By Jonathan D. Salant
Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Texas congressional delegation would increase by four members for the 2012 elections while Ohio would lose two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to an independent analysis of new Census Bureau data.
Seven other states would gain one new representative, all of them in the South and West, according to the analysis by Polidata LLC, a demographic and political research firm based in Corinth, Vermont.
Nine states, including New York and New Jersey, would each lose one seat under projections by Polidata. Except for Louisiana, the states that would shed lawmakers are all in the Northeast and Midwest, continuing a decades-long trend.
“People like to live where the jobs are, and until they get jobs in the Midwest or Northeast, that’s going to be a problem,” said Clark Bensen, chief consultant for Polidata.
States that would gain one representative, based on the Census Bureau estimates, are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. The other states that would lose one seat are Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
The Texas delegation in the U.S. House would grow to 36 members from 32, trailing only California’s 53-person contingent. Ohio’s representation would shrink to 16 House districts from 18. New York would have 28 representatives if it loses one seat.
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