Feb 15, 2007 3 min read

While we don’t agree that it’s the most important reform issue in Harrisburg, as described by some proponents, one need only take a look at how Fayette County has been carved up to realize that something’s terribly wrong with the current legislative redistricting process. With a population of nearly 150,000, Fayette should qualify for roughly two-and-a-half state House seats, and should be included in a single congressional district as it had been for many years. Instead, only one state House district, the 51st represented by Timothy S. Mahoney, lies completely within the county’s borders. Another, the 52nd represented by Deberah Kula, is comprised mostly of Fayette territory but stretches into nearby Westmoreland County.

This quirk exists even as four other state representatives – with districts based in Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties – obtain a sliver of Fayette. This setup makes no sense, except perhaps as an incumbency protection measure for state Reps. H. William DeWeese, Peter J. Daley II, Ted Harhai and Jess Stairs.

And a bunch of drunken sailors could have done a better job at drawing the state’s congressional districts, where Fayette is split between Johnstown-based Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha and Hollidaysburg-based Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster.

Shuster’s sprawling 9th District includes all or part of 15 counties and is more than 100 miles long east-to-west. It stretches from Connellsville to Chambersburg. Murtha’s 12th District includes parts of eight counties – including Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland – and contains only one full county, Greene.

It’s so bad that Connellsville’s Ward 3 precinct is actually divided between the districts of Shuster and Murtha. Such is the job done by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Legislature in the last redistricting that occurred after the 2000 census.

What we’ve gotten is gerrymandering, plain and simple. So the efforts by a group of reformers to change the way boundaries are drawn – a nine-member commission appointed by caucus leaders is one option being floated – are welcomed and deserve thorough review in these changing times. Lines should be drawn without consideration to protecting incumbents, enhancing or detracting from the chances of challengers, or making districts safe for one political party or the other.

“Voters are no longer picking their politicians; their politicians are picking their voters,” says reform leader state Rep. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat.

Competition is the hallmark of democracy. Without it, elected officials grow comfortable and overconfident. They also become more out of touch with the constituencies they purportedly serve, as demonstrated by the 2005 pay raise.

Give this change a prominent place at the reform table.