[Rabbahpuptiopp]

Conventional wisdom is that this is a short-term boost to GOP districts, and that's probably true for a couple of years. But it's also worth noting that these states are the core areas where minority and immigrant populations, particularly Latinos, are growing and throwing their support behind Democrats.

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/us...er=rss&emc=rss

The Census Bureau rearranged the country’s political map on Tuesday, giving more Congressional seats to the South and the West at the expense of the Northeast and the Midwest — changes that will have far-reaching implications for elections over the next decade.

The reallocation of seats was based on a new decennial population count of 308,745,538 Americans. The total was up by just 9.7 percent over the last decade, the slowest rate of growth since the 1930s. Demographers attribute the decline in part to falling birth rates among whites and the slowdown in immigration because of the recession.

These are the first results from the census conducted this year, and they will be used to reapportion seats in Congress, and, in turn, the Electoral College, based on new state population counts. The figures will influence the landscape for the 2012 presidential race and the makeup of the Electoral College, with Republican-leaning states from the Sun Belt gaining more political influence at the expense of Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states.

[veizKinquiz]

Interesting. While minority/immigrant populations do tend to vote Democratic, unfortunately they also have generally lower voting rates than whites. Just because there are more of them in these areas doesn't mean that it's going to change the politically conservative environment. Elections are going to be tense these next few years...