From your list, Crypto, only Barr has a chance of being defeated at the polls. -- ACTIVATE

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Date Posted: 14:37:27 03/02/01 Fri
Author: NCLS Cody
Subject:

From your list, Crypto, only Barr has a chance of being defeated at the polls.
In reply to: Crypto 's message, "Another idea" on 06:45:08 03/02/01 Fri

I would love to see them all go to the great political boneyard in the sky, but what makes these tyrants so powerful is that they live in safe districts and the voters in those areas always vote Republican. One exception is Georgia's 7th District where Bob Barr won by only 56%-44% over James Williams in 1998 and Roger Kahn by 55-45 in 2000. That's a low total, as far as entrenched incumbents go. Unfortunately, 2002 doesn't look good for challengers; mainly Democrats, for the next election cycle:

Friday March 2 4:25 PM ET

Census Recommendation Disappoints Democrats

By Christina Ling

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats and minority groups expressed disappointment on Friday after the U.S. Census Bureau recommended that national political districts not be redrawn to take account of faulty data recorded for some population groups in the census last year.

But a bi-partisan census oversight board backed the bureau's recommendation as the fairest way to proceed despite the 10-year tally's failure once again to count minority and disadvantaged groups as accurately as it does the rest of the population.

``We still believe that scientifically adjusted data will be very helpful,'' Hilary Shelton, the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Washington bureau told Reuters.

``There is still an opportunity to use it and they should.''

Democrats, for whom the typically undercounted minorities such as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans form a major constituency base, had also hoped the bureau would back statistically adjusting the census for redistricting purposes.

``We are very disappointed that the Census Bureau has decided not to correct the errors in the 2000 census within the deadlines it faced,'' leaders of the House of Representatives' Democrats said in a statement.

``Millions of minorities, children and rural residents were missed while millions of others were miscounted. The effects of the census last for 10 years and have a profound effect on every American.''

Political Hot Potato

The Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that only the raw figures could be used to reapportion between the states the fixed number of seats in Congress's House of Representatives.

But it left open the politically divisive issue of which data should be used to redefine the borders of the districts which elect delegates to those seats.

While the district lines are supposed to be redrawn equally to reflect population changes, the parties tend to use the process to ``gerrymander'' districts to their advantage. Commerce Secretary Don Evans has final say in the matter this year.

But the recommendation by a panel of Census Bureau experts that adjusted data were unlikely to be more accurate than the raw headcount reinforces the Republican line that only the straight tally numbers should be used.

A bi-partisan Census Monitoring Board, set up by Congress in 1997 with half its members appointed by Congress and half by the president, said it concurred with the bureau's recommendation despite concerns about the undercount.

Co-chairman Kenneth Blackwell noted that while statistical sampling could in theory make up the nationwide numbers for undercounted groups, it tended to distort numbers at the local level -- a major factor to take into account in redistricting.

``Some people in Washington D.C. would be adjusted with data from Baltimore, Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami. Some people in Dallas and Houston, Texas would be adjusted from Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York,'' Blackwell said.

``That sort of adjustment violates the guarantee of fair distribution for political representation.''

Board members hailed the bureau's success in slashing the undercount rates by more than half, saying the black and Latino undercounts were cut by 67 and 60 percent respectively.

Tim Storey, a redistricting analyst at the bi-partisan National Conference of State Legislatures, said civil rights groups were likely to file lawsuits if Evans did finally rule out adjusted data.

But he doubted they would have much practical effect. ``By then the data will be out,'' Storey said.

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Replies:

However, things DO change -- Crypto, 17:57:46 03/02/01 Fri
By the way, I'll settle for Barr if I can't have the rest :) -- Crypto, 11:10:34 03/03/01 Sat
By the way, I'll settle for Barr if I can't have the rest :) -- Crypto, 11:10:57 03/03/01 Sat