Work in progress

Rural vs. Urban: Part I - 3/9/21 using python to explore legislative data

Photo Credit: "Rural vs Urban Living - Budgets and Net Worth," Wealth Meta, September 18, 2018

RESEARCH QUESTION: Using current membership in the California State Legislature Rural Caucus as a proxy for rural or urban, do rural districts introduce and chapter more or less measures than their urban counterparts?

Key caveats include:

Visualizations do not reflect impact of redistricting with regard to rural/urban designation.
Datapoints prior to 2011 may not be accurately identified as rural/urban due to redistricting.
Datapoints prior to 2003 may not be accurately identified as rural/urban due to our reliance on current membership information for the California State Legislature Rural Caucus.
We selected the categorical scatterplot as the primary kind of visualization for this project allow us to to observe relationships and identify patterns between non-numeric variables (rural/urban).

In terms of actual votes cast, urban voters cast more votes in elections than rural voters. Data courtesy of Alex Vassar.

Voters in urban Assembly districts cast more votes than voters in rural Assembly districts. Data courtesy of Alex Vassar.

Voters in urban Senate districts cast more votes than voters in rural Senate districts. Data courtesy of Alex Vassar.

In the Assembly, rural districts introduce fewer measures than urban districts.

In the Senate, rural districts introduce fewer measures than urban districts.

In the Assembly, rural districts chapter fewer measures than urban districts.

In the senate, rural districts chapter fewer measures than urban districts.

In the Legislature, rural districts introduce and chapter fewer measures than urban districts.

In the Assembly, rural districts, on average, introduce and chapter fewer measures than urban districts.

In the Senate, rural districts, on average, introduce and chapter fewer measures than urban districts.

In the Assembly, comparing percentage of measures introduced and chaptered to the square mileage of a district suggests that more square miles a district has, the fewer measures it introduces/chapters per square mile.

In the Senate, comparing percentage of measures introduced and chaptered to the square mileage of a district suggests that the more square miles a district has, the fewer measures it introduces/chapters per square mile.

In the Assembly, comparing percentage of measures introduced and chaptered to the number of people per square mile of a district suggests that the more people a district has, the fewer measures it introduces/chapters per person.

In the Senate, comparing percentage of measures introduced and chaptered to the number of people per square mile of a district suggests that the fewer people a district has, the more measures it introduces/chapters per person.

On the right side of the viz, you'll see introduced measures for both houses by party. On the left side of the viz, you'll see chaptered measures for both houses.

On the right side of the viz, you'll see introduced measures for the Assembly by party. On the left side of the viz, you'll see chaptered measures for the Assembly by party.

On the right side of the viz, you'll see introduced measures for the Senate by party. On the left side of the viz, you'll see chaptered measures for the Senate by party.

Appreciate