Redistricting: It ain’t over till it’s over

By a 4-3 vote, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has presented a new redistricting map that it says follows its own guidelines in eliminating the former gerrymandered congressional districts.

If the proposal stands, these are the districts in which candidates will run in the May 15 primaries. Candidates can begin circulating nominating petitions on Feb. 27, according to a revised election calendar. The filing deadline for nominating petitions is March 20, 14 days later than the original calendar. All 18 seats of the U.S. House of Representatives are up for re-election this year.

But Republican lawmakers have other ideas. They are challenging the court’s order, saying that the high court has no business mandating the shape of legislative districts, that this is the state Legislature’s job, according to the state Constitution. State Republican legislative leaders have vowed to resist the court-drawn map by seeking a federal challenge.

Last month, the state high court ruled that the districts drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 heavily tilted the advantage to the GOP despite the fact that there are about a million more registered Democrats in the state. This has led to the Republicans 13-5 advantage since then.

Under the U.S. Constitution, congressional districts must be redrawn every decade after the decennial census. The process will occur again after the 2020 census.

The new map leaves four of the five Times News counties whole; the exception is Monroe County where the southern portion of the county will be part of a newly formed 7th Congressional District along with all of Lehigh and Northampton counties. (incumbent Republican Charlie Dent, who will retire at the end of the year.) The rest of Monroe becomes part of a newly formed 8th District with all of Pike, Wayne, Lackawanna and part of Luzerne counties. Incumbent Democrat Matt Cartwright and incumbent Republican Lou Barletta are now in the same district, but Barletta is not seeking re-election since he is running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Casey of Scranton.

All of Carbon and Schuylkill counties will become part of a new 9th District that also includes all of Lebanon, Columbia and Montour and parts of Berks, Luzerne, and Northumberland counties. (Republican Ryan Costello is the incumbent.)

Under the 2011 redistricting map, three of the five Times News counties are divided into two districts — Carbon, Monroe and Northampton.

Political analysts say the newly drawn map will give Democrats a much better chance to win parity in this year’s elections. Nationally, they say, it could help Democratic efforts to retake control of the House. Now, Republicans control both houses of Congress, as well as the presidency.

The state high court took on the chore of redoing the map after the Republican legislative leadership and Gov. Tom Wolf failed to agree upon a revision of the 2011 map.

After the state high court threw out the existing map, saying it was gerrymandered, Republicans cried foul and challenged the impartiality of the state Supreme Court, whose membership is made up of five Democrats and two Republicans. Republicans took their plea to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Justice Samuel Alito Jr. turned down their appeal.

At that point, House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President pro tem Joe Scarnati, both Republicans, submitted a map that Wolf rejected. While it provided more compact districts and fewer instances of split counties and municipalities, Wolf said it still was gerrymandered in favor of the Republicans.

At least a half-dozen maps were presented to the state Supreme Court for consideration, but, in the end, the high court decided to use its own resources in crafting what it did. In the 4-3 vote, Democratic Associate Justice Max Baer joined the two Republicans in opposing the new map.

Betting money is that federal court action will fail, and candidates will have to run in districts set up by this new map. This pulls the rug out from some contenders who had already announced their candidacies.

For example, the current 15th District includes Lehigh and parts of Northampton, Berks, Dauphin and Lebanon counties. Three of the 12 announced candidates no longer live in the reconfigured district. While this is not an automatic disqualification since a candidate need live only in the state in which he or she runs, not necessarily the district, it would be difficult to overcome the “carpetbagger” label.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com