Likely Losses of House Seats in Midwest Stir Partisan Feuds

By MONICA DAVEY
NYT

CHICAGO — Whatever the outcome of the fall elections, one political loser this year seems certain: the Midwest.

State population tallies, to be revealed at the end of December, are expected to show that in the coming reapportionment of Congress, seats will be lost across this region — in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and perhaps, experts say, Minnesota or Missouri.

“When you think about losing six seats this time around,” said Tom Gillaspy, the state demographer of Minnesota, “that’s stark.” Minnesota is one of 12 Midwestern states that together commanded 143 Congressional seats a century ago, but that number is predicted to shrink to 94.

Already, the worry about vanishing seats is stirring partisan tensions: whose seat will be spared and whose will be erased? Around the country, state officials have begun considering their task of redrawing Congressional districts in the coming year. But in states expected to lose a seat, the prospect of a new map (and, potentially, the demise of someone’s political career) has drawn extra notice — and a role in some midterm campaigns.

(More here.)