How the redrawing of the state’s congressional map would impact the wide-reaching Fifth District is anyone’s guess.
But Dr. G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, can give a little bit of speculation about the future of the district that is the largest in the state and the least densely populated. Madonna is a respected observer of Pennsylvania politics and a regular contributor to The Era’s editorial page.
He expects there to be at least some change for the district, which has been a Republican stronghold, but he would be surprised if the Fifth did not maintain its Republican majority.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-State College, represents the Fifth, which includes McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter counties.
The state Supreme Court ruled in a recent case that the congressional district boundaries in Pennsylvania “clearly, plainly and palpably” violate the state’s constitution. Last week a letter sent to the state Supreme Court on behalf of state Sen. President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, details that the lawmaker will not hand over map data to the court.
Currently, Republicans control 12 congressional districts, while Democrats control five.
The state Supreme Court has given the legislature until Friday to produce maps and receive an approval from Gov. Tom Wolf by Feb. 15. If all doesn’t go according to that timeframe, the court will put forth a map on Feb. 19 and will let voters elect candidates based on those districts during the 2018 election cycle.
“They can be artful and carve into the Fifth District,” Madonna said.
He said the district could be changed in such a way to include extending the Fifth District outward. Or another scenario could be remapping the district from Erie and then cutting across to the Northern Tier, Madonna said.
All told, he said it would be hard to break up the Republican majority of the Fifth, which encompasses much of central and northern Pennsylvania.
“You’d have to make some funny-looking maps,” he said.
He said not all of the districts would suddenly become more competitive. Gerrymandering is more prevalent in the Philadelphia suburbs, for example, he said.
Madonna said he has a few problems with the way the state court handled the remapping order. The deadline for a new map is ridiculous, he said, and he wonders how the remapping was declared unconstitutional.
State Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, also shared some insight.
“Although we believe the ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is unconstitutional, the General Assembly is assessing how to respond to the court’s order in the very tight time frame we’ve been given and without a formal opinion from the court outlining its rationale,” he said.
Thompson, after the ruling, called the decision misguided and said it was an unfortunate example of the judicial branch placing itself into the core functions of the legislative branch.
“(The) Congressional maps were drafted and approved by both Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “It also comes on the eve of a midterm election. An orderly electoral process is an essential function of our Democracy.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, said he could not believe that 14 days after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the map to be unconstitutional, the justices have yet to issue a majority opinion.
“This irresponsible approach handicapped Justice (Samuel Anthony) Alito (Jr.) by not providing him with more information, just as it has handicapped the legislature,” he said. “We still do not believe that there was a violation of the state constitution, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court can direct us to draw a new congressional map, or that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has the authority to draw a new Congressional District Map under the Pennsylvania Constitution or U.S. Constitution.”
State Rep. Cris Dush, a Republican from Clinton County, is calling for the impeachment of the justices on the court who ruled in favor of a redrawing of the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Dush circulated a letter addressed to the state House on Monday arguing that the five Supreme Court justices behind the decision violated the state constitution by appointing a special master to draw impartial districts if the legislature and governor fail to approve a map.
However, the impeachment effort has been ridiculed by Democrats and supporters of new mapping of Pennsylvania districts.
“The state and U.S. Supreme Courts delivered a victory to the voters of Pennsylvania by striking down these maps and this attack on the justices is yet another callous attempt by a politician to control who votes in his district,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director of Common Cause. “The State Supreme Court ordered new maps from the legislature by Friday and Pennsylvania voters deserve exactly that. This sideshow should be dismissed as the wild-eyed delusion that it is.”
