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Pennsylvania’s legislative and congressional maps are in the final stages of the redistricting process, but legal challenges by lawmakers and other groups remain.
After 6,000 comments and several public hearings, the Legislative Reapportionment Commission passed the Senate map with little dissent. The House map, by contrast, has been criticized by Republicans, who call it a Democratic gerrymander because it creates more seats that could be won by members of that party. House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R., Centre) argues that areas with sizable communities of color were split in order to benefit Democratic incumbents.
The congressional map was picked Feb. 23 by the state Supreme Court, which entered the process after Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a map proposal approved by the General Assembly. He called the map “highly skewed” in favor of Republicans. A lower appellate court was initially in charge of deciding the map, but the high court stepped in to expedite the decision.
With the May primary quickly approaching, many questions about the final shapes of Pennsylvania’s districts remain unanswered.
On March 3, Spotlight PA’s redistricting reporter and a panel of experts discussed the future of Pennsylvania’s electoral maps and reviewed how the redistricting process played out in the state. Watch their conversation below.
Our panelists were:
Kate Huangpu, redistricting reporter for Spotlight PA
Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause PA
Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program
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