Pennsylvania: The Gerrymander Capital of America
“Funny how Democrats claim the system is broken only when they lose.” – George Will
A certain amount of hypocritical behavior in politics is to be expected. But, the wailing, stomping of feet and rending of garments emanating from the Left over the proposed redrawing of congressional district lines in Texas has taken hypocrisy to a new level.
The Left is acting as if they have never drawn congressional district lines to their advantage. They certainly have and, to George Will’s point they did not claim the system was broken when they were winning at the redistricting game.
Heavily “blue states,” including California, New York, Illinois, Maryland, and the New England states have all drawn congressional district lines to maximize the number of Democrat congressional districts. The “system” was apparently not broken when that occurred.
Governor Josh Shapiro said last week that Pennsylvania will not seek to redraw its congressional district lines. He says that for good reason: the lines in Penn’s woods have already been drawn in the Democrats’ favor.
Pennsylvania is, in fact, the gerrymander capital of America.
The term gerrymander originated in the early 19th century when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry drew a map that included a congressional district which resembled a salamander. He and the term have now become synonymous with maps that feature oddly shaped districts.
The argument that congressional district maps should only be drawn every ten years following the decennial census was kicked to the curb in 2018 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
The high court had been taken over by an activist Democrat majority in the 2015 elections. One justice, David Wecht, had – in clear violation of the Judicial Code of Ethics – actually campaigned on the promise to redraw the congressional district lines. A lawsuit filed by an extremist Leftwing organization gave Wecht and his fellow justices the vehicle they need to order a redistricting – and so they did.
What followed was an historic appropriation of legislative power by the judiciary. The Pennsylvania state constitution clearly gives the power to draw congressional district lines to the legislature. But, not to be deterred by a little thing like the constitution the high court retained a California college professor to redraw the lines.
The results were predictable: the new lines heavily favored Democrats. The 2016 election yielded 13 Republican and five Democrat U.S. Representatives. Under the gerrymandered 2018 district maps the Democrats picked up four seats yielding a 9-9 partisan split in the state’s congressional delegation.
Following the 2020 census those same activist state Supreme Court Justices – three of whom face a retention election this November – again stole from the legislature the power to draw the new congressional district lines. Once again, they used the California college professor to do the deed. The state lost one seat due to reapportionment following the census. The new maps, of course, eliminated a Republican district and drew the remaining districts to favor Democrats.
The state Supreme Court, however, does not hold the title best (worse?) gerrymander. That goes to the 2021 state Legislative Reapportionment Commission. With a 3-2 Democrat majority, again lead by a submissive academic, the commission designed the most gerrymandered legislative maps in the history of the commonwealth.
Long held redistricting guidelines, such as not unnecessarily splitting municipalities, adhering to geographic boundaries (like rivers and mountain ranges), and respecting socio-economic areas were abandoned as the commission sliced and diced to produce districts admittedly designed to yield a Democrat majority in the state House and trim the GOP’s majority in the state Senate.
It worked – barely. In the 2022 legislative election Democrats secured a one-seat majority. Frequent vacancies in the 203 seat body have periodically paralyzed the chamber. The 2022-23 legislative session became one of the least productive in state history.
Speaking of the proposed Texas congressional redistricting Governor John Shapiro said: “I think it is shameful.” Yet, as the then Pennsylvania Attorney General he stood silently by when the state Supreme Court and then the Legislative Redistricting Commission made a mockery of the term fair districts.
The Governor is correct about one thing: Pennsylvania will not be redrawing its congressional district lines. That is because we already have maps that would make Elbridge Gerry proud.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)
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