New congressional map ‘not good enough’ for group that brought challenge
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
Conor Lamb, center, visited Washington Feb. 10 to accept the endorsement of the local Service Employees International Union in Pennsylvania. State Republican lawmakers have proposed moving Lamb’s hometown of Mt. Lebanon out of the 18th Congressional District where he’s running in the March 13 special election and into the 14th District of Democratic Congressman Mike Doyle.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and House Speaker Mike Turzai, both Republicans, submitted this proposed map to Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, late Feb. 9.
The leader of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania thinks the proposed map of the state’s congressional districts put forward by two GOP lawmakers is “certainly better than” the current map, but doesn’t go far enough in solving the problems the group was trying to address with the lawsuit it filed last year.
“While we appreciate the effort and hope that everybody is working together in good faith to get better maps, this map isn’t good enough,” said Suzanne Almeida.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and House Speaker Mike Turzai submitted the proposed map to Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, late Feb. 9.
The current proposal isn’t final, and district lines could change substantially before the May 15 primaries for this year’s midterm elections.
Feb. 9 was the deadline for the GOP-controlled Legislature to do so under a ruling in which the state Supreme Court found the current congressional district map violates the state constitution.
The state League of Women Voters and 18 voters across the state challenged the congressional maps that were drawn in 2011, claiming they were gerrymandered to unfairly favor Republican candidates.
The decision gave Wolf until Feb. 15 to pass the new plan to the Supreme Court. Wolf announced Feb. 13 that he was rejecting the map. Now, it appears the court will create its own.
The plan would have moved the eastern edges of Washington and Greene counties from the sprawling 9th Congressional District and place them in the 18th.
Mt. Lebanon would’ve moved into the 14th District, while the 18th kept nearby Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, South Park and other municipalities in southern Allegheny County.
Some other South Hills communities – including South Fayette, North Fayette, Collier, Scott Township and Bridgeville – were placed among the neighborhoods in the 12th District, now represented by Republican Keith Rothfus.
In Washington County, Cecil, Mt. Pleasant, Robinson, Smith, Burgettstown, Jefferson and Hanover were also be part of the 12th, which also included northern Allegheny County and all of Beaver and Lawrence counties.
The rest of Washington and Greene counties were to be in the 18th.
The plan would’ve meant that Conor Lamb – the Mt. Lebanon Democrat who is the party’s nominee in the March 13 special election for the 18th District seat – no longer lived within the boundaries of that district for the general election in November.
His opponent, GOP state Rep. Rick Saccone, is from Elizabeth, which would have remained part of the 18th.
Almeida said the proposed map shows compactness which is “still not great” and “still more county splits than we would like to see.”
“We’re still seeing the partisan split that was present in the 2011 district map,” she said.
Materials on Scarnati’s office’s website say the proposal includes 15 split counties, or 13 fewer than in the current map, and 17 split municipalities, or 49 fewer than there are now.
It also keeps about 69 percent of people in their current district to reduce voter confusion, according to the website.
Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott earlier said the court’s decision “did not appear to allow for two individuals to draw a map on behalf of the entire General Assembly,” but that Wolf would review the plan in “consultation with the experts retained by the administration to determine his next course of action.” Those experts advised him to reject the map, according to a press release.
Dave Ball, vice chairman of the Washington County Republican Committee, said there were “so many moving parts that it’s hard to comment on the map itself.”
Still, he asserted the Democratic-majority court overreached its authority with the original decision.
“I think the major problem was that the court decided that it was unconstitutional,” adding he thought that decision was itself “political.”
Washington County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Linda Andrews, meanwhile, called the current map “ridiculous.”
“Anyone looking at that map can see everyone took their turn to feather their own nest,” she added.
Lamb visited Washington for a rally Feb. 10 to accept the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union in Pennsylvania. He had no comment on the proposed map that moved him out of the 18th Congressional District and into the district of Congressman Mike Doyle, a fellow Democrat.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Lamb said of the campaign.