It’s unfortunate that rural Minnesota will lose one U.

Friday, March 22, 2002

It’s unfortunate that rural Minnesota will lose one U.S. representative under a plan released by a judicial redistricting panel Tuesday, but because of significant population shifts to the Twin Cities area over the last ten years, the result was basically unavoidable.

In recent years, the Twin Cities area has had four U.S. representatives and the rural area has had four; under the new plan, the Twin Cities will have five and the outstate area will get three.

Austin will still remain in the district now represented by Republican Gil Gutknecht, but now, under the judges’ plan, the district will extend all the way from the state’s western border to its eastern border. The district’s representative will now have several extra counties to cover.

Because congressional districts must reflect population, it was inevitable that the more densely populated areas of the state would gain more representation, while areas with shrinking populations would end up with fewer.

We just hope rural Minnesota’s voice won’t be forgotten in this latest change.