It is so influential that the Republicans in the legislature are still litigating it, knowing that even a small change to districts could be very lucrative for them.
A fact that many people are less aware of is the fact that the redistricting process is based on the decennial Census.
The Census' data is used to ensure that states are apportioned the correct number of representatives in Congress, and that districts within each state are equal in size...at least for the first election of a decade.
Hence, observers of the political scene (such as yours truly) keep an eye on developments related to the census.
It's not directly political, but the US Census Bureau announced something of interest to the denizens of Maricopa County today - while we are still over five years away from the 2020 Census, in 2015, Maricopa County will be the site of a test of possible new techniques to be used in 2020.
From the Census Bureau press release -
The test in Maricopa County will be smaller, concentrating on following up with households that fail to respond to the census. Maricopa County has a mobile and diverse population, which will help the Census Bureau study new ways to conduct field operations and manage field staff.
That's the part that may be of interest of to geeks (such as yours truly? :) ), but the next part of the press release should be of interest to political folks who wish to use or hone their canvassing skills, and make money while doing so (emphasis added by them, not me) -
Conducting this test will require recruiting and hiring more than 800 temporary office and field staff. Pay ranges from $16.25 to $28.25 per hour. Recruiting will begin in early November and more information will be available at that time.
I don't know how long the test activity will last, but it should be something that will keep canvassers canvassing until the 2016 election cycle starts (in a presidential cycle, that means some time in the latter part of 2015).
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