{"id":21161,"date":"2018-05-03T15:03:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=21161"},"modified":"2018-05-03T16:11:10","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T20:11:10","slug":"anti-gerrymandering-bill-takes-hit-but-supporters-continue-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=21161","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Gerrymandering bill takes hit, but supporters continue fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0JP Phillips<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

State Rep. Eric Roe (R-158) speaks at a forum last month on ending Gerrymandering in Pennsylvania.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gerrymandering\u2014what it is, how it\u2019s done, how it disenfranchises voters, and how to end it\u2014was the subject of two April town halls held jointly by State Representative Eric Roe (R-158) and Fair Districts PA Chair Carol Kuniholm.<\/p>\n

Because of population shifts, congressional and state legislative boundaries are revised every 10 years after the federal census. Each state has their own rules regarding how this is accomplished.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Pennsylvania, elected politicians draw the lines\u2014two from the majority party, two from the minority party, and one appointed by the state supreme court. \u00a0Because our supreme court is elected, invariably one party will have the majority influence.\u00a0 The maps must then be voted on by both the house and the senate, then signed by the governor.\u00a0The only guidelines for drawing these lines are listed in Article II, section 16<\/a> of the PA constitution, stating that districts must be \u201ccomposed of compact and contiguous territory as nearly equal in population as practicable. Unless absolutely necessary no county, city, incorporated town, borough, township or ward shall be divided.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the last cycle, the new legislative districts were subject to litigation and much wrangling over the partisan redraw \u2014 and still, even then critics were unhappy with the final result, which led to overwhelming majorities for the Republicans in both houses of the state legislature, despite Pennsylvania having more registered Democrats than Republicans.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cgerrymandering\u201d was coined in 1812, when Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry approved a state senate map that had one district shaped like a salamander in order capture the voters that favored his party.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fair Districts PA Chair Carol Kuniholm speaks during last month’s forum.<\/p><\/div>\n

Due to today\u2019s sophisticated data manipulation software, it has become easier to draw those lines considering not only population and geography, but also voters party affiliations and turnout in great detail.<\/p>\n

Kuniholm says this results in unfair representation. That has played out both for federal Congressional seats \u2014 much in the headlines earlier this year \u2014 and state legislative seats.<\/p>\n

Chester County, under the maps the courts threw out earlier this year, was carved out and pieced together with other counties for its congressional districts.\u00a0 It had three members of Congress, with only one living in Chester County \u2014 with the 7th, which was held by Delaware County’s Patrick Meehan, who resigned last week; the 16th, represented by Lloyd Smucker and the 6th, represented by Ryan Costello. Prior to Smucker’s election, the 16th was long represented by East Marlborough’s Joe Pitts \u2014 meaning the county had two residents in Congress, dating back to at least 2000, prior to 2016.<\/p>\n

Montgomery, the third most populous county in the state, had five representatives, with not one living there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMathematically, Pennsylvania is the worst,\u201d Kuniholm observed when comparing our old maps with other states.\u00a0 She continued, \u201cThe practice allows the party in charge to manipulate district lines for personal or party advantage. This was done to deprive us and our communities a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state Supreme Court threw out our current congressional map and replaced it for the upcoming primaries and elections \u2014 spurring much litigation, but an action ultimately held up by federal courts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A sign seen outside the Kennett Square event.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chester County is now in one district (the 6th), and will stay there until 2022, when new maps based on the 2020 census will be in effect.<\/p>\n

Roe is spearheading the effort to fix the process permanently with an independent method run by non-politicians, that only considers geography and population.<\/p>\n

To fix the process, Republican Roe along with Democratic State Representative Steve Samuelson (D-135, Bethlehem area) introduced House Bill (HB) 722<\/a>.\u00a0 Senate Bill (SB) 22 is similar.<\/p>\n

In general, the bill calls for an 11-member citizen commission (no politicians or lobbyists), a transparent process with public feedback meetings around the state, and no consideration of anything but what is described in article II, Section 16\u2014no voter turnout or party affiliation information.\u00a0 Should no agreement be reached, the state Supreme Court would appoint a \u201cspecial master\u201d to redraw the lines\u2014similar to what was done this year to correct Pennsylvania\u2019s old congressional maps.<\/p>\n

The bill was assigned to the House State Government Committee for consideration almost a year ago, where it stalled.<\/p>\n

Before the bill can advance to the entire house, it must be approved by this committee for it to go to the house floor for consideration.\u00a0 Because this bill would mean a change to the state\u2019s constitution, the bill would have to be approved by the house and senate two years consecutively, and then placed on the 2020 ballot for the voters to decide. That means that both the state house and senate must pass their bill this year<\/em> in order for it to be in effect for the 2020 census.\u00a0 The last regularly-scheduled session meeting is less than two months away, the end of June.<\/p>\n

And because of a move by one powerful committee chair \u2014 with the assistance of a local State Representative \u2014 the bill is in trouble.<\/p>\n

After sitting in committee since May 8 of last year\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>with no action, Roe proposed a \u201cdischarge resolution,\u201d which would force the bill out of the committee and onto the house floor for debate.<\/p>\n

The next day, the Republican committee chair Daryl Metcalfe (R-12, north of Pittsburgh) added an amendment to the bill that in essence removed the independent citizens commission and put the job of drawing lines back in the hands of elected politicians.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually even more partisan than the current process observers say\u2014 there would be four from the majority party, and two from the minority party.<\/p>\n

It passed out of the committee on party lines. <\/a>\u00a0All committee Republicans, including Stephen Barrar (R-160) who represents four municipalities in southeast Chester County, voted for the amendment, all Democrats voted against.<\/p>\n

Metcalfe explained his changes in a phone interview with the\u00a0The Times\u2019<\/em>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

He said he thinks that legislators are best qualified to draw the maps because they are also citizens\u2014but elected by the people.\u00a0 Influences such as campaign donations are public record.\u00a0 Pennsylvanians would not have any way of knowing about \u201cappointed\u201d individuals, as called for by HB722.<\/p>\n

He would not support the bill even if there was a different way to select a citizen commission.\u00a0 He feels that Pennsylvanians \u201cselect\u201d by going to the voter booths to elect their representatives and senators.<\/p>\n

Metcalfe felt his amendment was better than the current process because the supreme court and the governor would no longer have a say.\u00a0 He stated that the \u201cnew\u201d maps recently put in place tears up his personal federal district, dividing school districts and townships.\u00a0 It puts his home in Conor Lamb\u2019s district, he said, making it more difficult for him to someday run for the office.<\/p>\n

Roe, still new to the ways of Harrisburg, was surprised by Metcalfe’s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill had 110 co-sponsors\u2014more than any other bill this session,\u201d Roe lamented.\u00a0 More than half the house co-signed his bill.<\/p>\n

So what happens now?\u00a0 Roe explained the possibilities.<\/p>\n

Roe and Samuelson can amend the bill to address some of the State House member\u2019s concerns with the original draft.\u00a0 For example, some objected to the appointment of a \u201cspecial master,\u201d feeling that it puts too much power in the hands of one person.\u00a0 Or a new bill can be drafted, keeping the essence of the original with changes that address the master.<\/p>\n

There is also Senate Bill 22 which has been debated in the Senate\u2019s State Government Committee.\u00a0 According to the FairDistrictsPA.org website<\/a>, there seems to be agreement that the current process is not optimal, and there is a good faith effort to get it to the floor for a vote (this bill can start in either the house or the senate).<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to what we\u2019ve heard from (Senate Majority Leader) Jake Corman and (Senate President Pro-Tempore) Joe Scarnati, they are open to modifications and likely to bring it up for a vote once it is passed out of committee,\u201d Roe said in an email interview. \u201cOnce that happens, however, we will need the Speaker of the House (State Rep. Mike Turzai) to select a good committee for it to be placed in when it comes over to the House. If it\u2019s placed in the House State Government Committee, that could be very bad, as we have seen with my bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Via email on May 3, Roe also pointed The Times<\/em> to outgoing House Majority Leader Dave Reed\u2019s 5\/2 statement<\/a> on suggested new bills to reform government, including how the state redistricts.\u00a0 He is suggesting creating an independent redistricting commission bill that uses a system similar to how juries are selected.\u00a0 (The other bills concern including registered third-party voters in primaries and legislative committee chair term limits.)<\/p>\n

Roe included in his email a quote from Reed regarding his redistricting reform efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cEric Roe has been the key to the introduction of this redistricting reform proposal,” Reed wrote in comments supplied to The Times<\/em> by Roe. “His persistence and dedication to the creation of an independent commission to take redistricting out of the politicians\u2019 hands has been a driving force to moving this important government reform to the forefront.”<\/p>\n

A resident attending the April 26\u00a0town hall asked what constituents can do to move the process forward.\u00a0 Kuniholm recommended calling legislators, especially the Speaker of the House<\/a>, Metcalfe,<\/a> and the Chester County GOP officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When asked about HB722 support from local officials, Roe said that \u201cAll of Chester County\u2019s state senators have co-sponsored it. More than half of Chester County\u2019s House members have co-sponsored it (Roe, Milne, Comitta, Kampf and Corbin in that order). Hennessey, Barrar, Lewis and Lawrence have not yet signed on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrar \u2014 with his seat on the State Government committee \u2014 may hold the fate of the process, as well as the potential wrath of angry voters this fall, in his hands.<\/p>\n

Turzai did not return The Times\u2019<\/em> request for comment.<\/p>\n

If nothing changes, whichever party controls the house and senate will change the lines. If the \u201cblue wave\u201d is coming as many people predict, it\u2019s just as possible that Democrats will be in charge come 2020, and as Roe says, \u201cboth parties play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an April 16\u00a0rally in Harrisburg, a constituent held up a poster that summed up the effort perfectly, according to Kuniholm.\u00a0 It read, \u201cNot Red.\u00a0 Not Blue.\u00a0 Just Fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times Gerrymandering\u2014what it is, how it\u2019s done, how it disenfranchises voters, and how to end it\u2014was the subject of two April town halls held jointly by State Representative Eric Roe (R-158) and Fair Districts PA Chair Carol Kuniholm. Because of population shifts, congressional and state legislative boundaries are revised every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7831,5525,3912,6213,58,5347],"class_list":["post-21161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-darryl-metcalfe","tag-eric-roe","tag-featured","tag-gerrymandering","tag-state-legislature","tag-stephen-barrar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21165,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21161\/revisions\/21165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}