With Legislative Redistricting Comment Period Coming to a Close, Significant Opposition to GOP Plans Continues
November 29, 2011
Harrisburg Republicans have drawn partisan legislative redistricting maps that chop up communities in order for Republicans to retain power. Tomorrow at midnight, the public comment period on the map closes. Take a look at what people are saying about the GOP's redistricting maps:
Perry County's sense of community has been affronted by a recent legislative redistricting proposal that could become final by the end of the year. - Patriot News
"The voters have been swindled, fleeced and defrauded again." - Express-Times
"Every voter in the state should be outraged..." - Cumberland Sentinel
"How could anyone in either party or on the state Legislative Reapportionment Commission defend this shameless gerrymandering with a straight face?" - York Daily Record
Redistricting considered an insider's game (Citizen's Voice) Reapportionment and its counterpart, congressional redistricting, are considered an insider's game, the province of elected officials and chambers of commerce concerned about wielding regional clout in Harrisburg and Washington. But the outcome will have a big impact for constituents who will have an even harder time getting the ear of their elected representative if that person has to become acquainted with an entirely new district or their town or county is Balkanized among several districts.
GOP is playing a redistricting game (Centre Daily Times) In 2008, legislation with the help of citizen proposals and LWVPA assistance had been written and submitted by legislators sympathetic to the need for reform. When a group of LWV members went to Harrisburg to discuss the proposed legislation, it was a circus of polite meetings with key legislators to discuss the need to reform the process with citizen involvement on the selection panel or to use modern computer technology to align the districts according to population. The legislators listened and smiled and, at the conclusion of the meetings, handshakes all around. You left hoping they have really listened and that the common sense-proposals would be considered. The legislation languished in committee. They let the clock run out.
Redistricting proposal chops up the county (Patriot News) Perry County's sense of community has been affronted by a recent legislative redistricting proposal that could become final by the end of the year.
Questioning redrawn boundaries (Lancaster Online) How the boundaries were redrawn, and what considerations went into the new districts, is anyone's guess. The process occurs behind closed doors and the final product is dumped on the public like a warmed-over plate of Thanksgiving leftovers. Which shouldn't come as a surprise. When I mention the word Harrisburg, what thought comes to mind? Secrecy, for one. I'll bet there are plenty of others, too.
The revised legislative map turns on partisanship (Post-Gazette) It could have been worse. That's the best that can be said about the Republican plan to redraw districts for the Pennsylvania Legislature, which is required because of the 2010 U.S. Census.
Delco residents give pols earful on redistricting; Pileggi defends changes (Delco Daily Times) Delaware County Democrats have a splitting headache over proposed new state House and Senate districts that would divide some communities for political purposes. Sheamus Bonner, a 19-year veteran of the armed forces and a registered Democrat from Drexel Hill in Delaware County, said he wondered why he was fighting overseas to defend politicians' right to draw political maps that favor one party or the other and leave voters without a real voice in the redistricting process.
Redistricting hearing to draw ire of Democrats (Post Gazette) Some Democrats have assailed the blueprint as a calculated effort to lock in GOP control of the state House and Senate. "The Allegheny County map very much reflects the partisan approach that's been taken statewide," said Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill. "It's a Republican majority protection plan."
Pa. redistricting another masterpiece for the political class (Express-Times, Editorial) The 2011 redrawing of legislative districts in Pennsylvania is just about in the books, and this should come as no surprise: The voters have been swindled, fleeced and defrauded again.
Take a close look at proposed district maps (The Sentinel, Editorial) Every voter in the state should be outraged that the commission even dared suggest taking a reasonably compact district and morphing it into an open-ended horseshoe that take bites out of five counties. The incumbent, Jeff Piccola, says it was news to him. But how "lucky" that this plan gives to someone else the Democratic precincts he lost in the City of Harrisburg last election and replaces them with solid Republican ones on this side of the river.
Sole goal of redistricting is to protect politicians (Patriot-News, Op-ed) This redistricting plan should not happen. And this state should not go another decade without fundamentally redrawing the way in which political districts are determined.
A blatant display of incumbency protection (Public Opinion, Editorial) Consider state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin: His successful drive for a state takeover of Harrisburg's schools and its financial apparatus isn't sitting too well with Harrisburg voters. Normally, this would be a big problem for Piccola, whose 15th District encompasses -- for now -- a huge urban area just east of Harrisburg.
C is for conniving to gerrymander (York Daily Record, Editorial) How could anyone in either party or on the state Legislative Reapportionment Commission defend this shameless gerrymandering with a straight face?
Sen. Piccola's new district is a joke, right? (Patriot News, Editorial) The only thing more comical than the proposed Pennsylvania Senate redistricting map is how Republican lawmakers could present it as fair with a straight face. What the redistricting committee did in central Pennsylvania is not illegal, but it's blatantly wrong. The panel concocted a horseshoe district that many say was solely to remove Harrisburg from Republican Sen. Jeffrey Piccola's turf.
Powered by