The House State Government Committee will hold a hearing today to vote on a preliminary plan for congressional redistricting.
The preliminary plan is a citizen map, which was submitted through the committee’s online mapping tool by Lehigh County resident Amanda Holt.
One amendment, offered by Chairman Seth Grove (R-York), would make minor adjustments to the citizen map to improve the compactness of districts, respond to citizen concerns regarding communities of interest and increase minority representation in Philadelphia. Like the preliminary plan, Grove’s amendment was developed without the use of partisan data.
The committee will meet at 11:30 a.m in the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg.
Elizabeth Rementer, Press Secretary/Office of the Governor Communications Office, said for the past few months, the governor’s Redistricting Advisory Council has been holding public listening sessions across the commonwealth to gather public feedback on congressional redistricting.
“This council was created by an Executive Order and consists of six redistricting experts who provide guidance to the governor to assist his review of the congressional redistricting plan.,” Rementer said. “In addition to the council and the listening sessions, the Wolf Administration created a redistricting website the public can use to submit proposed maps, outline communities of interest, and submit comments to help shape the outcome of this critical part of our democratic process.”
Rementer said the governor will use the redistricting principles established by the Redistricting Advisory Council to guide his review. The governor also continues to review citizen submissions at the Pennsylvania Redistricting Public Comment Portal. They were due by today.
The governor has repeatedly said that gerrymandering is harmful to democracy and that politicians should not redraw district boundaries to choose their own voters.
As part of the governor’s commitment to a fair and transparent redistricting process, he created the advisory council, comprised of six redistricting experts. Last month the council released principles the governor should consider, including the importance of a transparent process and maps with compact and contiguous territory that maintain communities of interest and comprise a congressional delegation that is proportional to statewide voter preference.
The maps will determine the boundaries of 17 congressional seats that Pennsylvania voters will select starting with the primary and general election.
“The redistricting process will affect every Pennsylvanian and community for the next decade,” Wolf said. “I want to hear from Pennsylvanians about what they want as the boundaries for congressional districts are redrawn. I encourage anyone interested to submit your own map and provide feedback.”
Sen. John Yudichak, I-Swoyersville, said redistricting is often a partisan process that excludes citizen input.
“I support a more independent redistricting process that encourages greater public input and empowers citizens, not politicians, to establish the districts for the people we elect to represent us both in Harrisburg and Washington D.C.,” Yudichak said.
Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township,. said it has always been her hope that citizens would actively participate in the mapping process.
“As we are reminded by the early submissions, a complete map involves a lot of trade-offs, because population distribution and voting behavior do not neatly conform to all the parameters,” Baker said. “Plus, community of interest can be defined in many ways. The more options there are to factor into decision making, the better the chances the final map has of being deemed fair and constitutional.”
Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.