Sharpen Your Crayons. It's Time to Draw the Lines.

Every ten years, we stop and do a head count of our nation’s population. We call it a census. Those census numbers tell us a lot of things, mainly which communities and areas have grown in population or have lost ground. Economic development experts, city planners, and those sort of folks can tell a lot by the numbers. Another major activity that happens with census numbers is a phenomenon called ‘redistricting’. It is a process by which the legislature redraws the boundary lines of House and Congressional districts. The idea is to leave each legislator with as equal a number of constituents as possible. This year’s census and the numbers that we are now digesting was a good news/bad news scenario. I do not think there were any surprises in census numbers or any areas where the population declined or grew. I do believe that in southwest Oklahoma, the numbers may not have been as accurate as they could have been. I am not placing blame or bad mouthing anyone. I just believe that the timing of the military growth in southwest Oklahoma was a little off beat with the census count. Again, no one’s fault, just I believe, the way the mop flops. The census count occurred just a little bit before the movement of troops and contractors into the greater Lawton area which caused a big amount of growth not only in Lawton but in the communities surrounding Lawton/Ft. Sill. There would be no reason for the agency that conducts the census count to be in any kind of harmony with the Department of Defense. They each have totally separate missions but I truly believe that dynamic was in play as the census count was being taken as the B.R.A.C. moves were in motion.

The good news is that Oklahoma will not lose a Congressional seat in this redistricting process. I am hearing that Texas may have gained two congressmen which always makes any good Oklahoman ask themselves the question “what is Texas doing that we may not be?” That may be a whole other article. For now, we know that we have held our own as far as the Washington, D.C. picture is concerned.

There have been areas in our southwest Oklahoma region that have gained some population. As far as our state House districts are concerned, I do not think we will see any major shifts here locally. The new number we will aim at for a state House district will be roughly 37,000 people. One of my duties this year is an appointment by the Speaker for me to serve as the Chairman of the Southern Oklahoma redistricting process. I will be in charge of making sure the numbers fit. Again, we will aim at 37,000 per House district for a 3% variance to try to equalize the number of constituents that each House member will serve. I do not foresee my district changing a lot because my 2010 number is 36,149. My district grew in some areas and lost in some areas while Representative Ann Coody who represents a good deal of Lawton as well as eastern Comanche County, grew by 679. Representative T.W. Shannon whose district is mostly west Lawton, lost 1,229. Representative Joe Dorman who serves much of eastern Comanche County and into the Rush Springs area, lost 1,611. Most of those districts, even with the slight gains and losses, are fairly close to the 3% variance that we must work within.

Each House member will go downstairs and work with the redistricting staff and draw lines of what they consider their ideal House district. My job will then be, as Chairman of the process, to make sure that each one of those districts fit within the guidelines. It is too early to tell what the changes will look like but I do believe that they will be slight and nothing “earth shattering”. I think each House member kind of becomes endeared to their district. I have been in office right at nine years and your communities become kind of like your kids. If you spend time as you should in your own district by attending events, school activities and even in my case, a lot of family gatherings, funerals and weddings, you would be hard pressed to move anybody out of a district. If you truly care about your people, you want to continue to care for them and their interests.

So, while the semi-bad news is that we have lost a small amount of population in our outlying areas, we have remained static enough that I do not see any major shifts. If you really like your state representative, you are probably going to keep he or she. The game gets a little more dicey when you move north from our area into areas that become even more rural because some of those areas have lost larger chunks of their population and the fact is, a guy who serves a remote district must grow towards that 37,000 magic number. It is an equalization process that must occur to keep the playing field somewhat level. It is always stressful but the law says we must complete the task. While it is too early to be specific, the process is underway. The crayons are sharpened and the computers are humming. Of course, we will let ya know how it turns out.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call
1-800-522-8502 or send an e-mail to donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

“Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.” - Rene Descartes quotes