Posts

Lawmakers Near Final Approval of Congressional Maps

/in /by

Pennsylvania will lose a Congressional seat in 2012, as the Keystone State’s population growth didn’t keep up with other states over the past ten years.  The General Assembly must now act quickly to approve the new congressional maps.  “If a congressional redistricting plan is not enacted by the end of this calendar year, it will cause chaos in the 2012 election cycle,” said Senate GOP Leader Dominic Pileggi.  During Wednesday night’s Senate debate, Pileggi noted that the process of circulating nominating petitions begins on January 24th. 

The Republican-drawn maps were unveiled earlier in the week, cleared the Senate on Wednesday night, and advanced out of the House State Government Committee on Thursday afternoon.  Up next is consideration by the full House. 

Democrats are lining up to criticize SB 1249 as blatant gerrymandering.   “I ask anybody who looks at these maps, are these districts contiguous or are they torturous?” said Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Phila.), the Minority Chair of the House State Government Committee. 

Appearing on Radio PA’s monthly Ask the Governor program, Governor Tom Corbett said this is the situation every ten year, no matter which party is in the majority.  “It’s incumbent upon the congressmen who represent those districts… to make sure that they pay attention to their constituents no matter where they are.” 

Corbett says the process is particularly difficult when one congressional district must be drawn out of existence.    In this case, the proposal would combine the districts of Democratic Congressmen Jason Altmire and Mark Critz. 

“We knew that the Republicans would use their control of the process to draw a map that that benefitted Republicans, but we did not expect them to abuse their power to this degree,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Chairman Jim Burn.

Preliminary Legislative Redistricting Plan Approved Along Party Lines

/in /by

A preliminary legislative redistricting plan was approved by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission on Monday.  The vote was split along party lines. The approval came after a half hour recess to allow the legislative leaders  time to look over each side’s final proposed maps.

The preliminary plan moves a senate district from the Pittsburgh area, now held by Senator Jim Brewster, a Democrat, to Monroe County. On the house side, it adds seats in Lehigh, Berks, Chester and York Counties while cutting districts in Erie and Philadelphia, and two in Allegheny County.

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) says there are two current Republican seats and two current Democratic seats that would be moved, even though the population gains in the state, in the aggregate, have been significantly in Republican districts.  He says the loss in population has most significantly occurred in the western part of the state.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) says six senate districts are currently based in Allegheny County.  He says combined, they’re more than 125,000 residents short of the ideal population for six senate districts., Four of them already stretch into other counties. He says the proposal moves the lowest populated district, senate district 45.

Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) says it’s not a fair plan, and not reasonable to all citizens and to their members.  He says the Republican map is not sincere; it does not follow the appropriate population numbers, the population change. He says the map also disenfranchises voters across the state and splits strong African American communities in Western Pennsylvania.

House Minority Leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny) called it bait and switch. He says the plan is not about fairness for the people of Pennsylvania, it’s about maintaining the Republican majority.

The commission is made up of the four leaders and State Superior Court Judge emeritus Stephen McEwen.  The deciding vote in the 3-2 tally was cast by McEwen. He set a November 18th hearing date to take public input on the preliminary plan.

The plan will sit for a thirty day public comment period. A copy of the proposed new legislative district lines was to be made available at the Commission’s web site, www.redistricting.state.pa.us.

Senator Costa told Judge McEwen he hopes they’ll be provided the opportunity to continue to negotiate the reapportionment process, to further refine the plan Costa says was adopted along party lines.  McEwen said he would certainly be open to further negotiation and compromise, and would be delighted to hear that negotiations had been somewhat successful.

The changes are based on 2010 census  numbers for Pennsylvania.

Judge Stephen McEwen

State Capitol Facing North Office Building

Redistricting Panel Seeks to Beat the Clock

/in /by

A five member state panel has 90-days to craft a preliminary redistricting plan for Pennsylvania’s 253-House and Senate districts.  If Wednesday’s meeting is any indication, they’re up for the challenge.  In mere minutes, the Legislative Reapportionment Commission allocated its $4.8-million dollar budget, OK’d a new website that allows the public to track its progress, set two public hearings for September and deemed the new US Census data “usable.”   

State Rep. Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny)

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai talks to the media following Wednesday's Legislative Reapportionment Commission meeting.

“I have every confidence that we will work through the process and get it done in a timely manner,” says Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny).  House Majority Leader Mike Turzai thinks they can even beat the 90-day deadline.  “You have to give the electorate an opportunity – before the petition process – to know exactly where the lines are,” Turzai said after Wednesday’s meeting.

The Legislative Reapportionment Commission is comprised of all four legislative floor leaders in Harrisburg and their court-appointed chairman.  They are tasked with using the new population data to redraw Pennsylvania’s legislative map in time for the 2012 elections. 

The two Democratic members voiced concerns over precinct-level data to be used in 129 of the 9,254 voting precincts in the state.  “Right now, we’re trying to maintain the integrity of the voting precincts that have existed for 40, 50-years,” says House Minority Leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny).  Turzai, however, doesn’t concede that there are problems and the panel agreed to make any necessary refinements as they go. 

Good government advocates will be watching to see that every district has an equal size population, that no existing geo-political area is unnecessarily divided and that districts are compact and contiguous.  Turzai says it’s too soon to talk specifics: “Some districts have to get larger, some districts have to get smaller and as a result there may be some shifts within the state.  Those are decisions that the commission’s going to have to address.” 

Once the preliminary map is ready, there will be a 30-day window for public comment.  Then, the commission will have another 30-days to adopt a final redistricting plan.

Capitol Rotunda Light Fixture

The Challenge of Congressional Redistricting

/in /by
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler)

Darly Metcalfe Seeks Congressional Map that's Legal, Constitutional and Fair

Every ten years state lawmakers are called upon to redraw the state’s Congressional map.  In addition to ensuring population equity and fair representation of minorities, PA lawmakers must again account for the loss of a Congressional seat due to population shifts.  “When you’re shrinking from 19-members in Congress to 18, you have to grow the districts, and somebody’s going to lose a Congressman,” says State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), who chairs the House State Government Committee.  The House and Senate State Government Committees have just wrapped up a third joint public hearing on the Congressional redistricting process. 

Executive director of Common Cause PA, Barry Kauffman, offered his redistricting wish list during Tuesday’s testimony.  He told the committee that respect for county and municipal boundaries should be a central feature.  “People need to know who their legislator is, both in order to contact her or him, and to be motivated to vote.  And, uncertainty is depressing both to citizen action and voter turnout.” 

Kauffman also argued in favor of compact districts: “The more linear a district is, and the less it resembles either an ideal circle or hexagonal shape, the harder it becomes for people to know their representatives, to feel themselves as a part of a community of interest, to care about elections, or to participate themselves,” Kauffman testified.   

While Kauffman raised concerns of “painfully convoluted” districts, Rep. Metcalfe did not commit to specifics in the eventual Congressional map.  “I will stand for making sure that the final product is constitutional, legal and fair,” Metcalfe told reporters after Tuesday’s capitol hearing.  No additional public hearings are planned at this time, but the committees will schedule more as needed.  Metcalfe hopes for a final product in mid to late fall.      

Congressional redistricting is traditionally done through the legislative process in Harrisburg.  Like other legislation, a bill must be passed by both chambers and be signed by the governor.  It is separate from the legislative redistricting process, which is handled by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission. 

PA's Current Congressional Map

PA's Current Congressional Map