A new map for Pennsylvania's congressional districts produced by the state Supreme Court is nullifying Republican gerrymandering efforts. It's a fair map, and it's helping Democrats because it's not tilted to help the GOP. Needless to say, Republicans are angry.
The redistricting map was drawn with the help of Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily, who has helped with the development of other maps used to determine House of Representatives districts elsewhere in the country, according to Politico. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court took it upon itself to impose new districts on the state after Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, was unable to agree upon a new map with the state's Republican leaders, who control the legislature.
The need to create a new map emerged after the State Supreme Court ruled last month that the previously gerrymandered map "clearly, plainly and palpably violates" the state's Constitution.
The main result of the changes to the map is that districts which were previously elongated and often cut into county and municipal boundaries have instead been made more compact and consistent with other political boundaries, according to The New York Times. The map also made subtle changes that would seem to try to create partisan balance in the state, even though normally court-ordered redistricting aims to be nonpartisan rather than achieving specific partisan results.
The main result of the map would be that Democrats now have the opportunity to pick up as many as six seats in districts that have suddenly become quite competitive. As the Times explained:
Democrats couldn’t have asked for much more from the new map. It’s arguably even better for them than the maps they proposed themselves. Over all, a half-dozen competitive Republican-held congressional districts move to the left, endangering several incumbent Republicans, one of whom may now be all but doomed to defeat, and improving Democratic standing in two open races.
State Republican leaders have all but declared that they will fight the map in court.
"Implementation of this map would create a constitutional crisis where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is usurping the authority of the Legislative and Executive branches. We anticipate further action in federal court," Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and House Speaker Mike Turzai declared in a statement after the court released its new map.
The blow to Republicans was decried by President Donald Trump, who, on Tuesday morning, bemoaned the fact that Republicans can no longer rig elections to their whim.
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