It’s time to embrace real redistricting reform
It’s a biannual rite. In even-numbered years, Pennsylvania voters shake their fists at the heavens over the size and expense of the 253-member General Assembly. They rage at the partisan gridlock that allows debate over the state budget and other key issues to drag on for months without resolution.
They fume at the history of corruption that has seen dozens of state lawmakers and elected officials sent to state and federal prison over the last decade alone.
And then, in November of that even-numbered year, thanks to a paucity of choices, poor candidate recruitment and legislative districts that have been drawn with scientific precision to overwhelmingly favor incumbents, they send nearly 9 in 10 of those same lawmakers back to Harrisburg.
And the dance, without changing so much as a single step, begins anew.
Technology has made it easier than ever to draw maps that advantage one party over another by grouping the opposing party’s voters into fewer districts (packing) or dissolving their influence across many districts (cracking).
The practice is often called gerrymandering, a term coined by a 19th-century cartoonist.
A case concerning one example--Wisconsin’s Republican-favored map--will soon go before the U.S. Supreme Court. Another challenging Pennsylvania’s GOP-dominated map is currently making its way through state courts.
Thankfully, there’s a relatively simple way to right this imbalance:
By lawmakers, and then voters at a statewide referendum, approving a proposed constitutional amendment that would take the decennial redrawing out of the hands of self-interested politicians and turn it over to a non-partisan commission.
As a refresher, constitutional amendments must be approved in consecutive legislative sessions, which means the earliest the voters could get their hands on it is 2020. Conveniently, that’s when the next round of redistricting is set to begin.
Companion versions of that amendment are now before the state House and Senate.
The legislation was developed in conjunction with a group known as Fair Districts PA, a statewide advocacy coalition that counts the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Common Cause Pennsylvania, the Committee of Seventy, the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and more than 20 other organizations among its members.
Unfortunately, the bills have been mired in committee for months, and show no sign of being reported to either chamber for their consideration anytime soon.
If lawmakers are indeed serious about reform and increasing voter participation and interest, they need to break that logjam right away and send the bills to the full House and Senate for a vote.
They are infinitely preferable to the current, very broken system.
Right now, congressional districts are drawn by state lawmakers, which means they typically reflect the will of the legislative majority (currently Republican). The maps are then subject to a governor’s veto.
As a result, even though Democrats command a majority of registered voters, 13 of the state’s 18 Congressional seats are held by Republicans. And while it’s true that most people split their tickets, that’s still an improbable outcome.
That arrangement gives the two major parties even more reason to deeply invested in control of the Governor’s Office.
At the legislative level, a five-member commission draws boundaries for the 203 House Districts and 50 state Senate seats.
The panel is typically comprised of the four floor leaders from the state House and Senate, or their designee, and a fifth, nonpartisan chairman. That fifth seat is often appointed by the state Supreme Court because of very partisan disagreements over that job.
During the last round of mapmaking in 2010, legal challenges to legislative maps kept boundaries for House and Senate districts from taking full effect for one, full campaign cycle.
At the Congressional level, it resulted in the oddly shaped 7th Congressional District seat now held by Delaware County Republican U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan. People have described the silhouette of that seat as “Goofy kicking Donald Duck.”
That’s no way to run a railroad. And here’s why that’s a problem for you not just the two sides jockeying for power.
The tortured shape of Meehan’s seat is as clear a demonstration of politicians picking their voters, effectively rendering the primary and general election an elaborate and costly formality.
You have but one vote. But thanks to the current process, it’s effectively drowned out by a system designed to enhance the incumbents’ chances of re-election rather than result in real representation or, sadly, good public policy.
Fixing what ails Pennsylvania’s legislative and congressional districts won’t be easy. It will probably mean wiping out the current maps and starting from scratch. That means incumbents running against incumbents and voters choosing among some unfamiliar names.
But if the 2016 presidential election proved anything, it’s that the electorate’s faith in the current system and its belief that lawmakers are guided by the public good, not enlightened self-interest, has been shaken to its core.
Pennsylvania lawmakers can restore that faith by springing those bills from committee, approving the proposed amendments in this legislative session and the next, and by the letting the voters have their say at a referendum.