The panel charged with the slicing and dicing of Pennsylvania's legislative districts has voted in favor of a Republican-designed preliminary plan for the 50 seats in the state Senate and the 203 seats in the House of Representatives.
In the House, the current reapportionment proposal would add a seat in the Hanover area of York County, as well as seats in Allentown, Berks County and Chester County. Existing districts in Erie and Philadelphia and two in Allegheny County would be eliminated.
In the Senate, Harrisburg voters would lose Jeffrey Piccola, as the city would be moved from the 15th District to the 48th District currently held by Lebanon County's Mike Folmer. Piccola, who pushed for a state takeover of the city, wouldn't have to face city voters in the next election.
The new district proposed for Piccola would loop around Pat Vance's 31st District in Cumberland and York counties, and would include parts of Dauphin, Perry, Cumberland, Adams and York counties. Vance's district would expand north into Perry County.
Democrats are bitterly upset at the way Republicans drew the new boundaries, forcing two House democrats to fight for one seat in the west and moving a western Democratic Senate seat to Monroe County.
"I'm outraged," Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) said. "It seems what this process has been about is incumbency protection, not about the best welfare of communities."
Republicans call their plan fair and reflective of population shifts from the west to the east.
"Almost 90 percent of the loss in the entire west was attributable to southwestern Democratic seats," House Majority Leader Mike Turzai said. "It's just what happened, so the losses should come from that region."
Should it be a surprise that politics creeps into redistricting when politicians are put in charge of it?
"We have self-interested people designing districts to make sure they or their colleagues get re-elected," said Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. "We need to switch to a citizens commission like they have in Iowa and California."
The commission includes all four caucus floor leaders. The fifth member, Superior Court president judge emeritus Stephen McEwen, cast the deciding vote.
The preliminary maps are subject to a 30-day public comment period. A final plan is still about two months away.
