Ideas to redraw maps beat deadline in redistricting case

The state Supreme Court map caps a process that began with the justices’ January 22 order tossing the GOP-drawn current boundaries are “clearly and plainly” gerrymandered to boost Republicans.

The court will be advised by Stanford University law professor Nathan Persily, who has assisted judges drawing districts in North Carolina, New York, Connecticut, Georgia and Maryland.

The map, which the court had ordered after ruling that the current version is overly partisan, does away with the wackily shaped districts that are the hallmarks of gerrymandering.

A look at Washington’s congressional map reveals districts that are logically shaped, unlike the “tortuously drawn districts” the court found in Pennsylvania or the nonsensical districts found in other states. (Republicans wanted to cut her out.) The Bucks County swing seat held by Republican Brian Fitzpatrick inches left, making it practically dead even. They could argue that under the Voting Rights Act the new map is unfair to minority candidates, particularly in the Philadelphia area – an argument that Mr. McDonald said would take a long time to prove, if it were possible at all.

Without consensus between Wolf and the Legislature, the court said it would take over the process and issue a new map by February 19 to be used for this year’s midterm elections.

While most of the Hazleton area within Luzerne County falls within the new 8th District, some falls in neighboring 9th District, which includes all of Schuylkill and Carbon counties. This is a victory for Pennsylvanians and for American democracy.

If it stands, the court-imposed revised map is nearly certain to improve Democrats’ chances of gaining more seats this year.

The district also includes the southwest corner of Philadelphia – now mostly divided between the 2nd and 3rd Districts – as well as a sliver of Southwest Montgomery County, now encompassing most of District 4.

He also wrote there are different ways to measure how a map divides counties and municipalities – and that all splits are not equal. It was won by Donald Trump by 3 points compared to 21 percentage points under the old lines.

Pennsylvania’s governor has promised the state would be ready to administer the new lines in time for this year’s election season. Their order says if none of the maps are up to snuff, they’ll turn to their own expert to draw maps for the court.

As far back as 2014, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-9th District, was fending off claims from challenger Art Halvorson that he would make drivers pay a larger federal tax at the gas pump.

A new congressional redistricting man is expected to be released Monday from the State Supreme Court.

The court-imposed plan could help Democrats who want to gain control of the U.S. Congress in the November midterm elections. The third most populous county in the state had been chopped up among several districts and had no home-county representative – but that changes with a new district centered in the heavily Democratic county.

As those fights raged, the deadline loomed: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had given the Republican-controlled legislature less than three weeks to draw a new map and send it to Wolf, a Democrat. But the plan places the 1st District in southeastern Pennsylvania and the numbers increase in order going west leading to the 18th District in southwestern Pennsylvania.

But the victor will have a short stay in the seat unless he moves: The court’s map puts both candidates’ homes in districts with a Pittsburgh-area incumbent.