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GOP Defends New Redistricting Map
Republicans are defending the legislative district lines that are being challenged in court by a handful of Democrats.
According to The Times Herald, local Republicans are defending the state Legislative Reapportionment Commission's (LRC) lastest attempt at redistricting maps, saying that Democrats who oppose it are engaged in "tomfoolery."
A group of seven Democrats, led by Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, recently filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking the court to review the "2012 Final Plan" by the LRC and send it back for revision on the basis of what the Democrats claim is the "obvious partisan gerrymandering" behind the plan.
Republicans counter that the petition itself is a politically-motivated maneuver.
"It never crossed my mind to complain about the maps," Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. told the Herald of his colleagues' efforts. "If it was not completely political, the other commissioners might have asked me to agree with them, which they did not. A bipartisan committee headed by a distinguished retired judge decided the matter with the concurrence of a senior Democrat. It is time to knock off all this tomfoolery and get back to the business of getting this state moving forward.”
Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman Bob Kerns also heralded the bipartisan buy-in involved in the plan.
"The Minority Leader of the Democratic Caucus voted in favor of this plan," Kerns told the Herald. "It seems to me this is a political play. Their petition indicates that we could put three whole senate seats in our county and not have a problem. Unfortunately, another county would have the problem."
Joining Shapiro in filing the petition is fellow commissioner Leslie Richards, State Sen. Daylin Leach, Lower Merion Treasurer Samuel Adenbaum, Upper Dublin Commissioner Ira Tackel and citizens Marcel Groen of Abington and David Dormont and Harvey Glickman, both of Lower Merion.
Read more about the Republican response to the petition here. Read more about the Democrats petition to the State Supreme Court here.
You can download the full text of the petition and the "2012 Final Plan" redistricting maps in our PDF section.
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- Pa. Supreme Court Throws Out GOP Redistricting Maps
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Mike Shortall
9:26 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Bruce Castor nails it! This was the recommendation of a BIPARTISAN committee that included TWO Democrats out of a committee of five. One of the Democrats agreed with the committees work which - by all reasonable definitions of the word - makes the proposal a BIPARTISAN plan!
So the complaining (Shall we call it was it is ... whining?) Democrats have no leg to stand on ... unless of course their definition of "bipartisan" requires that ALL Democrats must agree with the work of any "bipartisan" committee. (No surprise there, if that's what they mean.)
They - the Democrats - have had two bites at the redistricting committee's work. Yet they still complain about the work their own Democrat committee members passed (one in FAVOR, one opposed) in the committees 4-1 vote.
Time to man up and get on with governing!