Pennsylvania governor rejects Republican-drawn congressional map

[acri1]

Pennsylvania governor rejects Republican-drawn congressional map



(Reuters) - Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf rejected a Republican-drawn congressional map on Tuesday as unfairly skewed toward protecting Republican candidates, likely putting the state’s top court in charge of creating new boundaries.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated the existing map last month as an unconstitutional gerrymander, ruling that Republican lawmakers had marginalized Democratic voters in an effort to win more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.


A new map is expected to boost Democrats’ chances of winning more Pennsylvania seats in November’s midterm elections, when they need 24 nationwide to take control of the House from Republicans. Republicans hold 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats despite Pennsylvania’s status as a closely contested swing state.


“The analysis by my team shows that, like the 2011 map, the map submitted to my office by Republican leaders is still a gerrymander,” Wolf said in a statement. “Their map clearly seeks to benefit one political party, which is the essence of why the court found the current map to be unconstitutional.”

The court’s Democratic majority had given Wolf until Thursday to decide whether to accept or reject the new map submitted by Republican leaders late on Friday. With no deal in place, the court has said it will undertake the process of drawing new lines itself, with help from an independent redistricting expert.

Legal battles are playing out in several U.S. states over partisan gerrymandering, the process by which district lines are manipulated to favor one party over another. Pennsylvania has long been seen as one of the worst offenders, with one of its more oddly shaped districts described derisively as “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck.”

Leaders in the Republican-controlled state legislature have said they may file a federal lawsuit challenging the state Supreme Court’s authority to draw the map. The U.S. Supreme Court last week rebuffed an emergency appeal filed by Republicans.

Any new map would likely result in sitting Congress members, candidates and thousands of voters finding themselves living in a new district. The primary midterm elections are scheduled for May.

The state Supreme Court’s order called for a map that prioritized compactness and avoided splitting counties and municipalities. Numerous redistricting experts have said in recent days that the proposed map remains heavily gerrymandered, despite creating more compact districts.


Wolf’s office retained Moon Duchin, a mathematician from Tufts University, to analyze the Republican proposal. In a statement, Duchin said she calculated there was no more than a 1-in-1,000 chance that a map drafted to comply with the court’s order would result in such a large advantage for Republicans.

“The proposed Joint Submission Plan is extremely, and unnecessarily, partisan,” she said.

In a 5-2 decision along party lines, the court struck down the existing map on Jan. 22, ruling on a lawsuit filed last year by Democratic voters and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. The court found that the current lines violate the state constitution’s free speech and equal protection guarantees by depriving Democratic voters of meaningful ballots.

Pennsylvania governor rejects Republican-drawn congressional map


Gave that map the

Hopefully this sets a precedent for other governors to start throwing these ridiculous maps in the bushes.

 

[88m3]

thank god


Republicans are a threat to democracy

 

[ORDER_66]

thank god


Republicans are a threat to democracy

THEY ARE A THREAT TO HUMANITY...keep it 100...

 

[Jhoon]

thank god


Republicans are a threat to democracy

That’s a bit of an understatement.

I live in Philadelphia. We have our 2 congressmen. One has been in Washington since the 90s; he’s not in my district so I can’t really vouch for him. The other replaced Congressman Fattah. Dwight Evans was in Harrisburg since I was in elementary school. In fact, he’s the reason why I fell in love with politics. I hate the guy though.

Philadelphia is surrounded by Montco, Bucks, and Delco. The last two counties have a spot for the Democrats to make a statement. Fitzpatrick in Bucks is DOA, and Meehan fell in love with someone other than his wife and forced her to retire. He was finished before the scandal.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Pennsylvania governor rejects Republican-drawn congressional map


Gave that map the

Hopefully this sets a precedent for other governors to start throwing these ridiculous maps in the bushes.

probably not. He's a democrat. It was expected that he'd throw it out.

 

[hashmander]

Pennsylvania governor rejects Republican-drawn congressional map


Gave that map the

Hopefully this sets a precedent for other governors to start throwing these ridiculous maps in the bushes.

sets a precedent how? were democratic governors previously approving ridiculous republican maps? the craziest maps are where one party has a trifecta.

 

[acri1]

sets a precedent how? were democratic governors previously approving ridiculous republican maps? the craziest maps are where one party has a trifecta.

Well, a precedent as in hopefully this encourages people in general to start challenging these maps in court. Especially since there will probably be more Democratic governors after midterms.

 

[hashmander]

Well, a precedent as in hopefully this encourages people in general to start challenging these maps in court. Especially since there will probably be more Democratic governors after midterms.

that's a given. the issue was getting wiped out in these states to the point where democrats basically had no say in how these maps were drawn.