Dave's Redistricting now has 49 states with 2010 data (all but Alaska). New ones (with block groups) are OR, KY, MT, RI.
Also, I added data from the 2010 Senate election in WA state. Someone sent me the raw spreadsheet and it was a bit of work, but I matched it up.
DRA made it into the news again in an article about VA redistricting.
[Sen. George L. Barker (D)], a senator from Prince William since 2008, has spent 30 years determining where hospitals and nursing homes should be built in Northern Virginia. He has studied traffic patterns, communities of interest and census data.
Last year, Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw and Sen. Janet D. Howell, both Democrats from Fairfax County, asked Barker to take a crack at drawing the chamber’s maps.
Barker downloaded Dave’s Redistricting software from the Internet and got to work. The latest population numbers didn’t come out until February, but he began getting familiar with the state using 2008 estimates.
Although it sounds like the use did not have citizens as top priority.
The result? Lines that protect incumbents and punish challengers, observers say.
“It’s horrific,’’ said C. Douglas Smith, director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and chairman of the Virginia Redistricting Coalition, which advocates changing the process. “Redistricting has always happened with only a few people knowing. It shouldn’t surprise us, but should disappoint us.”
Enjoy.