Talking Points Memo:Last year, Bachmann repeatedly said she would defy the Census by not completely filling out the information on the forms, but would instead only give the number of people in her household. She said that Census data was used to conduct the 1940's Japanese-American internment, and warned that the government was seeking togather information about people's mental health. But as far as we can tell, her last anti-Census public statement was in August.
So why has Shelly shut up with the census fearmongering lately? Because the census is used to determine the number of reps a state has. If states population growth is too low to justify the number of representatives, the state loses a seat -- and, in Minnesota's case, guess whose seat that would be?
The really fun fact, as I've learned from Minnesota experts, is that Bachmann's district would likely be the first to go if the state lost a seat. The other seats are all fairly regular-shaped, logical districts built around identifiable regions of the state (Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Iron Range, and so on). Bachmann's district is made of what's left over after such a process, twisting and turning from a small strip of the Wisconsin border and curving deep into the middle of the state. As such, the obvious course of action if the state loses a seat is to split her district up among its neighbors.
So gone are all the "gummint's gonna use the census to put you into camps!" talk, because it was all a load in the first place and now it's come back to bite her in the ass.
