REPUBLICANS WORRY ABOUT CONSERVATIVE ATTACKS ON CENSUS

Kathleen Hennessey
April 18, 2010

WASHINGTON -- According to many writers in the conservative blogosphere, the census taker is second only to the taxman as the pre-eminent symbol of big government intrusion. Now, several prominent Republicans, fearing the rhetoric could result in an undercount of their ranks, are trying to tamp down the census critics.

Former White House adviser Karl Rove recently made a public service announcement urging participation in the decennial headcount currently under way. Last week, Rep. Patrick McHenry, the ranking Republican on the House committee that oversees the census, issued a statement directly refuting those who claim the current census is unconstitutional.

"What worries me is blatant misinformation coming from otherwise well-meaning conservatives," said the North Carolina lawmaker, who pointed to early statistics showing conservative counties with participation rates that trailed the national average. "Few things will make Nancy Pelosi happier than a low Republican census turnout. Conservatives need to know how important it is to fill out the census ... boycotting will just help liberals expand government even further."

Mr. McHenry's comment highlights the political stakes at play. The census count determines each state's representation in Congress and the Electoral College, and the drafting of state legislative districts. It's also the basis for distribution of billions of dollars of federal funding. As such, it is more commonly a target for Democrats who say it misses large numbers of African-Americans and Hispanics -- groups that tend to fall into the party's base. But in a year when government skeptics are linked online and at tea party rallies across the country, today's loudest critics have come from the right.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota, declared last year that she would be filling out only a part of the 10-question form, claiming the rest might be a violation of privacy rights. She later supported a resolution urging Americans to fill out the form. On his Web site, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said he believed the census "has grown far beyond what the framers of our Constitution intended" and "raises serious questions about how and why government will use the collected information."

Such sentiments have been disavowed by other Republicans, but they continue to swirl. Several Web sites popular with the small government tea party movement offer long discussion threads on whether or not the Constitution only instructs the government to ask about the number of people in a household, and not more specific demographic information. Others suggest that the census information won't remain confidential.

Most recently, the target for critics has been the American Community Survey, a longer offshoot of the census that is distributed annually. The ACS seeks more detailed information on income levels, marital history and employment. If not filled out it can be followed with persistent phone calls and visits from a census worker.

Erick Erickson, a conservative blogger and commentator on CNN, recently said that if a government worker tried to arrest him for not filling out the longer form, he'd "pull out my wife's shotgun, and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."

"They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying," Mr. Erickson said.

The penalty for not filling out the ACS is the same as for not filling out the census, a fine of up to $5,000. No one has been prosecuted for noncompliance for several decades, according to U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves.

His bureau, a division of the Commerce Department, has been trying to refute the constitutional argument for months. Its Web site contains videos featuring Mr. Groves and a constitutional scholar discussing the history of the census. Mr. Groves likes to remind people that the current census is one of the shortest in history and contains three of the same questions asked in the original form in 1790.