Then one of my favorite Ohioan transplants sends me this depressing Christmas note: Ohio will lose two Representatives, and one may be my man Dennis Kucinich!
Ohio's population grew by 183,000 people over the last decade to 11.5 million, but it wasn't enough to keep up with fast-growing states in the South.
Ohio has 18 congressional districts that now will drop to 16.
...In November, Democrats lost five out of 10 U.S. House seats they currently hold in Ohio. The remaining five are tightly packed into an area that stretches from Toledo through Cleveland and into Youngstown.
...Among the Ohio Democrats in Congress who could face losing their districts are Cleveland's Dennis Kucinich and Betty Sutton, who represents Lorain and Elyria, plus suburban Cleveland and the Akron area.
Both are in areas that have lost population in the last decade ["Ohio Loses 2 Seats in Congress, Sutton and Kucinich May Go," AP via Morning Journal, 2010.12.21].
On the bright side, I'm pleased that the Republicans might consider Kucinich a sufficiently big thorn in their side to draw him off the Congressional map. But I'll bet some elephant in the map room is thinking, "Hey! If we redistrict Dennis out of a job, maybe he'll change his mind and run in the 2012 primary against Obama!"
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Bonus Ohio love: Bob Schwartz has been enjoying a solstice resurgence, cranking out lots of good blog posts on new START (passed!), ethanol, Thune hypocrisy, and other matters over the past week. Keep those keys clicking Bob!
Then one of my favorite Ohioan transplants
ReplyDeleteCory, somehow I think I am probably the only Ohio transplant you know but thanks for the link love anyway. And as an aside, Betty Sutton is from my old district so this really hits home for me.
As for Kucinich, I have a feeling he will land on his feet. After all, he's done pretty well after the debacle that was his time as mayor of Cleveland where he saw the city go into bankruptcy, staved off being recalled by 230 votes, and had to wear a bullet proof vest to public functions all while earning the nickname of "Dennis the Menace".
That's another thing I like about Dennis: he's been beaten hard and still come back to win respect... at least enough respect to win in his district.
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