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Redistricting double-take

We’ve all had the experience. We are thumbing threw a magazine, reading a Web page we just opened or listening to the TV and all of a sudden you just sort of stop and utter, “they said what?”

That was the reaction I had when I saw an interview on Campaigns and Elections with two people from GOPAC, Frank Donatelli and David Avella. The question was about Republicans gaining control of states and it affecting redistricting.

Avella said the following: “Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas. If Republicans were just given fair district, not gerrymandered snake-districts, we can be competitive. We don’t have to do what the Democrats have traditionally done.”

I am not disputing his point about Pennsylvania having a lot of gerrymandered districts—it does and is ranked 2nd worst in the country on this count. What created the “he said what?” moment is that the Republicans controlled Harrisburg and drew the districts 10 years ago!

As much as it would be interesting to pursue the history and results of that drawing further, ultimately it wouldn’t solve anything. Instead, we’ll take another teachable moment and discuss something that is vital and unfortunately has had very little coverage in the election cycle—redistricting.

About two years ago state Representative Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) dropped the ball on getting legislation put up to reform how Pennsylvania handles redistricting. It required a Constitutional amendment and the deadline to get the procedure started in time for the upcoming census came and went while legislation languished in her State Government Committee, which she chairs (and jokingly referred to as “the place where reform goes to die”).

At that point everything seemed to come to a halt. It seems government can only legislate when under a deadline and forced to rush a sloppy product. Instead of fixing up the legislation and passing it for the 2020 census, nothing was done.

So now we are about a year away from having another gerrymandered state and no one is talking about the problems or the solutions. This should be discussed by our gubernatorial candidates and it should be discussed by our General Assembly candidates. We need to know how they are going to influence redistricting for this cycle and what they are going to do to fix it for the next cycle.

September 21, 2010 at 10:04 am

--Adam Lang

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