This is our chance to get Pa. off the ‘most gerrymandered’ list
Americans across the political spectrum have more common ground than most pundits and politicians would lead us to believe. One of those major crossover areas is gerrymandering. Polls published from Newsmax all the way over to the Huffington Post show that Americans universally revile the practice of unnaturally shaping our districts for political advantage.
Pennsylvania ranks high on almost every list of “most gerrymandered states,” which is not at all as fun as being recognized as the place where Santa gets booed. Our system is so bad that even after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court redrew the 2010 electoral map, 46% of the statewide votes went to Republican candidates but mysteriously Republicans won 54% of the seats. It is easy to think that this is just about my left-of-center sour grapes and this is great news for the Republican party, but in reality, the only people that benefit from this system are the extremists on both sides.
In a competitive election, candidates have had a clear strategy: In the primaries, Republican candidates stay to the right of their opponents and then move towards the center for the general election, and vice versa for the Democrats.
But when the parties divvy up “safe seats,” they create a system where no one needs to run to the center anymore. In fact, no one can afford to run to the center. An elected official that accumulates a record of working across the aisle gets primaried by a more extreme candidate and rarely survives to make it back to a general election.
The vast majority of Americans are somewhere between Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders and would like to see common ground initiatives advanced and compromises made where they make sense. A system that relies on unilateral victories of the left or the right is a system that produces almost no effective legislation and creates legislation that is almost by definition unpopular.
The process for redrawing the electoral maps is underway right now in Pennsylvania. There are two groups that are tasked with this job. The Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC) draws the Pennsylvania state House and Senate maps and its maps are final, with no vote by the General Assembly and no signature of the Governor. The LRC is comprised of the senior Republicans and Democrats in the state House and Senate. Because these four politicians could not agree on a neutral fifth person to lead the commission, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed Mark Nordenberg, former Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, and current Chair of Pitt’s Institute of Politics, to chair the LRC.
The map of the districts for our state’s U.S. House seats is drawn by the two State Government Committees (one committee in each chamber of the General Assembly). This map follows the normal path of legislation with both chambers voting on it. Since both chambers are controlled by Republicans, the GOP will have an advantage in creating the maps, but the maps will still have to be approved by Governor Wolf.
If this is news to you, that is because we have been consumed by ferocious culture wars over masks, vaccines, CRT, election fraud, and January 6th “tourism.” Trust me, politicians on both sides would rather stoke those battles than have us peeking over their shoulders as they negotiate who gets which voters.
State Rep. Seth Grove, Chair of the House’s State Government
Committee, held ten hearings on election fraud this year and concluded that the fraud committed in 2020 was “not like this mass amount of fraud.”
Gerrymandering is like this mass amount of fraud and to Grove’s credit, he is planning public hearings on redistricting.
If you find that the extremes on both sides do not represent you, then take the time to write to your state representative and senator, provide testimony, write to Grove and Nordenberg, there is even a map drawing contest with a cash prize.
After all the bickering we have been doing, here is an opportunity to work together on something on which we all agree. Let’s get Pennsylvania off the list of most gerrymandered states and get back to booing Santa.