State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe on Thursday railed against the state’s new court-drawn Congressional voting districts and defended his committee’s gutting of a redistricting reform bill earlier in the week.

Metcalfe, R-12th, held two town hall events in the district Thursday in which he also said being partisan and loyal to one’s party is the norm for lawmakers in Harrisburg.

About a dozen residents attended the morning meeting at the Adams Township Municipal Building during which Metcalfe described a recent vote in the House State Government Committee, which he chairs, to amend a redistricting reform bill.

“We totally took out whatever was in the bill originally and replaced it with new language,” he said.

Metcalfe also railed against the actions of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which recently struck down the state’s congressional district map and instituted a revised, court-drawn version after lawmakers missed a deadline to submit their own changes.

“They have no constitutional authority to draw lines. None at all,” he said.

Metcalfe also emphasized the need to make sure regulation works for the residents affected and to fight overregulation when needed.

Metcalfe fielded questions from the audience, including Jeff Stirling, a United Methodist pastor and Adams Township resident aligned with Fair Districts PA, a group advocating to amend the state Constitution and take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature.

Every 10 years, states have to change their legislative districts to ensure that each one has about the same number of residents.

“Our goal has just been to create some way we can have fair districts,” he said. “The way gerrymandering has gone and the technology that’s possible today, streets are being divided. Someone across the street can be in a different district than me.”

Stirling stressed that Fair Districts PA’s goals were not partisan, but Metcalfe disagreed.

“Well, Fair Districts aren’t fair districts, Fair Districts are Democrat districts,” he said, adding that funding for Fair Districts PA comes from Democratic groups.

Additionally, Metcalfe expressed concern about out-of-state protesters who were arrested protesting for gerrymandering reform. Because of that, Metcalfe said he would not “reward their behavior” with a vote on the bill.

Still, many in the crowd were unconvinced.

One woman brought a copy of the Cranberry board of supervisors’ resolution in support of the original HB 722, which would have established an independent citizens commission to redraw voting districts, and offered it to Metcalfe in case he hadn’t seen it.

He said he wasn’t interested.

“The Cranberry supervisors don’t represent my constituents,” Metcalfe said, to the confusion of a number of those in the crowd. “The Cranberry supervisors run Cranberry Township. They were elected in elections where there was minimal competition.”

He added that supervisors did not represent Republican values, despite what their party registration may say.

Metcalfe ended the meeting saying he believed the amendment was a step in the right direction.

The evening meeting at the Middlesex Township Municipal Building saw more than twice the attendance as the morning session. Attendees were greeted outside by a string of constituents holding signs protesting Metcalfe and his recent actions on HB 722 — a tone that carried into the meeting.

“Fair Districts is what it says: fair districts,” said Ginny Walzer, a Fair Districts volunteer. “Mr. Metcalfe can’t seem to understand that we want an impartial group of people drawing the lines. We want politicians taken out of that loop.”

Metcalfe argued that elected officials would be more accountable than appointed committee members.

T. Lyle Ferderber, a local business owner, said it made sense mathematically that the state had been gerrymandered to favor Republicans.

“If you took the total number of people who voted for a congressperson, (Democrats and Republicans) generally come out to about equal,” he said. “It’s telling that in a state where close to an equal amount of votes are cast for each party for a congressional candidate that a state with 18 districts, 13 are held by Republicans and five are held by Democrats. … That is mathematical proof of gerrymandering.”

Metcalfe disagreed, noting that Aaron Bernstine, R-10th, won in a district that was once represented by Democrat Jaret Gibbons. He added that federal courts had upheld the congressional district lines as constitutional before the state Supreme Court ruled against them.

Ferderber said it was hypocritical for Metcalfe to call out others for partisanship but act in a partisan manner himself. Metcalfe responded that partisanship is not something he faults in others and gave constituents a look into the way politics is done in Harrisburg.

“I don’t move anything substantive that’s Democrat legislation. As I said, I’m a Republican,” he said. “I’m partisan. I’m not saying I’m not partisan. I’m a Republican. People elect me because of what I stand for.”

He said people should not expect him to help legislation move forward that he and his Republican constituency opposes.

Before the end of the meeting Metcalfe also took a question asking him what he believes to be the “homosexual agenda,” as he calls it, and how it would harm his constituency.

“A real contentious part of the legislation that has been introduced is access to public facilities based on somebody’s feelings about their gender,” he said, referring to proposed legislation on whether the state should allow transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender with which they identify.

“I think many of us have a concern that when our wives or daughters or granddaughters are going to use a restroom along the Turnpike or going to use a locker room in a health care facility that the people that are in that locker room, the people that are in those showers or restrooms, are biologically and anatomically the gender that should be in that area,” he said. “It’s just outrageous and that’s what they’re promoting with this outrageous legislation.”

Metcalfe also fielded questions about the status of his court case with Gov. Tom Wolf regarding how many foreign nationals were improperly registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

He discussed the state of Route 228 and PennDOT’s projects on it, saying that the problem is a lack of funds. He said he is in talks with PennDOT to optimize what money they have.