Upcoming redistricting could lessen rural representation in state capitols, not just Congress

Upcoming redistricting could accelerate a decline in rural influence in state capitols, not just Washington. "With the once-a-decade redistricting process, state legislatures will be charged with redrawing the nation’s political lines to reflect where people live," Josh Goodman of Governing reports. "A proportionally smaller rural population will mean that fewer state legislators and congressmen represent rural areas in the next decade -- and likely for many decades to come."

"The shift will leave rural areas grappling with a future in which the fate of issues they care about are at the mercy of people who rarely catch a glimpse of a cow," Goodman writes. Texas has been predicted the early winner of the 2010 Census count as it stands to gain as many as four new seats in reapportionment of the U.S. House, but those seats will likely come from the state's metropolitan areas. At the state level, redistricting will likely mean a a 35- to 40-county area of West Texas will have only one state senator in Austin.

"Rural areas aren’t just losing some of their population -- they’re ceasing to be rural at all," Goodman writes. Much of the population growth since 2000 across the country has come in suburbs that were rural areas 20 years ago. "The shift has major implications for a variety of policy issues, most of which have little to do with counting cows," Goodman writes. "Will education funding formulas favor urban districts or rural ones? Will states spend on mass transit or rural roads? Will rural broadband and telemedicine be priorities?"

The remaining rural legislators may try to preserve some of their power by banding together with other rural colleagues. Goodman writes that "the creation of the Maryland Legislature’s Rural Caucus about a decade ago helped check the power of lawmakers from Baltimore and the big Washington, D.C., suburbs," according to a rural House member. The days of rural lawmakers controlling state legislatures are over, Goodman writes, concluding, "To get anything done going forward, rural lawmakers will have to find common interests with suburban colleagues or even urban ones." (Read more)