A deadline to change the way Pennsylvania draws its legislative maps in time for 2021 redistricting is fast approaching, but it seems school’s out for summer. The state House adjourned Monday, leaving in limbo a handful of important legislation — among them a Senate-approved bill to create an independent commission purported to eliminate gerrymandering.
A proposed state constitutional amendment creating an independent commission to oversee redistricting passed the state Senate today by a vote of 33 to 16. The bill, which has been in the works for more than a year, went through revisions as late as yesterday. And several people, mostly Democrats, were unhappy about the final version of the bill that passed.
As lawmakers prepare for a possible vote Wednesday on sweeping reforms to the state’s redistricting process, Senate Republicans on Tuesday introduced a new amendment that would create election districts for judges.
Historically, the U.S. Supreme Court has shied away from ruling on the legality of gerrymandering or whether a standard exists for identifying extreme examples of it. Could that change this month?
A bill to take power over the redrawing of Congressional and state legislative lines away from the legislature advanced unanimously out of the state Senate’s State Government committee.
State House Majority Leader Dave Reed put his support behind reforming the way Pennsylvania draws its Congressional maps before he leaves the state House at the end of the year.
In a new poll sponsored by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center with Common Cause PA, Why Courts Matter – PA, and the League of Women Voters of PA says that a majority of voters support an independent commission drawing district lines and a majority agree with the state Supreme Court’s ruling on the old Congressional maps.
State House Republicans moved to give the majority party a larger role in the redistricting process, a move the Governor Wolf opposes.
The Cook Political Report has updated its House ratings after the state Supreme Court redrew the Congressional map after ruling the old map unconstitutional, changing its rating for seven of the 18 districts.
The GOP is planning to challenge the new Congressional map drawn by the state Supreme Court.
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