Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon is looking more likely to pick up an additional Congressional seat in the next few years. April Baer reports.

This week the Senate took a procedural vote  on a bill that would increase the House by two members in 2010. So the question is - where will those new seats be created?

Kimball Brace's company, Election Data Services, rakes through census data. For the past thirty years, his analysts have watched people moving out of the Northeast, toward the South and the West.

Brace says that trend is slowing, as the midwest draws more people than before.

Kimball Brace: "But there are trends toward growth in both Oregon and Washington, so they're actually right on the bubble right now, for the potential of an additional seat."

In fact, an EDS study based on census data released in December shows Oregon positioned at the front of the line for the 435th Congressional seat in 2010.

Political observers have speculated a new Oregon seat would be likely within the Willamette Valley, possibly in suburbs near Portland.