The redistricting fight is far from over
Don’t fall in love with those new congressional maps just yet. The 5th? The 7th? The 1st? We know, it’s confusing. And it’s about to get more so. That’s because, as expected, Republican lawmakers are going back to court to challenge the new map issued Monday by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, joined national GOP leaders in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the implementation of the new map while they prepare a new challenge in the federal courts.
Yes, this would be the same U.S. Supreme Court that already rejected one GOP challenge to the state high court ruling that the old map, a product of the 2011 redistricting done by the state Legislature, was an unconstitutional gerrymander.
Ironically, no one is actually arguing that the new map issued by the Pa. court is not much fairer than the monstrosity created by Republican legislators after the 2010 census. That piece of partisan chicanery created a 7th District here in Delaware County so grotesquely bent and twisted to favor the Republican incumbent it earned the mocking description of “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck.”
The 7th was contorted into two large chunks that touched on parts of five different suburban counties, flying in the face of the state constitution’s mandate that districts be “compact and contiguous” whenever possible.
The new map issued by the Pa. court largely corrects that monstrosity, creating a new 5th district that covers all of Delaware County, along with a sliver of Montgomery and a chunk of Southwest and South Philly. Montgomery County gets its own congressional district. As does the 6th, which covers Chester County and a contiguous piece of nearby Berks County out to the city of Reading.
Republicans instead are focusing their appeals on two different areas. They claim the expedited timetable demanded by the Pa. court – in order to have the new map in effect for the May 15 primary - created “chaos and confusion” for state voters.
And even more important, they suggest that the state court simply overstepped its bounds, violating the state constitution by performing a task that is traditionally the role of the Legislature. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court conspicuously seized the redistricting process and prevented any meaningful ability for the Legislature to enact a remedial map to ensure a court drawn map,” the Republicans wrote.
In the meantime, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf was pushing the Department of State to comply with the high court’s order by “updating their systems and assisting candidates, county election officials and voters preparing for the primary election.”
All the while befuddled candidates continue to check the map to figure out several things – whether they live in the new districts (candidates do not need to reside in the district, but it is generally considered a hindrance not to); whether they might instead want to run in a different district, as several have indicated they may very well do; or if they want to continue to run at all.
All of this as the new start date for gathering signatures on nominating petitions kicks in next week.
Democrats complained that Republicans in the Legislature rigged the system back in 2011. Now Republicans are claiming the state Supreme Court, which happens to be a 5-2 Democratic majority, returned the favor.
In other words, a fine mess.
Ironically, those voices being raised against the new map include objections from two groups who have been harshly critical of the process and helped bring down the partisan results of the 2011 plan.
Common Causes and the NAACP are mulling taking legal action over what they claim are serious racial imbalances in the three districts representing Philadelphia under the new plan, in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
All of this only brings us back to a point we have made before in this space. We believe both sides are right. Republicans should not be drawing these maps. Neither should the Democrats. Or judges. The way to get politics out of this essential drawing of the state’s congressional districts is literally to get it out of the hands of politicians.
There is a move afoot in the Legislature to do just that. It would create an independent, bipartisan commission made up of people without a political ax to grind in this process, people like statisticians, serious map makers and those who have delved deeply into the state’s demographics.
It would ensure a fair process and an even fairer underlying theme – that voters should select their representatives, not the other way around.
Bills to create such a commission, not surprisingly, have been bottled up in Harrisburg. They need to pass both chambers in consecutive sessions in order to put the matter before the voters in a referendum.
Want to fix this redistricting process once and for all? Let the voters decide. After all, isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be all about?