The just-released official Census data means that Democrat-leaning states will lose congressional representation, while Republican-leaning states will gain. Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics:
The apportionment winners were: Texas (4 seats), Florida (2 seats), Arizona (1 seat), Georgia (1 seat), Nevada (1 seat), South Carolina (1 seat), Utah (1 seat), Washington (1 seat). The losers were: New York (2 seats), Ohio (2 seats), Illinois (1 seat), Iowa (1 seat), Louisiana (1 seat), Massachusetts (1 seat), Michigan (1 seat), Missouri (1 seat), New Jersey (1 seat), Pennsylvania (1 seat).
Overall, this represents a continued shift in the Electoral College from blue-leaning states to red-leaning states. If the 2008 election had been held under these census numbers, President Obama's 365-173 victory over John McCain would have become a 359-179 win. For 2004, the numbers are starker still: Bush's 286-251 victory would become a 292-246 win, meaning that even if Kerry had won Ohio, he still would have lost (in 2004, flipping Ohio would have been sufficient to give Kerry the win).
Americans are voting with their feet -- abandoning the high tax and regulation states run by Democrats in favor of the freedom offered by GOP-dominated states in the Sun Belt. The sight of East Germans felling to West Germany during the Cold War comes to mind. Luckily, New York, Illionois, and California are unable to build fences to keep their citizens from leaving, the way the German commies did. But I bet they'd rather build that kind of fence than fences along our Mexican border keeping illegal immigrants out.
