UPDATE: Feb 12, 2009: This afternoon Judd Gregg withdrew his name from nomination to the job as Commerce Secretary. It seems he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Obama, this census issue most likely being the major issue.
UPDATE II: Feb 13, 2009: I just ran across a piece in the Chicago Daily Observer on Judd Gregg that looks to tell the Judd Gregg story…
I had to laugh when I began hearing news broadcasts yesterday that the Census Bureau, and the 2010 census had 
“suddenly” become a political issue. The talking heads kept making remarks about the Census Bureau being an agency the was “above politics.”
The issue surfaced because is seems that some special interest groups feel that the newly nominated Commerce Secretary, Judd Gregg, Republican from New Hampshire, won’t make a priority of the counting of Hispanics and other minorities in the 2010 census. Caving to pressure from these groups, the Obama administration has responded by saying that the Director of the Census Bureau will report to the White House, as well as The Commerce Department. Now that’s something new and different.
This has made some Republicans uncomfortable, seeing the move as a power grab by the White House, one which could allow them to gerrymander congressional districts.
The bottom line is that no matter how much we may talk about how the Census Bureau is non-political, it’s still very much political. There’s far too much at stake to allow those in power to keep their hands off.
But no matter how political the census is today, it’s nowhere near as much as it was prior to the forming in 1902 of the permanent Census Office. In the early years (starting in 1790), even census taking jobs were political plums. If you got a job as a Federal District Marshall – or even one of those who worked under him, you’d better be of the political party that was currently in power.
I have no idea if the Obama administration’s move will be good, bad or indifferent. I do find it all very fascinating.
Read about the current Census Bureau controversy at the February 7, 2009 edition of foxnews.com
Read about the history of the Census Bureau at census.gov.
As a family researcher for many many years, I have watched the increase of documents go up in various federal, state, and county agencies, and it’s hard now to afford the research. I have used the census hundreds of times over.
I am worried that people from Acorn, who went out and used dead people, and repeated names, for the primaries, would create a hugh mess for furture researchers. I’ll be long gone, but I hope that my family picks up where I left off just like I did with my grandparents,etc.
Let’s stick to the consitiution, which gives congress the power to decide how the census operates by law. It should not be in the executive branch, at least that is what I thought.
The census should not be a politcal tool!