A better map: Redistricting should be about fair representation - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| A better map: Redistricting should be about fair representation - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Posted: 03 Jan 2011 09:12 PM PST The new Census figures are not kind to this region. Because of population shifts across the nation over the past decade, Pennsylvania will lose one of its 19 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in time for the 2012 election. That makes it one of eight states that will give up a seat. Ohio and New York will lose two apiece. All of these states will lose federal aid that is distributed according to population, as well as electoral strength in presidential contests. That's bad enough and it will get worse if elected officials in Harrisburg put partisan advantage ahead of fair and effective representation when they redraw districts for Pennsylvania's U.S. House delegation and for the state General Assembly. Next year's reapportionment will affect elections for the next decade and provide an early test of the state's new all-Republican government -- governor, state House and state Senate -- which will control the mapping of the congressional districts. The redesign of the legislative districts will be handled by four appointees to a reapportionment commission, one each from the Democratic and Republican leaders of both the state House and Senate, plus a fifth chosen by the appointees to chair the panel. The appointees are actually surrogates for the four legislative leaders and if the appointees can't agree on the fifth member, the choice will be made by the state Supreme Court, which now has a one-vote Republican majority. The high court has the authority to draw the final map if the commission's redesign is successfully challenged. Those involved in the remappings should resolve now to allow a few basic values to guide them: an open and transparent reapportionment process, fair representation of voters of both major parties, creation of districts that maximize rather than discourage political competition within and between parties, preservation of local communities of interest and geographic compactness. That was hardly the result of the last redistricting. Look at the 12th Congressional District, long held by the late John Murtha and now represented by Democrat Mark Critz. Democrats drew the tract so that it includes all of Greene County and snakes through parts of eight others: Washington, Fayette, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Somerset, Indiana, Cambria and Armstrong. That's no community of interest and it's not geographically compact; it's a gerrymandered territory designed to produce a predetermined political result. When a new Congress takes office Wednesday, Pennsylvania's House delegation will consist of 12 Republicans and seven Democrats. Despite the GOP gains in last month's election, no one would seriously argue that this ratio accurately reflects the partisan strength and preferences of voters in the state. Therefore, the redistricting should not make the imbalance even worse by targeting the Democratic districts for elimination or consolidation. Districts with genuine partisan competition are more likely to have elections conducted in the center rather than at the extremes. No one expects victorious GOP politicians to abandon partisan interests in the redistricting process. But they still should strive to make that process small-d democratic. First published on January 4, 2011 at 12:00 am This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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