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State Democrats React to GOP Congressional Map

Governor Tom Wolf and Democratic leaders are responding to the GOP Congressional map that House and Senate Republican leadership submitted to Wolf hours ahead of Friday’s deadline.

Wolf, state Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny), and state House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny) all took issue with the lack of input from Democrats and others in the drawing of the new maps.  

Wolf’s Office said it would still review the maps submitted by the GOP.  

“While the Court’s order did not appear to allow for two individuals to draw a map on behalf of the entire General Assembly, Governor Wolf will review Speaker Turzai and President Scarnati’s submission in consultation with the experts retained by the administration to determine his next course of action,” Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott said.  

“This map was not the product of bipartisan work, nor is it a piece of legislation that passed through both of our chambers,” Costa and Dermody write in a letter to Governor Wolf.  

In the letter Costa and Dermody call for Wolf to reject the map.  

“For these reasons, we ask you to reject it outright. The Republican leadership in both chambers blocked this process, refused to negotiate, and have now submitted a map directly to your office that we have not even seen.”

11 Responses

  1. Would rather see this determined by an impartial group such as the PA Supreme Court. Don’t like to see the refusal to work in a bipartisan manner.

  2. Sad how few of you understand the problems in a State like PA with reapportionment. Worse, the Supreme Court of PA has made a bad situation worse with their timing leaving the politicians pick the candidates rather than the voters who will not have the luxury of reviewing candidates for office due to the time constraints in whatever some professor comes up with
    For districts. The least they could have done was move the primary date to accommodate their decision. Also, it would have helped to write a decision but I guess the Justices don’t get paid enough to do that- lol

  3. Cole Goodman made unwanted advances towards me at Democratic State Committee. Hopefully this new policy will affect his ability to serve.

  4. Don’t hate this map. It is basically just a more common sense, calmer version of what we have now.

  5. Let’s not forget the Democrats had a say in the 2011 map, Rep. Brady gave his full blessing. MAGA! Vote against the lonely left.

    1. Frank-

      The Dems were betrayed by Brady who not only sold us out, but did it in a racist way to move Black voters out of his district. He pushed (or rewarded) a bunch of Dem legislatures who were too greedy, foolish or stupid to know better.

      I’ve complained about Brady selling us out for years. The elected Dems, who were in the know and privy to his manipulation, were too cowardly to call him out on this. I pointedly explained this to one of them (who says that Brady got away with it) that his cowardice was the reason Brady gets away with it.

  6. This map looks like a ploy to force the Supreme Court to make good on their threat to draw the lines themselves. My guess is the GOP legislative leaders would then seek a federal injunction, claiming the imposition of a court-drawn map violates the Article I provision of the U.S. Constitution that “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.” Kick the can far enough down the road and wind up with a U.S. Supreme Court order to hold this year’s congressional elections under the 2011 map.

    1. MontcoWatch-

      But, wasn’t that part of their argument to the Supreme Court in the first place that rejected their stay? If Supremes were inclined to grant an injunction on that basis, they would have heard arguments in the first place.

  7. My guess is that Wolf decided (ie had it explained to him) to reject it before he left the State Committee dinner Friday night, when this was first posted online.

    The best strategy for Wolf is to run out the clock and wait until the 15th to formally reject it. If he rejects it now, then the Republicans will just have another 3 days to generate a map that wouldn’t be worth wiping your @ss with.

    Running out the clock, just puts into the hands of the PA Supreme Court, whose mapping expert (probably) has a map (and 11 back-ups) ready to go for the justices to approve. So, we could have a final map from the court on Friday.

    And, not just a “map”. There should be an Excel file with the county/precinct-codes and columns for the old and new congressional district assignments. The voting within the state is broken down into some 9,200 precincts (Philly calls them “divisions”).

  8. Turdseye’s map is the same garbage they did in 2011 – completely political, incumbent protecting, splitting Dem strength into Rep territories, packiing & stacking, done with no public input or awareness, just a joke. The Supremes should laugh at this pathetic attempt to hold onto ill-gotten power.

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