One by one, a who’s who of Pennsylvania’s most well-known redistricting advocates told Harrisburg leaders what they’d been waiting years to say in a public hearing: that they’ll be watching — and will do everything in their power — to ensure that once Congressional maps are drawn in the next few months, there won’t be any partisan parlor games, backroom deals or funky boundaries.
In the first in a series of hearings by the House State Government Committee before they collaborate with Senate leaders to draw the boundaries of 17 Congressional districts, stakeholders delivered impassioned and data-driven testimony about the need for a transparent process and a uniform set of criteria for how legislators will hammer out the lines and determine the next 10 years of Congressional representation in the state.
“Redistricting is inherently political and, consequently, it requires that people discuss, debate and make reasoned judgments about how and where to consider tradeoffs and competing interests, and draw political boundaries in the best interests of the public,” Committee of Seventy President and CEO David Thornburgh testified on Thursday. “Election maps should be the product of a robust conversation between the represented and those who represent them.”
A need for transparency and accountability was a common theme of the testimonies, as stakeholders decried the perceived back-door dealings and partisan gamesmanship that happened the last time Harrisburg drew Congressional maps in 2011. Those maps were struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2018 and deemed a partisan Republican gerrymander, which is defined as the drawing of districts in a manner that’s intended to be politically advantageous to one party.
Advocates have worked for years to prepare for this year’s redistricting and to advocate for reform, but that reform never came. The GOP-controlled legislature did not pass legislation to make the redistricting process more transparent or to give it to an independent commission. But that’s not stopping stakeholders who say they won’t be quiet until they see fair maps.
Because of COVID-19 and its delay on the census effort, Pennsylvania isn’t due to receive population and demographic data until Aug. 16, and even then, it will require extra handling to properly extract the numbers and use them for redrawing district lines.
Officials know total population counts and how many seats states will receive in Congress, but not where population growth occurred or key demographic information, said Wendy Underhill, director of elections and redistricting for the National Conference of State Legislatures. And states now are far behind where they were in 2011; by July of that year, 12 states had completed their redistricting. Today, none have, according to data provided by Ms. Underhill to the committee.
Pennsylvania’s population count was a little over 13 million, resulting in the loss of one seat in Congress. Leaders in the House and Senate committees will have to draw the boundaries for 17 districts, and advocates had thoughts about how they should do it.
The committees should do all they can to solicit public input and use it to draw the maps, stakeholders said. In the House, GOP leaders pledged a “new level of transparency” in the process, unveiling a one-stop shop website for constituents to engage on the topic and announcing a series of regional hearings. They’re set to hit Allegheny County on Aug. 25 and southwest Pennsylvania the day after.
Jean Handley, a Dauphin County coordinator for Fair Districts PA and its effort to reform Pennsylvania’s redistricting processes, said that’s not enough.
“The announced series of hearings is a good start, but more is needed,” Ms. Handley testified. “Because it’s not enough to just let voters express their wishes, then watch as lawmakers vote on a final bill crafted behind closed doors further eroding the public trust.”
Ms. Handley said after the hearings, the committee should produce a preliminary plan that explains the reasons for its drawings and the criteria it incorporated. It then should hold additional hearings to consider possible amendments before a full House vote.
For the actual drawing itself, the committee should abide by a set of standards to avoid partisan gerrymandering and keep intact communities of interest, the advocates testified.
Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, recommended that lawmakers start from a blank map, disregarding any existing boundaries and building their own based on public testimony. It might take longer to create, he said, “but we believe that the time spent will result in a map that will be far more representative to the people of the Commonwealth.” Could this practice disadvantage current incumbents? Sure, but protecting incumbents shouldn’t be the goal of redistricting, Mr. Ali said.
Mr. Thornburgh, whose group has run a map-drawing competition that’s resulted in 1,500 maps from citizen mappers, said participants almost universally agreed on a set of standards that Harrisburg should deploy: lawmakers shouldn’t split counties or municipalities across multiple districts and shouldn’t use any voter registration data when drafting the maps to mitigate the risk of partisan manipulation, among others.
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com. Twitter: @jrouthPG
First Published: July 22, 2021, 9:39 p.m.