Redistricting process about to get underway
The redistricting process will get underway in earnest this fall, and groups that want to have a say in the process are starting to marshal their forces.
Next Thursday at 7 p.m., the advocacy group Fair Districts PA will host a workshop on Zoom tailored for residents of Washington, Greene, Fayette, Westmoreland, Cambria, Somerset and Indiana counties. According to Janice Hatfield, Greene County coordinator of the Fair Districts group, the meeting will offer tips on how citizens can testify in public hearings on congressional redistricting. The hearing in the Southwest is set for Aug. 26.
“There are many, many people involved (in the group) around the state,” Hatfield said.
Additional information can be found at fairdistrictspa.com.
The decennial redrawing of Pennsylvania’s congressional boundaries will start after Sept. 30, following the release of new census data. Pennsylvania is set to lose one seat due to the decline in its population, reducing its congressional delegation from 18 to 17 members. The lines will have to be drawn quickly, since primary elections for the seats are scheduled for next May. The Republican-controlled General Assembly is charged with drawing the map that will be in effect through the early 2030s, through Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf would be able to veto it.
The map the Legislature drew in 2011 was later ruled unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, leading the court to create its own map, which went into effect for the 2018 election and remains in place.
Hatfield believes that the way district boundaries are drawn can leave residents feeling unrepresented and apathetic. Before 2018, the congressional district of Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster stretched all the way from the center of the state into the eastern edges of Washington and Greene counties. Some voters complained they never had contact with Shuster, Hatfield said, since the farthest reaches of the district were more than 100 miles removed from Shuster’s Hollidaysburg base.
She also said uncompetitive districts where one candidate is all but guaranteed victory reduce voter participation. Hatfield said there are some voters “who would want to vote, but they feel that their vote won’t make a difference.”
Fair Districts PA is one of many organizations hoping to have a say in the redistricting process. Other groups include the League of Women Voters and Draw the Lines PA. Democrats have long chafed at the congressional boundaries Republicans have drawn in Pennsylvania, but some moderate members of the GOP have also expressed doubts about the process. Former Gov. Mark Schweiker has said that congressional districts where one party can count on winning makes it harder for moderates to be elected. David Thornburgh, the son of the late Republican governor Richard Thornburgh, leads the group Draw the Lines PA.
A handful of states, including California, New Jersey, Arizona and Delaware, have turned the redistricting process over to nonpartisan, appointed commissions. Fair Districts PA has supported proposals that a similar commission be established in Pennsylvania.
Boundaries for state legislative seats will also be redrawn once the census data is in hand. That is being left to a commission consisting of the minority and majority leaders in the state House and Senate, and Mark Nordenberg, the former chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh.