In late January, the Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to remand a proposed redistricting map back to the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, citing an excessive number of municipal divisions as their reason for sending it back to lawmakers.
Then, in April, the LRC passed a new preliminary map that again drew the ire of many – from Democrats who claimed the map unfairly disadvantaged them, to Latino Lines spokespersons who saw the new map as insufficient in reflecting the growth of Pa.’s Hispanic population, and even Republicans who thought it disadvantaged their candidates.
There were others who still took issue with municipality splits, as well.
The LRC has held two hearing sessions, and will soon turn in an updated version of the proposed map. It would impact the 2014 election cycle.
As we near the end of this odyssey, PoliticsPA would like to ask its readers:
Do you agree that ByteDance should be forced to divest TikTok?
- Yes. It's a national security risk. (60%)
- No. It's an app used by millions and poses no threat. (40%)
- What's ByteDance? (0%)
Loading ...
Loading ...
8 Responses
With Justice Melvin now in the grip of justice but refusing to resign, it’s had to see how the Supreme Court can revisit redistricting for quite a while.
If the Court is consistent with its prior ruling, it will invalidate these maps too. While the new version is somewhat improved in some ways, it is worse in others–i.e. non-contiguous districts. Really??
Amanda Holt’s maps are vastly better than these abominations that the LRC has produced. Her maps DO NOT violate the Voting Rights Act, and the only reason that legislators and the LRC don’t like her maps is that incumbents are more vulnerable under Amanda’s maps…not an unconstitutional reason to reject them.
The Supremes should invalidate the LRC map, and impose a version of Holt’s maps.
Should we really put municipality splits above all else? Amanda’s map looks just like the other maps and has strangely shaped districts all over the place to justify not splitting municipalities. There is some truth to making a district with similar social economic conditions.
Just in Allegheny County portion of Amanda’s map: Franklin Park and Crafton are in the same district. Fawn Township and Etna are in the same district. Richland Township and Millvale are in the same district. What about school districts? I see a bunch of school districts split just for the numbers.
The LRC cut down the number of municipal splits even more, but to do so they increased the variance of population between districts — something that every court (until our PA SC this year) has held is the basis for drawing these maps.
The Supreme Court’s games have put the LRC in a no win situation. It’s either fewer splits or bigger population variances.
The problem isn’t politics anymore – it’s math. In the populous Southeast (and areas of the Southwest), you can’t avoid splits without making the population differential too large. People seem to forget this is also about one man-one vote as well.
Ima Voter: You mean Amanda Holt’s Voting Rights Act-violating maps?
william healy: Meehan’s district is not relevant to these maps. Try to keep up
Use Amanda’s Holt’s maps!!
I still think there’s too many districts. But it’s an improvement.
It’s nice to see how Representative Jeff Pyles area would cover all of Armstrong County. I’m sure all the taxpayers and parents he screwed over in areas that couldn’t vote for him before.
Yep, Jeff, it’s time we hillbillies gets us ours. You know what they say about karma
What the republicans did to the 7th district is a travesty masquerading as a joke.
Carving little pieces out of 5 counties to save Pat Meehan’s seat.