Congressional redistricting map discussed by state group
A nonpartisan state group that works to end gerrymandering held an online discussion Monday on the congressional redistricting map recently released by the House State Government Committee, which they said ignores the map submissions of more than 7,200 Pennsylvanians.
Draw the Lines PA hosted the online forum, which included five members from throughout the state, including a Butler County resident.
The forum was led by David Thornburgh, president and CEO of Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan group formed in 1904 to combat corruption in Philadelphia and play a major role in civil service reforms.
Thornburgh lamented that 7,211 Pennsylvanians drew new district maps and submitted them and that the committee held public hearings throughout the state to learn the opinions of residents, but none of their ideas seemed to be considered in the new map.
Increasingly frustrating, Thornburgh said, is the Republican-led House State Government Committee's promise of unprecedented transparency and accountability in the redistricting process.
“The analogy is when you put out a suggestion box, you have to demonstrate that you are taking those suggestions into account,” Thornburgh said. “Otherwise, it erodes the integrity of the (redistricting) process.”
He said regular citizens whose interests are represented by their representatives should be the ones influencing the district boundaries, and not academics and politicians.
But he said the committee's map, which was chosen from many drawn by noted district map creator Amanda Holt, only focuses on each district containing the same number of residents.
“We want to be optimistic and positive, but that is becoming more and more difficult,” Thornburgh said.
Among the panel members in the online forum was Lauren Ban, a Butler County native who is a first-year student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a citizen map corps member with Draw the Lines PA.
Ban said in the GOP map presented by the House State Government Committee, the eastern side of Butler County is a lot less contiguous compared to the current status of the county being divided almost directly in half between the 15th and 16th Congressional districts.
“This just took different precincts without seemingly any rhyme or reason,” said Ban, who is a 2017 Butler High School graduate.
She said Holt sacrificed splitting the county more sensibly to have the same number of people in each district.
Ban said each district having the same number of people is good because people in that instance might feel that their voice matters.
But she said the flip side to the argument is that communities with similar interests should be represented by the same person as opposed to communities with fracking, farming or large city interests being in the same district.
“It doesn't make sense to have the populations equal when they are not able to align on a common interest to influence their representative,” Ban said.
The remainder of the 15th district on the GOP map looks similar to the current configuration, while the Draw the Lines PA map includes Venango County.
She agreed with Thornburgh in his contention that the GOP map does not consider the maps drawn by more than 7,200 Pennsylvanians.
“It fails to take any input from the people being impacted by those districts,” Ban said.
She said the state House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on a map at 8 a.m. Monday, but presented a blank bill with no map attached.
Ban said she had heard that the legislators also were not fans of the GOP map released by the House State Government Committee.
“I feel like there wasn't enough consensus on it to vote on it and pass it,” Ban said.
She said if Republicans release a map that Democrats feel heavily favors the GOP, state Democrats will release their own map.
Thornburgh said Pennsylvania is one of only six or seven states without a proposed map of redrawn congressional districts, with not much time left until the Jan. 24 deadline.
New congressional lines are drawn every 10 years when a new Census occurs.
Pennsylvania will drop from 18 to 17 precincts as a result of the Census.
