Stephen Ohlemacher - The Associated Press

Washington (AP) - Southern and Western states are growing so much faster than the rest of the country that several are expected to grab House seats from the Northeast and Midwest when Congress is reapportioned in 2010. Demographers and political analysts project that Texas and Florida could each gain as many as three House seats. Ohio and New York could lose as many as two seats a piece.

Several other states could gain or lose single seats.

"The states in the Midwest are going through a transition," said Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett. "We're going from a heavy manufacturing economic base to a more service-oriented base, and that transition has been very painful."

"But if you ever banned air conditioning," Bennett added, "I think people would flock back."

The projections - based on state population estimates by the Census Bureau - suggest that people are flocking to Georgia, mo matter what the temperature. The state;s estimated 2005 poulation of 9,072,576 is a 1.7 increase over 2004, a rate that ties it with Texas and North Carolina for the sixth greatest gain.

The bureau released its July 2005 estimates Thursday, showing that Nevada grew at a faster rate than any other state for the 19th consecutive year, followed by Arizona, Idaho, Florida and Utah.

Overall, the country grew by 0.9 percent in the past year, to about 296.4 million people.

Clark Bensen of Polidata, a Virginia firm that crunches political data, said population shifts over the past 65 years have dramatically changed the regional makeup of Congress.

In 1940, Northeastern and Midwestern states had a total of 251 seats in the House, compared with 184 for states in the South and West. Today, Southern and Western states have the edge, 252-183.

"Basically, it took two generations to have a complete shifting of the power base," Bensen said. . .