Congressional redistricting anguish has long history in Minnesota

We’ve been there before, and survived.

So Minnesotans worried about the state’s relatively static population during the past decade may find some solace - even if Minnesota loses one of its eight U.S. House seats after the next federal census.

Yes, the Gopher State had seven House seats during the 1890s. True, that was a gain of two seats from the 1880s.

Nevertheless, it’s important for Minnesota snowbirds in southern climes to be included when the bean counters compile the next census. Even if the state’s population increases, we could lose one House seat if the increase is somewhat less than the national average.  The 435 House seats are reapportioned among the 50 states after each census - based on population but using a complicated formula.  Most states have no change.

After the Civil War, immigrants largely from northern Europe surged into Minnesota in record numbers, drawn by the virgin farmland and the lusty publicity campaign waged at home and abroad by the railroads. The invention of the reaper around that time transformed grain farming from a subsistence level into a profitable proposition. And treaties confining most Native Americans to reservations also helped clear the way for intensive agriculture. By the end of the 19th century, Minneapolis was the flour milling capital of the world.

The amazing agricultural development and explosive population growth, fueled earlier by the timber industry and later by the mining boom, gave Minnesota two more House seats in the first decade of the 20th century. The rise of manufacturing also helped. The state gained yet another House seat after the 1910 census. Minnesota enjoyed 10 House seats for 20 years - until the Great Depression depopulated the countryside.

Downsizing to nine seats after the 1930 census was politically painful. Gov. Floyd B. Olson, the state’s first Farmer-Labor Party governor, and the 1931 Legislature, controlled by Republican-aligned Conservatives, could not agree on where to draw the lines for nine districts. The full Legislature, subject to gubernatorial veto, has the sole authority to set the boundaries - unless the courts intervene.

That historic deadlock forced all U.S. House candidates to run statewide in 1932. Three seats were won by Republicans, five were won by Farmer-Labor candidates, and only one Democrat (Einar Hoidahl) survived. Boundaries for nine districts emerged for the next election.

Although the state’s population increased, Minnesota lost yet another U.S. House seat after the 1960 census.  Republican H. Carl Andersen, a 12-term veteran, was the political casualty of the 1961 redistricting. In addition, a reshaped district was a factor in the surprising 1962 defeat of GOP icon Dr. J. Walter Judd, an 11-term mainstay who was unseated by an emerging DFL star named Donald Fraser.

The task of adding House seats is a political plum, compared with the onerous subtraction tug-of-war.

Redistricting breeds curious alliances, which tend to run along partisan and geographical lines.  If Minnesota loses another House seat, it is certain to revive the debate over whether Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul, the state’s largest cities, should be merged into one district. The two central cities have historically anchored separate districts, which now include large suburban areas.

Gene Lahammer, a historian by training, covered public affairs during much of his 34-year career with the Associated Press.  Since retirement in 1994, he has served as an auxiliary member of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, has been an election consultant to AP, and has been an occasional magazine contributor.