A Chester County legislator who helped write proposed legislation that would change the way the state’s legislative districts are drawn with a hope of curtailing the gerrymandering that led to a controversial court-ordered redrawing of districts earlier this year is lashing out at what happened to his suggested fix.
State Rep. Eric Roe, R-158, of West Goshen said in a press release that he was “disappointed” in the action by the House State Government Committee that essentially rewrote the bill he and a Democratic state representative had introduced, but that he would “keep fighting” to have the bill passed as written.
“The intention of our bill was to make the redistricting process less partisan and more neutral,” Roe said in the release. “The ‘gut-and-replace’ amendment inserted by the committee did just the opposite. It placed more power in the hands of partisan politicians, and it gave the majority party – whichever party that will be after the next census in 2021 – an even greater opportunity to gerrymander.”
The House State Government Committee split along party lines on a proposal to amend the state Constitution to create a six-member commission to produce new boundaries for legislative and congressional districts every decade. The vote follows the state Supreme Court-ordered redrawing of the state’s 18 congressional districts, raising calls from some Republicans to impeach the Democratic justices who backed the decision.
The Republican and Democratic caucuses in the two chambers would each pick one member, and the fifth and sixth members would be voted on by the full House and Senate.
Five of six members would need to approve the maps. If they would be unable to agree, lawmakers would vote on the commission’s draft maps without amendment.
“There is no greater citizens’ commission than the General Assembly of this state,” said Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, the committee chairman.
The vote on Wednesday to approve the Republican-drawn amendment did not move it out of committee, and Metcalfe did not indicate when he plans to have the committee vote to send the proposal to the House floor.
Metcalfe said an objective was to remove “unaccountable judges” from the process, although there would be a role for the Commonwealth Court to hear legal challenges.
“Speaking as a Republican myself, this move wasn’t just a slap in the face to Democrats and independents; it was an affront to the 38 House Republicans who co-sponsored our bill,” Roe said. “This was certainly a setback, but it’s not the end. We’ll keep fighting and hopefully replace this bad amendment with one that restores the spirit and intent of the original bill.”
According to the release by Roe and state Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-135, of Northampton, the suggested independent commission made of non-politicians would have added necessary checks and balances to the redistricting process. Under the plan developed in conjunction with Fair Districts PA, the commission composed of four Republicans, four Democrats and three independents would have required the approval of each of those subgroups before certifying final maps for congressional and state legislative boundary lines. Under the current system led by party leaders and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the party affiliations of voters are sometimes used to protect incumbents.
The Senate version of the bill, SB 22, remains without amendment and could potentially be sent over to the House for a concurrence vote upon passage in the Senate.
House Bill 722 has 109 cosponsors, more than any other bill introduced in this 2017-2018 session. Senate Bill 22 has been steadily gaining co-sponsorship from both parties and now has 18 cosponsors. In Chester County, all four senators (Andy Dinniman, Tom Killion, Tom McGarrigle, and John Rafferty) are cosponsors while five members of the House – Carolyn Comitta, Becky Corbin, Warren Kampf, Duane Milne, and Roe – are cosponsors.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, issued a statement after the committee vote calling the Republican move “partisan politics at its worst.”
“After the last few months, it should be clear that the solution to our broken redistricting system is not putting more power in the hands of partisan politicians,” Wolf said. “This is wrong, and it is an affront to our democracy.”
Under current law, legislative districts are produced by a five-person commission, with each caucus leader choosing one person. The four then pick a fifth member, but if they can’t agree – and they usually don’t – the state Supreme Court appoints the fifth member.
Congressional redistricting currently is done as regular legislation that must pass both chambers and get the governor’s approval.
Republicans have enjoyed several favorable congressional reapportionment cycles, thanks to majorities they held on the high court. But Democrats recently gained a 5-2 court majority, a foothold that could give their party much more say in changes to General Assembly districts after the 2020 census.
Republicans controlled congressional redistricting the last two decades. But earlier this year the state Supreme Court threw out the GOP-crafted 2011 map in a gerrymandering case, saying it was improperly drawn to give Republicans a durable majority in the state’s congressional delegation.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
