Say the word “redistricting” or “reapportionment” and even some political junkies’ eyes glaze over. But for most lawmakers, it’s a subject that can get their “blood boiling, their hearts racing and their dander up,” Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth says, because the redrawing of district lines could cost lawmakers their jobs and their parties power for the next 10 years.

The last time Texas went through the redistricting process in 2003, the Texas Legislature became such a laughingstock that Jay Leno made jokes about it on TV. At the time, 51 Democratic state lawmakers fled to neighboring Oklahoma to deprive the Legislature of a quorum, a move that succeeded in killing a GOP-backed redistricting bill. Later that same year, Texas approved a controversial mid-decade plan engineered by former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Texas Republicans that ultimately gave the GOP six more seats in Congress.

Wentworth, a Republican from San Antonio, last year once again introduced legislation that would take congressional redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and hand it over to an independent panel made up of citizens, not politicians. And once again the measure failed.

As Census forms begin arriving in Americans’ mailboxes and with elections looming, the political parties have at least $93 million to spend in hopes of winning control of key statehouses and governorships. Those wins would give them the upper hand when new lines are drawn for congressional and statehouse boundaries in 2011, based on the new population counts, and theoretically make it easier for their members to grab those seats.

The U.S. Constitution requires all local, state and federal legislative districts to be redrawn after a census is taken to make the districts roughly equal in population, guaranteeing that each person is equally represented in legislative bodies, explains Tim Storey, an elections expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures. States with shrinking populations will lose seats and states with population surges will gain seats.

The Constitution leaves it up to the state to determine the method it wants to use for redistricting. In all but about a dozen states, state legislators and governors play key roles in the process, while commissions are in charge in the other states (see NCSL link embedded in Apture above).

Democrats currently control 60 state legislative chambers, most of which will draw maps for 383 congressional and 5,074 state legislative seats, the party says. But 21 of those chambers in 17 states are within five seats of changing hands politically. These 17 states will shape 198 congressional districts during redistricting.

Democrats are using the earlier GOP actions in Texas as a rallying cry to get the party faithful to vote and give money. “If we don’t shut down the GOP at the ballot box and stop them from redistricting themselves back into power, all our reforms will be dead in the water,” outgoing New Mexican Governor Bill Richardson said in a recent fundraiser letter for the Democratic Governors Association, calling the 2003 Texas redistricting plan “underhanded” and “deceitful.”

Winning control of legislative chambers is especially important this year, because most state legislatures will be drawing new congressional and statehouse districts based on population changes revealed in the 2010 census. The big winner could be Texas, which would have gained three seats based on latest estimates.

This time, Texas could be awarded three extra seats in Congress, more than any state, because of its population boom. Democrats there hope to swing at least three seats in the state House in November and are also aiming at defeating incumbent Governor Rick Perry, thus depriving Republicans their lock on political control and its advantage in redrawing the political lines.

Other states that are expected to pick up a seat in Congress because of the Census and play a primary role in redrawing districts include Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah. Arizona and Washington are slated to pick up at least one new congressional seat, but these states use commissions to draw new lines.

Source: 2010 Census

With the April 1 Census deadline date looming, most Mountain West states are keeping pace with the rest of the nation in returning the forms. Though New Mexico needs to step up it a bit. The state which has historically lagged in participation rates, is also poking around in current mail-ins and has yet to break the 50 percent threshold.

Looking for a job? It’s a good bet the Census Bureau office in Albuquerque will be on a hiring spree soon to conduct door-to-door counts.

You can drill down on your own community Census participation data and compare to neighboring cities, zip codes or states.

Why bother?

The Census says the count “affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. And people from many walks of life use census data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more.”

Additionally the math is used to divvy up more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year on infrastructure and services like health care, job training centers, schools, senior centers, bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects, and emergency services.

BOOTSTRAP: WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY
The Census has a social media hub and an interactive quiz for individuals, businesses and organizations to help promote the decennial count through Twitter, Facebook and more.

Note on the graph: Only five states are viewable at one time. Utah and Wyoming are tied at a 53 percent participation rate.

UPDATE: The graphic at top contains the most recent figures posted on Mar. 31. Below is the original Mar. 30 graphic. Nice improvement, Mountain States:

How should the decennial U.S. Census approach the touchy issues of race and heritage when we claim America is a melting pot? Especially one where many people identify by multiple races or ethnicities and cultural pride is often mistaken as race.

Multimedia Renaissance man Baratunde Thurston participated in an interesting but too brief discussion Sunday on CNN about census form concerns and low participation rates by minorities.

Joined by Latina filmmaker Raquel Cepeda and Christian Lander, author of What White People Like, the segment focused on an interesting semantic dilemma — what are we and how do we describe ourselves?

According to the Census, people of Hispanic or Middle Eastern origin are considered white but may add an ethnic identifier through a series of check boxes or as a write-in option. Cepeda’s street interviews sadly confirmed that Americans are still uncomfortable grappling with words for color.

As Thurston noted “This country was forged in the fire of race” but we’re still loathe to embrace it or agree on how to describe it.

A spot-on statement which stokes a long overdue national conversation around the anxiety-inducing terms “black, African Am or Negro” used on the Census form. When is it okay to refer to people by their hue, their heritage or an historical term that can evoke a negative visceral reaction.

Be sure to catch Baratunde at Jack and Jill Politics where he posted an extended video and discussion.

Still have your census form laying around? It’s due April 1.

Source: Pew Research Center based on American Community Survey data. Click to activate the map.

A smaller proportion of people are getting married with a rate now hovering at just about half: 52 percent for men and 48 percent for women, according to a Pew Research Survey of demographic data.

Idaho and Utah rank among the highest states with married residents while New Mexico has one of the lowest proportions in the nation.

If you’ve been unlucky in love and looking for greener pastures, head to Wyoming which boasts one of the highest rates of thrice married men and women in the union.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

These data, part of the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program, currently represent the only source of Census Bureau income and poverty data for each of the nation’s 3,142 counties and almost 14,000 Title I-eligible school districts.

SAIPE is the only source of single-year income and poverty data for approximately 1,300 counties and 76 percent of school districts. Data for these areas with population size of less than 20,000 are not expected to be available from the American Community Survey (ACS) until late 2010.

SAIPE numbers have a smaller margin of error than ACS estimates because they combine ACS data with aggregate data from federal tax information, administrative records on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation, Census 2000 statistics and annual population estimates.

State and county estimates are provided for the total number of people in poverty, the number of children under age 5 in poverty (for states only), number of related children age 5 to 17 in families in poverty, number of children under 18 in poverty and median household income.

Notes: Figures in thousands. Gulf War period represents Aug. 2, 1990 thru present. Veterans serving in more than one service period are counted only once in the total.
Source: 2009 Statistical Abstract. U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Census Bureau.