| Wow. There's politics, there's dirty tricks in politics, then there's this. State Representative Aaron Pena sent out this like via his Twitter feed (which you can follow @AaronPena): Take a look for it yourself -- and remember that Republicans will pull every horrible trick they can this and every election cycle. From Politico: Officials of both parties are sharply criticizing a fundraising mailing from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele they say could be confused with official correspondence regarding this year’s census. The fundraising letter comes in the form of a “survey,” a frequently used device for partisan fundraising, but this one has a twist: Calling itself the “Congressional District Census,” the letter comes in an envelope starkly printed with the words, “DO NOT DESTROY OFFICIAL DOCUMENT” and describes itself, on the outside of the envelope, as a “census document."
A couple months ago, I attended a Texas House of Representatives Redistricting Committee hearing about the census, and what it means for Texas. At the meeting, I learned that $3 trillion is appropriated annually based on census data. States and counties budget their numbers based on the census, which makes an accurate count extremely important. However, there has been a long-standing effort to improve census counts in Hispanic communities, especially in South Texas. As some of you may know, Univision is making an extended effort to have conversations about the census on all major programming, from nightly news to telenovelas. As Pena wrote online: Working so hard here in South Texas on getting a good census count only to have these ill-timed tactics. What's next?
What's next, indeed. |
