Government
Counting Down to a Census Doomsday
Top-level vacancies and flatlined funding appear to be the Trump administration’s plans for the Census Bureau.
A potential new appointment at the U.S. Census Bureau has census-watchers worried that the agency’s core mission could be at risk as it enters into the home stretch for the big 2020 count.
On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Trump administration may appoint Thomas Brunell, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, to be the bureau’s deputy director. Critics recoiled at the news, citing Brunell’s 2008 book, Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America, and his lack of experience as further evidence that the Trump administration means to sabotage the decennial count for partisan advantage.