Feb 11, 2018 6 min read

For those who believe politics needs a good cleansing — and that should include everyone — your time may have arrived.

For sure, the the time-frame is narrow, so getting lawmakers to act will not be easy. But then again, even getting this far in the age of hyper-partisanship counts as a small miracle.

Politics — the ever-lasting struggle for party advantage — may throw a wrench into the gears set in motion by state lawmakers, from both sides of the aisle, who are seeking to reform the way congressional districts are drawn as well as the boundary lines for state Senate and House seats.

Your help will likely be needed to avert a crash landing of House Bill 722 and Senate Bill 22, companion pieces of legislation that would substitute a non-partisan commission for the General Assembly-driven process of redistricting now in place.

Actually, the two bills and congressional redistricting are currently running on more or less parallel tracks. The hope is the latter will not run into and push the former onto a siding from which it will never emerge.

Friday was the date appointed by the state Supreme Court for the legislature to come up with fresh congressional districts in time for this year’s primary and general elections.

In January, the court upheld a lower court ruling that the district lines drawn in 2011 by the General Assembly and then-Gov. Corbett were unconstitutional, in that they were designed with the partisan goal of creating 13 safe Republican districts. Democrats were left with the five remaining seats from the 2011 reapportionment, and this in a state with many more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Until Donald Trump’s narrow victory in 2016, Pennsylvania voters consistently backed Democrats for the presidency starting with Bill Clinton in 1992.

If nothing else, Pennsylvania was a purple state with an overwhelming Republican congressional delegation. On the face of things, at least as far as Congress was concerned, Pennsylvania was redder than Maraschino cherries.

The whole thing was perverse, as last month’s filing by the League of Women Voters with the U.S. Supreme Court makes clear. The legal brief was in response to a request by Republican leaders in the General Assembly that the state court ruling be set aside. The nation’s highest court refused to hear the matter, letting the state ruling stand.

In its brief, the League argued, that “working in secret,” Republican “mapmakers” in the executive and legislative branches in Harrisburg scored Republican-leaning and Democratic-leaning areas so precisely that they were able to predict with a high degree of certainty “partisan voting preferences.”

As a result, the 2011 congressional district map “packed” tried-and-true Democratic voters into five districts, including in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, at the same time “spreading” the remaining Democrats “across thirteen districts that would be reliably Republican.”

To achieve this result, the 2011 mapmakers “rip(ped) apart” Pennsylvania communities “to an unprecedented degree.”

The League went on to cite examples, including Erie County, which instead of forming the largest part of one congressional district was split between two districts, both reliably Republican.

By now, even western Pennsylvanians are familiar with the so-called “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck” district over east. The League’s filing called the shape of the district “absurd.”

While the 9th District is not mentioned, it, too, is a geographic whirly-gig. It includes a total of 12 counties, half of which are “split” counties. (Fayette County was not cut to ribbons, thank goodness.) It runs from Chambersburg in the east to the outskirts of Waynesburg in the west; and from north of Indiana to the Mason-Dixon line. The district stretches out alarmingly close to State College.

In order to maximize partisan advantage, some districts are held together by the mere pretense of legitimacy, such as “Creed’s Seafood and Steaks restaurant” mentioned by the League as the bridge connecting portions of one eastern district.

According to one expert called on to testify before the state courts, there could be only one reason for the 2011 congressional map: rank partisanship.

The map, in addition to grossly ignoring the historical notions associated with redistricting of “compactness,” “continuity” and the “minimizing (of) political subdivision splits,” violates the clause in the Pennsylvania Constitution which mandates “free and equal” elections — a clause, the League brief points out, broader than any federal protection and, indeed, has no U.S. constitutional “counterpart.”

In this instance, the state constitution trumps the federal one.

In short, according to the League filing, the 2011 congressional district map is “the worst gerrymander in Pennsylvania history and among the worst in American history.”

U.S. Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito, one of the court’s most conservative judges, turned down plantiffs’ request for a stay in redrawing the 2011 map.

That the denial came from Alito must have been like a chilly splash of water to the face for Republican leaders.

Look, the point is not to create advantage for either party; the goal should be districts that are fair, not contrived. Hardly anything would be healthier for U.S. democracy right now than to have congressional districts which encourage scrappy, hard fought, close elections — enough such districts would tend to send problem solvers to Washington, not ideologues and rabid partisans intent on beating the drums of political warfare 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And that is what might happen if the General Assembly were to pass, in two consecutive sessions, Senate Bill 22 and House Bill 722 for the creation of a fair-minded redistricting commission. Leaders of the effort hope to amend the state constitution with a statewide vote in 2020, in time for redistricting in 2021.

Let’s cross our fingers lawmakers finish the job of redrawing the unconstitutional 2011 map without generating so much heat that their judgment is clouded as to the long-term interests of the state and nation.

For those who think the rescue of American democracy from the clutches of the “tie it in knots” and “the my way or the highway” crowd is vital, pay close attention to Harrisburg in the coming weeks and months. Your participation in the fight may be required.

Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown and is the author of two books — Grand Salute: Stories of the World War II Generation and Our People. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.