Redistricting Reform Needed…Four Years Ago

The Pennsylvania House is expected this week to to pass the Congressional redistricting bill. House Democrats, in the minority, are complaining about the gerrymandering of the new map.

Does the new map favor Republicans? Absolutely, at least for a few years until demographic shifts make all the minutiae moot.

Was the new map drawn with party registration a key factor? Were the home addresses of incumbents and potential challengers key factors? You bet.

Is there gerrymandering? Of course.

Could Democrats have done anything to prevent this? Yes. A few years ago, when Democrats controlled the House, we urged them to move forward on redistricting reform.

That didn’t happen, and a broken system was allowed to continue.  On the bright side, we’ve got a whole decade to try to reform the process before the next redistricting occurs.