Finally, S.C. Earns A 7th Seat

New Lines Will Produce Lots of Deal Making
As American folklore has it, when Lyndon B. Johnson was born in 1908, his grandfather jumped on a horse and galloped by nearby Texas farms hollaring, "A United States Senator was born today!!!"

As the U.S. government announced the new census numbers today, we learned that South Carolina will be adding a coveted 7th Congressional seat to our delegation. If you don't know politics or policy, you wouldn't know this is a big deal. It is.

In regards to policy, this is a whopper of an announcement as we'll (presumably) have another advocate and vote looking out for our state's interests.

Politically this is going to be a blue whale humdinger as we're going to watch Republicans argue strategy. Will Republicans draw this 7th district to be "solid R," or will they choose to solidify more marginal districts like Wilson and Mulveney?

The map/pics above are two possibilities that may be on the table. I'll save my predictions for another post, but my early inclinations are that the second map just doesn't 'look' right. I simply don't see Horry Co. and York Co. sharing many interests, much less Congressional seat. Further, it will be interesting if Republicans split Greenville County or separate Greenville from Spartanburg. We'll see.

You may be asking what my intro paragraph about Johnson's grandfather's unlikely prediction have to do with our new 7th district. Answer: Not one thing. I'm well aware S.C. will have two senators in Washington, DC . I simply wanted to see if my politically inclined readers would read it and internally whisper, "What a dumba**!"... or (hopefully) give me the benefit of the doubt. ;)

Now that South Carolina's population has bulged enough to warrant a 7th Congressional district, anyone interested in becoming member of the U.S. House of Representatives (or hopes their child will) have finally increased.