Texas Census Report = Horse Trading Begins

Today it’s Texas’ turn.

The release of the Census numbers for the state of Texas are expected this afternoon but it’s really an exercise of formality. We know the outcome, we’re living it.

Todays population count release is going to make it official. Latinos had the fastest growth, whites are no longer the majority. Here’s how the Houston Chronicle expects the numbers to break down:

• 80 percent of the growth in Texas from 2000 to 2009 came from minority populations
• The percentage of Anglos dropped to 46 percent of the total in 2009.
• Latinos accounted for about two-thirds of the growth during the period.

The official Census report will be like dusting off the magnifying glass to look at population down to the block level, and that’s going to give politicians, activists, analysts and all manner of political hack and junkie enough fodder to last several months. Most importantly it’ll be seen by most  state electeds in Austin as a redistricting commodity. Everyone’s armed with digital map-making technology these days so the possibilities for drawing and trading district lines are immediate and endless. It’s gonna be like a crazy bazaar, a horse trading fair, that’ll be difficult to monitor…but not impossible.

With 80 percent of the growth in the state you’d expect that Latino communities will get three of the four new congressional seats that’ll be alloted to Texas. But let’s remember who holds the power in the Texas legislature. And let’s keep in mind how political horse trading works. If I’ve got population and you’ve got power we can more than likely figure out a trade of some sort. After all, there are issues of incumbency, plush committee assignments, political endorsements and pet projects to consider. The swap season just opened in Texas, and all’s fair in that meet.