Vince Barabba
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Vince Barabba is a member of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission and Chairman of the Market Insight Corporation. He retired in 2003 as the General Manager of Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development at the General Motors Corporation. He also serves as Chairman of the State of the USA, a non-profit corporation with an educational mission to provide quality information, including quantitative indicators, to the American public on key changing societal, economic, and environmental conditions.

Vince twice served as director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census and is the only person to have been appointed to that position by U.S. Presidents of different political parties. He has been appointed to government positions by five Presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and James Earl Carter to be Census Bureau Director; and Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush to be the U.S. Representative to the Population Commission of the United Nations. Between his government service and GM assignments he served as the manager of market research for the Xerox Corporation and director of market intelligence for Eastman Kodak. Vince was the co-founder with Richard Wirthlin of Decision Making Information and from 1969 to 1973 provided electoral information to political campaigns from City Hall to the Presidency. He has also served on the board of directors for the Marketing Science Institute, the American Institutes for Research, and the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. He is a past president and a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

In recognition of his performance in the private and public sectors he has been inducted into the Market Research Hall of Fame and received:

- The American Marketing Association’s Parlin Award for leadership in the application of science to the discipline of marketing research,
- The MIT/GM Henry Grady Weaver Award for individuals who have contributed the most to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science,
- The System Dynamics Society’s Applications Award for the best “Real World” application of system dynamics
- The Certificate of Distinguished Service for Contribution to the Federal Statistical System from the Office of Management and Budget.
- The Distinguished Alumni Award from the California State University at Northridge.

He is the author of The Decision Loom, (2011 Triarchy Press), Surviving Transformation (2004 Oxford University Press) and Meeting of the Minds (1995 HBS Press). He is the co-author of Hearing the Voice of the Market (1991 HBS Press) and The 1980 Census: Policy Making Amid Turbulence (1983 Lexington Books).

Blog Entries by Vince Barabba

How New York Could Improve Its Redistricting Process

0 Comments | Posted March 26, 2012 | 1:31 PM

Having lived in New York and California, I am aware of the many differences that characterize the Empire and the Golden states. And with that understanding in mind I make the following suggestion:

Instead of congratulating themselves and trumpeting the passage of what they are calling an historic reform...

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Why the California Redistricting Commission Has Prevailed in the Courts

1 Comments | Posted February 15, 2012 | 4:41 PM

There were four challenges in which partisans sought to have the California Redistricting Commission's congressional and legislative maps overturned. In four cases the courts, and in one case the U.S. Department of Justice, supported the maps drawn by the commission. Why?
Among many reasons is the fact that the...

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California Supreme Court Chooses Citizen Redistricting Commission Senate Maps

0 Comments | Posted January 30, 2012 | 1:51 PM

In a victory for the 61 percent of the California who voted in the 2010 election to expand the 2008 Voters First Act to include congressional districts, in a unanimous 7-0 decision, has upheld the Citizens Redistricting Commission's State Senate maps for use in the upcoming 2012 elections.

In their...

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One More Victory for Democracy as Citizens Redistricting Commission Clears Another Hurdle

0 Comments | Posted January 18, 2012 | 4:00 PM

As a member of the 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission, I am proud of the work we did to produce fair and representative legislative and Congressional districts for the people. In a mere eight months the first ever Citizens Commission set up a new state organization, hired staff...

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Fix Gerrymandering to Fix the Electorate

0 Comments | Posted November 27, 2011 | 10:38 AM

The Founders of our Country were wise enough to provide us with a decennial census of the inhabitants to ensure each of the States received a fair allocation of representatives.

In 1980 I had the opportunity to serve as Director of the Census Bureau -- the agency responsible for collecting...

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