounted for 63.1 percent of all growth in the state. Texas’s black and Asian populations—2.8 million people and 850,000 people, respectively—were the third largest in the country in 2010.
  2. The majority of children in Texas are children of color. For children under age 5 in the state, children of color outnumbered non-Hispanic white children 2.2-to-1 in 2011. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, in 2009, 64 percent of the state’s children were of color.
  3. Houston is the most racially and ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the country. According to a report from Rice University, the percentage of Latinos in the region increased dramatically from 20.8 percent in 1990 to more than one-third at 35.5 percent in 2010. This thriving racial and ethnic diversity places Houston at the head of the state’s rapid demographic changes.
  4. Nearly a third of immigrants in Texas are naturalized—meaning they are eligible to vote. In 2010 immigrants comprised 16.4 percent of the state’s total population. That year there were 1.3 million naturalized U.S. citizens in Texas, approximately 32 percent of immigrants in the state.
  5. Voters of color make up a growing portion of the Texas electorate. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos accounted for 20.1 percent of Texas voters in the 2008 elections. African Americans and Asians comprised 14.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, of the state’s voters that same year.
  6. Even more Latinos are eligible to vote but are currently unregistered. According to the political opinion research group Latino Decisions, there are 2.1 million unregistered Latino voters in Texas in 2012. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that there are an additional 880,000 legal permanent residents (green card holders) in Texas who are eligible to naturalize and vote for the first time. Put together, this means Texas has close to an extra 3 million potential voters this fall.
  7. The Department of Justice blocked a Texas voter ID law that threatened to disenfranchise Hispanics. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, far fewer non-Hispanic voters—4.3 percent, compared with 6.3 percent of Latino voters—lack a proper photo ID, which voters would have been required to show under the law. Texas’s own state data listed 174,866 registered Latino voters without an ID.
  8. Communities of color add billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to Texas’s economy through entrepreneurship and spending. The purchasing power of Latinos in Texas increased more than 400 percent from 1990 to 2010, reaching a total of $176.3 billion. Asian buying power increased by more than 650 percent in the same period to a total of $34.4 billion. And in 2007 Texas’s nearly 450,000 Latino-owned businesses had close to 400,000 employees, and sales and receipts of $61.9 billion.
  9. Immigrants are essential to the economy as workers. In 2010 immigrants comprised 20.9 percent of Texas’s workforce. As of 2007, 21 percent of Houston’s total economic output and 16 percent of Dallas’s economic output was derived from immigrants.
  10. Immigrants contribute to the state economy through state and local taxes. In 2010, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants in Texas paid $1.6 billion in state and local taxes.

Mouse over the state counties in the map tool below to view county level Census data.


2010 Interactive State and County Census Map

Additional Data: To access data from multiple geographies within the state, such as census blocks, tracts, voting districts, cities, counties and school districts, visit American Factfinder: http://factfinder2.census.gov.

The Census Bureau will deliver state data on a rolling basis through March. See what states are coming next.


Collin County Census Redistricting Data by Election Precinct
note: VAP = Voting Age Population

Voting
District
Precinct
Area
Land
in
Sq
Miles
Ave
Age
of
Reg
Voter
Housing
Units
TL
Pop
TL
VAP
VAP
Reg
to
vote
White
alone
Hispanic
Latino alone
Black
or
Af/Am
alone
Asian
alone
Am
Indian
or
Alaskan
Native
alone
Two
or
More
Races
1 1.0 51 1,549 3,521 2,661 1,526 1,609 764 221 20 8 35
2 2.3 44 2,949 6,409 4,635 2,719 2,568 1,250 592 126 31 54
3 5.5 47 1,771 5,991 3,887 1,815 567 2,434 807 21 9 37
4 23.2 51 469 1,068 836 743 725 75 10 8 9 8
5 1.8 53 577 1,450 1,119 958 925 110 52 8 14 9
6 1.6 42 2,702 8,866 5,623 4,400 3,452 612 580 874 10 80
7 0.5 44 807 2,051 1,543 1,521 1,054 227 143 96 8 14
8 16.1 48 1,881 4,977 3,613 2,394 2,744 736 40 29 25 34
9 25.2 47 2,609 6,954 4,922 3,370 3,771 771 223 54 34 65
10 10.8 50 231 635 489 393 416 59 0 0 3 8
11 54.6 49 2,570 6,632 4,841 3,575 3,660 816 260 28 23 50
12 1.3 48 2,274 6,025 4,181 4,043 3,624 248 141 99 20 42
13 19.4 46 1,445 4,006 2,756 2,228 2,153 276 216 63 19 26
14 1.4 42 2,634 5,662 4,163 1,768 1,950 330 412 1,351 1 118
15 0.5 51 1,545 3,659 2,762 1,434 1,373 782 204 351 6 45
16 20.6 46 2,140 6,061 4,077 3,394 3,294 501 161 28 34 54
17 16.7 43 1,764 5,284 3,512 2,432 2,555 586 265 26 27 48
18 26.7 51 613 1,516 1,118 757 947 138 13 1 7 12
19 0.4 50 782 1,981 1,575 1,608 1,311 76 50 108 6 24
20 28.6 49 550 1,345 1,040 966 925 91 11 1 2 9
21 1.5 50 2,138 5,405 4,277 3,641 3,101 343 246 499 9 66
22 57.7 47 1,936 5,514 3,830 3,146 2,918 700 127 16 23 39
23 3.5 44 1,462 4,120 2,781 917 696 1,263 615 170 1 30
24 0.4 41 2,565 4,119 3,546 2,097 2,002 560 618 250 16 75
25 2.8 45 2,641 9,429 5,797 4,709 3,339 422 542 1,346 22 113
26 1.2 49 1,162 3,129 2,249 1,397 1,220 711 170 108 9 28
27 1.7 43 1,572 5,062 3,306 2,611 2,308 452 342 139 15 43
28 0.8 47 1,824 3,842 3,067 2,292 1,993 267 256 494 7 44
29 19.0 45 1,517 4,656 3,030 2,454 2,435 422 88 30 18 36
30 9.8 45 2,718 7,680 5,101 4,111 3,610 839 344 211 23 54
31 0.6 51 977 2,607 2,044 2,012 1,732 109 61 120 4 15
32 0.7 50 1,258 3,071 2,383 2,395 1,966 169 97 113 15 22
33 23.4 47 1,532 4,254 3,047 2,279 2,490 360 118 29 28 17
34 1.1 45 1,988 6,679 4,208 3,380 2,068 156 114 1,791 7 64
35 41.6 48 1,896 5,023 3,711 2,748 3,134 427 50 26 35 35
36 0.7 49 829 2,294 1,761 1,957 1,464 66 50 164 1 13
37 79.7 49 1,454 3,504 2,624 2,028 2,340 210 9 2 18 36
38 6.3 42 4,442 10,302 6,985 4,274 4,780 721 738 599 36 97
39 0.8 46 1,885 4,871 3,564 2,641 2,253 655 370 210 10 63
40 1.0 48 1,521 4,094 3,138 3,099 2,624 248 142 67 23 26
41 7.7 49 894 2,792 1,878 1,869 1,646 142 23 39 11 11
42 10.8 45 555 1,722 1,140 697 777 281 53 9 9 10
43 10.1 42 2,768 9,392 6,339 4,075 3,772 1,199 1,016 218 34 90
44 0.8 49 1,507 4,096 2,925 1,730 1,580 1,177 108 20 9 27
45 2.8 49 973 1,885 1,422 1,045 1,007 156 117 122 4 16
46 1.1 49 2,639 6,515 4,850 2,396 2,034 2,217 372 140 15 47
47 0.9 48 1,387 3,643 2,783 2,358 1,887 517 217 103 14 40
48 1.4 51 2,101 4,504 3,524 2,867 2,718 227 191 310 16 54
49 0.9 55 1,364 2,672 2,177 2,029 1,884 148 43 76 7 17
50 2.7 42 2,392 6,304 4,610 2,202 1,591 1,359 619 894 13 115
51 0.8 46 1,291 4,167 2,842 1,305 893 1,557 272 87 13 19
52 1.8 43 2,049 6,281 4,266 2,773 1,554 782 533 1,275 21 98
53 0.7 51 1,056 2,767 2,155 2,076 1,784 161 72 94 11 33
54 1.8 45 2,187 4,921 3,750 2,608 2,078 613 503 466 9 74
55 1.9 47 2,333 5,389 4,748 2,106 2,919 407 249 1,055 17 90
56 5.3 45 3,135 8,735 6,061 4,240 4,204 1,041 457 260 24 64
57 2.8 46 2,685 6,945 4,844 3,735 3,142 962 520 140 32 46
58 1.4 47 2,409 5,346 4,205 3,167 2,706 296 380 729 10 76
59 1.1 43 1,892 5,946 3,956 3,325 2,817 400 253 403 33 45
60 5.3 49 809 2,484 1,710 1,555 1,328 206 48 102 9 16
61 1.0 50 797 2,142 1,658 1,564 1,266 162 112 89 7 22
62 0.7 49 1,404 3,637 2,785 2,422 2,073 387 172 103 15 32
63 0.6 50 920 2,398 1,909 2,006 1,642 87 40 111 7 19
64 0.8 47 1,877 4,207 3,205 2,641 2,244 259 188 452 9 45
65 0.4 50 795 1,996 1,499 1,146 1,000 259 107 96 15 20
66 0.6 49 1,324 3,505 2,564 1,966 1,651 549 153 153 13 43
67 1.3 54 892 2,046 1,676 1,587 1,379 86 43 143 4 18
68 0.6 52 1,263 3,524 2,591 1,888 1,510 757 196 73 17 35
69 0.9 50 2,066 4,884 3,853 3,596 2,875 244 172 501 14 42
70 0.5 51 923 2,380 1,856 1,739 1,481 154 56 124 9 24
71 0.6 51 1,000 2,246 1,835 1,602 1,417 152 77 159 9 20
72 0.7 49 1,204 2,786 2,166 1,446 1,193 583 98 260 8 21
73 0.3 44 1,922 3,074 2,630 1,538 1,502 269 367 443 6 38
74 0.7 48 1,299 2,802 2,159 1,646 1,486 227 189 192 8 52
75 1.1 54 1,018 2,184 1,777 1,799 1,500 83 20 147 5 21
76 0.9 49 1,948 4,894 3,753 2,982 2,784 244 253 408 12 41
77 0.8 45 2,003 5,164 3,835 3,312 2,339 406 382 617 11 69
78 1.9 50 1,004 2,373 1,912 1,721 1,425 112 69 256 0 43
79 0.7 46 3,597 6,580 5,283 2,542 2,239 1,292 693 933 13 97
80 0.9 44 1,751 5,065 3,530 3,200 2,496 351 329 285 21 47
81 0.7 46 2,134 4,472 3,472 2,539 2,330 371 251 433 12 66
82 0.7 47 1,734 4,573 3,290 2,524 2,139 693 255 144 15 41
83 4.5 45 2,498 7,241 4,950 3,912 3,795 656 314 74 37 64
84 0.6 47 2,126 3,825 3,139 2,215 2,069 402 397 216 11 35
85 0.7 46 1,711 4,532 3,456 2,867 2,188 400 240 546 6 65
86 0.9 48 1,667 4,175 3,097 2,564 2,054 212 265 493 9 53
87 4.6 43 1,400 4,923 2,906 2,447 1,980 163 124 570 13 46
88 0.5 39 3,044 4,161 3,463 1,720 1,584 516 1,062 213 9 65
89 1.3 46 2,687 7,334 5,345 4,375 3,009 274 306 1,611 16 116
90 1.3 48 1,432 4,053 2,841 2,696 2,136 168 97 393 6 35
91 0.7 47 1,432 3,704 2,706 2,151 1,996 271 174 201 17 43
92 2.0 46 2,115 4,869 3,527 2,264 1,939 1,124 292 103 6 54
93 9.6 49 180 449 346 281 314 29 0 0 0 2
94 2.2 47 1,779 5,767 3,766 3,207 2,024 195 193 1,276 9 65
95 0.7 44 1,441 4,420 2,959 2,617 1,911 244 327 402 8 53
96 4.5 38 592 2,487 1,803 935 821 438 481 32 4 19
97 0.7 53 582 1,549 1,182 1,244 1,099 35 13 15 7 12
98 3.1 70 930 2,135 1,591 800 847 690 31 5 4 9
99 0.3 49 610 1,610 1,171 655 615 468 77 1 2 8
100 1.4 54 20 48 40 26 34 5 0 0 0 1
101 1.8 44 1,521 4,476 2,958 2,615 2,196 226 134 339 12 44
102 1.1 49 1,085 3,207 2,227 2,277 2,004 98 24 69 12 16
103 0.4 48 912 2,810 1,966 1,179 921 800 159 44 16 25
104 0.4 40 3,112 4,839 4,021 2,296 1,875 659 1,028 338 14 84
105 1.6 49 889 1,918 1,583 1,020 1,110 135 112 188 9 20
106 0.4 44 1,016 2,912 2,039 1,785 1,505 200 180 124 8 22
107 0.8 47 1,611 4,633 3,343 3,040 2,276 167 128 698 7 61
108 1.1 46 1,989 4,788 3,555 2,551 1,896 332 266 939 12 102
109 2.7 46 1,749 4,697 3,210 2,813 2,235 221 210 473 10 53
110 0.8 51 1,558 3,550 2,995 2,521 2,000 163 168 624 5 32
111 2.4 45 2,512 6,665 4,605 3,410 3,156 794 293 283 30 41
112 0.7 48 1,349 3,971 2,809 2,335 1,785 131 54 781 9 43
113 0.8 44 1,992 5,626 3,932 2,505 2,583 694 402 167 12 64
114 13.2 47 1,702 4,620 3,261 2,213 2,419 703 54 35 20 26
115 0.8 49 1,825 3,585 2,924 2,589 2,138 268 189 274 2 48
116 2.4 46 1,984 5,598 3,800 3,502 2,683 184 142 728 7 53
117 1.5 43 2,848 6,624 4,732 3,360 3,106 581 425 511 20 74
118 1.1 45 2,237 6,130 4,150 3,839 3,314 316 139 300 25 53
119 1.2 47 2,256 6,952 4,889 4,632 3,178 197 203 1,211 11 79
120 2.7 46 2,727 8,142 5,300 4,584 3,747 319 244 881 19 85
121 1.1 45 2,109 6,626 4,333 3,169 1,971 214 183 1,849 11 100
122 1.6 47 1,886 5,663 3,696 3,557 3,112 221 148 153 14 44
123 1.0 46 1,454 3,038 2,273 1,974 1,594 169 186 286 5 29
124 0.9 47 2,787 5,505 4,288 2,656 2,302 296 318 1,267 22 77
125 2.0 46 2,528 7,178 4,899 3,666 2,525 316 497 1,445 18 86
126 1.0 43 2,176 6,932 4,429 3,835 3,072 463 516 287 23 59
127 1.1 44 2,082 5,554 3,963 3,089 2,747 428 279 428 17 59
128 15.3 48 1,607 5,009 3,366 3,281 2,947 157 119 86 21 33
129 1.3 46 1,674 3,637 2,646 2,105 1,994 248 268 77 9 43
130 3.5 45 2,844 8,093 5,391 4,260 3,565 365 239 1,119 14 80
131 2.1 46 2,770 7,467 5,078 4,553 4,139 349 272 215 32 61
132 0.6 47 2,022 3,914 3,195 2,588 2,276 260 292 307 9 49
133 2.4 44 1,644 4,416 3,036 1,941 1,958 500 366 141 22 48
134 13.9 42 4,324 13,151 8,423 5,539 4,749 967 1,147 1,339 19 171
135 1.1 44 2,369 6,057 4,218 2,970 2,442 359 360 958 10 78
136 0.6 52 1,504 2,719 2,275 1,762 1,574 280 275 103 12 27
137 0.9 47 1,250 2,827 2,116 1,787 1,410 135 118 395 6 52
138 0.4 52 558 1,467 1,174 1,166 1,049 55 11 36 9 13
139 1.5 45 3,462 7,693 5,568 3,436 3,457 494 612 866 22 109
140 2.6 46 3,668 10,338 6,723 3,820 5,464 446 418 270 29 91
141 1.6 48 1,284 3,801 2,793 2,519 1,914 226 233 370 8 36
142 0.9 47 2,232 4,504 3,634 2,525 2,256 205 280 814 11 63
143 1.5 48 988 2,282 1,766 1,672 1,389 86 68 183 4 33
144 1.7 47 1,236 3,881 2,676 2,326 1,734 133 299 462 13 35
145 0.5 42 701 2,207 1,481 1,223 928 154 181 186 6 21
146 1.5 43 2,441 6,978 4,766 3,870 3,130 553 480 470 18 100
147 1.5 45 1,227 2,950 2,036 1,346 1,222 237 238 299 13 25
148 0.1 49 34 97 77 66 59 2 3 9 0 4
149 2.5 44 1,236 3,805 2,467 1,989 1,665 299 296 145 15 35
150 16.7 52 217 539 412 345 379 26 3 0 2 0
151 0.4 42 677 2,232 1,448 990 755 143 231 276 6 26
152 0.2 43 339 1,174 889 62 35 834 9 6 2 1
153 2.5 44 1,271 3,814 2,621 1,961 1,629 251 294 407 3 32
154 0.0 37 126 434 213 133 51 33 114 8 0 7
155 1.2 45 1,528 3,367 2,205 3,622 1,756 177 160 80 8 22
156 1.6 44 2,257 6,651 4,469 3,784 3,185 529 447 228 21 53
157 3.5 45 1,848 6,145 3,832 3,028 2,342 223 243 922 15 81
158 1.9 46 852 2,654 1,869 1,310 823 144 245 615 7 33
159 2.0 43 2,602 8,349 5,376 3,496 2,762 1,027 839 644 12 82
160 0.2 57 7 12 10 14 10 0 0 0 0 0
161 0.2 0 4 10 9 6 9 0 0 0 0 0
162 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
163 4.5 41 3,923 10,764 7,142 4,954 4,608 1,034 897 446 24 116
164 0.6 81 450 467 466 444 448 4 0 8 2 3
165 3.7 50 324 936 676 653 536 29 23 65 3 20
166 1.5 44 1,378 4,606 2,992 2,044 1,467 255 344 866 7 47
167 1.4 45 2,507 7,146 4,882 3,718 2,508 308 295 1,645 7 116
168 0.9 45 668 2,329 1,433 1,390 1,150 70 59 127 11 13
169 1.0 41 1,387 3,837 2,571 1,860 1,619 335 299 264 14 37
170 0.6 44 975 2,466 1,713 1,355 1,259 165 147 112 5 20
171 4.2 44 2,748 7,062 4,854 3,181 3,420 308 296 737 21 63
172 22.4 45 1,628 4,570 3,144 2,395 2,404 523 110 28 31 45
173 0.9 46 944 2,964 2,004 1,761 1,626 149 101 103 6 16
174 6.4 44 2,125 6,280 4,204 3,055 2,893 602 418 194 21 66
175 2.3 44 1,145 3,792 2,527 1,928 1,746 256 271 208 8 33
176 3.2 39 3,717 5,136 4,655 2,129 3,056 455 451 550 13 111
177 4.3 45 3,200 5,528 4,527 2,343 3,121 424 476 381 28 80
178 8.8 46 2,316 6,137 3,920 2,987 3,280 262 211 96 21 45
179 7.7 58 2,100 4,940 4,003 3,910 3,685 152 31 67 29 33
Totals 841.2 46 300,960 782,341 557,664 421,386 368,136 72,370 44,429 61,146 2,320 8,164

Explanation of census/redistricting tables' headings and terms - PDF
2010 Census - Texas Redistricting Data

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Matthews: Republicans are Becoming the Party of the John Birch Society

Chris Matthews in a "Let me finish" segment states the obvious; the Republican Party has become the party of the John Birch Society.






MATTHEWS: "Let Me Finish" tonight with this unbelievable presidential campaign that’s about to begin.

Watching President Obama today explaining and defending his budget, both the substance and the politics, I was struck by the question: could any of the possible Republican candidates out there do this?

Does any one of them have the precision of mind, the command of recall, the orderly process of thinking and evaluating, the reasonable moral compass?
You can play this game, too. Think it through. Throw those names and faces onto your mental viewing screen and think deep. Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Bachmann, Barbour, Santorum, Gingrich -- is there one of them we think could do what Obama can do?
I’ve been in close quarters with the president twice. The first time I came to the conclusion that this guy ought to be president of the United States. There’s a peace to his presentation, a calm understanding of the information, of his values, of the world.

A look at the Republican field, with all its negatives, I look at Nate Silver’s numbers and see the problem that the party has in finding someone to field against the president -- someone who can stand up on the same platform, talk the issues with this competence and wonder -- then it come to me, that they may not be in the business of looking for something with the match to Obama, simply someone to attack him. I’m talking about a protest candidate -- someone who is -- who yells at the government, mocks the country’s condition, is clever, sarcastic, and when it works best, cute in their cutting.

A look at the joke-telling at last week’s Conservative Political Action Convention, a look at the new poll showing a majority of Republican voters don’t believe the president was born here, even though it was announced in the newspapers at the time. I look at the strange wackiness that echoes through the one stable party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, and Ike, and wonder if they accept any of those guys today? Do you think they’d take a guy who wanted to take away states` rights? Who wants to fight for conservation of our wilderness lands, who wants to build an interstate highway system or create a federal system of loans and grants for higher education?

Forget about it, they’d never pick those guys. No, The Republicans aren’t that party anymore. They’re becoming more and more the party that doesn’t believe in science, whether it’s evolution or climate change; doesn’t believe in government; doesn’t believe the president is an American.

It’s veering off to being the party of the John Birch Society, adhering to the white parchments of that society’s latter day apostle, Glenn Beck. That’s right -- the John Birch Society that said Ike was a communist; the apostle who now believes that President Obama is an avatar of a burgeoning world-dominating caliphate.

That’s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
The Birch Society has long been considered wacky and extreme by old guard conservative leaders. William F. Buckley famously denounced the John Birch Society and its founder Robert Welch in the early 1960s as “idiotic” and “paranoid. ” Buckley’s condemnation effectively banishing the group from the mainstream conservative movement. Welch had called President Dwight D. Eisenhower a “conscious, dedicated agent of the communist conspiracy” and that the U.S. government was “under operational control of the Communist party.” Buckley argued that such paranoid rantings had no place in the conservative movement or the Republican party.

Two years after Buckley’s death, the John Birch Society is no longer banished; it is listed as one of about 100 co-sponsors of the 2010 CPAC.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the John Birch Society as a group that “advocates or adheres to extreme anti-government doctrines.”

Right-wing conservatives align themselves with the banking oligarchy, which has facilitated massive transfer of wealth to the ultra-rich.

They are for no taxes on business or the wealthy, elimination of Medicare, privatization of Social Security, abolition of unions, elimination of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, elimination of all regulatory agencies, including those that guarantee food, product and banking safety and abolition of social programs of any kind, which they believe are socialistic.


MSNBC Rachel Maddox expose on the Birchers

Those spending billions to fund the Tea Party, like the billionaire Koch Brothers, are aligned with John Birch Society. JBS advocates the abolition of income tax, and repeal of civil rights legislation, which it sees as being Communist in inspiration. They want to eliminate the Federal Reserve, the Department of Education and most of the Federal Government, with the exception of those parts of the government funneling $670 billion into defense spending annually, which includes $117.8 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

What is the John Birch Society