In fact, some political experts thought we’d lose two. “We’ve lost two or more seats every Census since 1950,” said Dan Lamb, lecturer in Cornell’s Institute for Public Affairs. “This is a break in the trend line that’s positive for New York. We’re not losing as much clout as we have in prior cycles.” Losing only one representative seemed to be good news for the Empire State, until we heard that the difference between losing one seat and keeping our 27 representatives came down to fewer than 100 people filling out the census last year. Yes. If 89 more people had responded to the once-a-decade nationwide count, we would have kept our seat in the House.