Apr 11, 2002 By George Strawley Associated Press Writer 3 min read

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Under a three-week deadline, House leaders expected to schedule a vote next week on a revised map of the state’s congressional districts, a map they hope will pass constitutional muster with a federal court that overturned an earlier plan. In an effort to pass the new plan quickly, committees in both houses Wednesday dusted off once-forgotten redistricting bills that they hoped could eventually contain final versions of a new plan.

A three-judge U.S. District Court panel ruled 2-1 on Monday to overturn a plan that had been expected to give Republicans an edge of at least 13-6 – and possibly 14-5 – in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation. The delegation now has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

The court found that Republicans, in putting together a plan with congressional districts that varied by no more than 10 people from the average congressional district of 646,371 people, had failed to justify the deviation. The widest deviation between any two districts was 19 people.

The court, which gave the state Legislature three weeks to come up with an alternative plan, also found that the Republican map split too many voting precincts between different congressional districts and pitted incumbents against each other more than necessary.

Republican aides said they hoped to ask the court to stay its order this week, allowing the contested redistricting plan to stay in effect.

A map being worked on by Republican House staff members contains nearly no population deviations among districts and does not split voting districts, said Steve Drachler, a spokesman for House Majority Leader John M. Perzel, R-Philadelphia.

Perzel hopes to schedule the plan for a vote on Monday, Drachler said.

The plan is almost identical to the one struck down by the court, with some key changes, he said.

“It is the same basic plan, just with the modifications that will be needed to comply with the court’s order,” Drachler said. “The district boundaries remain essentially the same. The goal of this is to get it done quickly and get it completed so that the May 21 primary can go on as scheduled.”

Republicans have talked of possibly postponing all or part of May’s primary because of time constraints in putting a new plan into effect in time for the election.

The House GOP plan continues to pit five Democratic incumbents against each other or against a heavily favored Republican in re-election bids.

Meanwhile, House Democrats on Wednesday issued a plan of their own that they said would result in population deviation of no more than one person and keep voting precincts intact.

The Democratic plan would reduce the state’s congressional districts by two by eliminating the seat of Democratic incumbent Rep. William J. Coyne and combining the districts of Republican Reps. William Shuster and Todd Platts.

In the Senate, an aide to Majority Leader David J. Brightbill said it was likely a redistricting bill would move in that chamber next week. He would not specify a day.

Pennsylvania is losing two House of Representatives seats because of sluggish population growth.