by Jim Tankersley
Forgive Reps. Rahm Emanuel or Jan Schakowsky if they seem a little lonely these days: The Chicago-area Democrats are watching their constituents move away at a quick clip.
Data from Polidata and the Almanac of American Politics show Schakowsky’s district lost more than 50,000 residents – or nearly 8 percent of its population – from 2000 to 2005. That’s the third-fastest-shrinking district in the country. Emanuel’s is the eighth-fastest shrinking – down 33,000 people, or about 5 percent.
“It’s concerning,” said Kathleen Connery, an Emanuel spokesman, “and that’s why Congressman Emanuel has spent so much of his time in Congress working for a viable mass transit system, for modern public schools, and to bring good jobs and opportunity to the families in his district. Just last week, for example, Microsoft announced it’s bringing a 550,000 square-foot data center to Northlake.” All told, almost half of Illinois’ congressional districts shrunk in the first half of the decade, including nearly every Chicago-area district. (Census figures show the city is down about 150,000 residents from 2000 to 2006.) Earlier this year, analysts predicted that the state’s growth trends would cost it a congressional seat after the 2010 Census.
The 10 fastest-shrinking districts all lie in urban areas – and predominantly in the Rust Belt – and all are held by Democrats. The list includes some of the highest-powered members of the House, such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California; Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, who chairs the Judiciary Committee; and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who chairs the ethics committee and whose Cleveland-area district is the nation’s fastest-shrinking.
The 10 fastest-growing districts, on the other hand, are largely in the Southwest and almost exclusively held by Republicans. The complete map is worth checking out.