Pa. Supreme Court upholds new maps for General Assembly

New maps of General Assembly districts that reflect the past decade’s population changes in Pennsylvania survived legal challenges Wednesday, as the state Supreme Court cleared the way for candidates to begin circulating petitions to get on the spring primary ballot.

The justices rejected various objections to the district lines that were drawn by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission for the state House and Senate.

As a result, the new districts will be in effect for the coming decade.

The justices adjusted the elections calendar, letting candidates begin to collect signatures starting Friday and lasting 10 days, until March 28. The primary is May 17.

“Not only were these maps fair, reasonable and supported in a bipartisan way, today’s decision means we can proceed with our election calendar and folks can begin preparation to run for office or learn who their potential representatives will be,” Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, R-Allegheny, said in a statement.

The commission approved the new maps 4-1 more than a month ago, with Costa voting for them and only House Republican Leader Kerry Benninghoff of Centre County voting against them.

Benninghoff launched one of the nine appeals the justices denied, along with challenges from some Butler County residents, a couple state lawmakers, math and science professors at Pennsylvania schools, a candidate running for a state House seat and others.

Democrats hope the reshuffled legislative maps will help them make inroads into the Republicans’ firm control over both chambers. The GOP currently has a 113-90 House majority and a 29-21 Senate majority based on maps that have been in place since the 2014 election.

The state’s new map of congressional districts was produced by the state Supreme Court after the Republican legislative majorities and Gov. Tom Wolf failed to reach a deal. The U.S. Supreme Court a week ago turned down a request to overturn them.