Fairness in redistricting

Pennsylvania’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission needs a chairman, the fifth member who could break ties on proposals for redrawing state legislative districts.

The four lawmakers on the committee have an opportunity to show real commitment to transparency and fairness by selecting someone from the group that has lobbied for several years against gerrymandering — Fair Districts PA.

The four caucus leaders from the state House and Senate are accepting applications from members of the public to serve on the commission. They only have until the end of the month to make an appointment before the decision gets handed off to the state Supreme Court, a move that has happened frequently over the past five decades because the four lawmakers couldn’t agree on a pick.

Selecting a chairman from the group that had actively campaigned for a citizens commission to redraw district lines would send a powerful message that lawmakers have heard the demands of the public to end gerrymandering and will work with someone committed to fairness in creating new districts.

Fair Districts PA volunteers had lobbied state lawmakers for a constitutional amendment that would require district lines be determined by an 11-member citizens commission rather than by the legislators. The group’s efforts appeared to have paid off with a proposal in 2018 that seemed headed for passage, only to be torpedoed at the last minute by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, who chaired the House State Government Committee.

Fair Districts has since turned its efforts to campaigning for openness in the state’s redistricting efforts, including calls for livestreamed public hearings, a website for data and public comment, and the opportunity for members of the public to submit their own maps that would be available for review. All are suggestions that should be included in this year’s process.

If the four caucus leaders won’t consider someone from an anti-gerrymandering group, they should at least commit to a proposal from state Sen. David Argall, R-West Chester, that would limit who can serve as chairman. Mr. Argall’s bill, which passed unanimously in a Senate committee in March, would prohibit a person from holding the position if the person or his or her spouse was a registered lobbyist or political candidate in the past five years, or if the person worked for a political campaign of a public official in the past five years.

Those are reasonable restrictions that would help remove some of the politicking from the process. The Senate and House have little time to vote on the measure before the April 30 deadline for selecting a chairman. Commission members should do the right thing without a law to compel them. Then the law should be passed to codify these reasonable restrictions for the future.

Ultimately, Pennsylvania needs districts that are created in a fair and reasonable manner, rather than with the intent of reassuring re-election for the current officeholder. Putting an outsider with a commitment to fairness on the commission would go a long way toward restoring some sense of integrity in the once-in-a-decade process.