Pennsylvania's congressional districts

Court-mandated districts for 2018 elections
Congressional districts (2011–2018)[1]

After the 2000 Census, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was divided into 19 Congressional Districts, decreasing from 21 due to reapportionment. After the 2010 Census, the number of districts decreased again to 18.

On January 22, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the Congressional Districts were an unlawful partisan gerrymander in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution.[2] The General Assembly and governor failed to reach an agreement for a revised district map. Therefore, on February 19, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released a new congressional map.[3] That map is estimated to have a partisan balance of 10 Republican-leaning and 8 Democratic-leaning seats.[4]

The court-mandated map is set to go into effect before the primary elections on May 15, 2018.[5] Republican lawmakers in the state asked for a stay from the United States Supreme Court[4] and brought suit in federal court, seeking an injunction against using the court-drawn map in the upcoming congressional elections.[6] Both attempts failed on March 19, 2018, following rulings by the Supreme Court and a Pennsylvania federal district court.[7]

Current districts and representatives

The congressional delegation from Pennsylvania consists of 18 members. In the current delegation, 10 representatives are Republicans, 6 are Democrats, with 2 vacancies (after the resignations of Pat Meehan [8] and Charlie Dent [9]).

The list below identifies the members of the Pennsylvanian United States House delegation, their terms, and their current district boundaries. Congressional district boundaries for the 2018 elections are also shown.

District Incumbent District map (2018 Elections) District map (Current)
Representative Party Hometown Beginning of service
1st Bob Brady Democratic Philadelphia May 19, 1998
2nd Dwight Evans Democratic Philadelphia November 14, 2016
3rd Mike Kelly Republican Butler January 3, 2011
4th Scott Perry Republican Harrisburg January 3, 2013
5th Glenn Thompson Republican Oil City January 3, 2009
6th Ryan Costello Republican West Chester January 3, 2015
7th Vacant
8th Brian Fitzpatrick Republican Levittown January 3, 2017
9th Bill Shuster Republican Altoona May 15, 2001
10th Tom Marino Republican Williamsport January 3, 2011
11th Lou Barletta Republican Hazleton January 3, 2011
12th Keith Rothfus Republican Sewickley January 3, 2013
13th Brendan Boyle Democratic Philadelphia January 3, 2015
14th Michael Doyle Democratic Pittsburgh January 3, 1995
15th Vacant
16th Lloyd Smucker Republican West Lampeter Township January 3, 2017
17th Matthew Cartwright Democratic Moosic January 3, 2013
18th Conor Lamb Democratic Mt. Lebanon April 12, 2018

2012 redistricting and gerrymandering challenge

Delegation affiliation following 2012 elections:
Red – Republicans (13)
Blue – Democrats (5)

Following the 2010 Census, redistricting in Pennsylvania was controlled by elected officials from the Republican party. In 2012, Pennsylvania realigned a number of districts. A number of sitting Congressional Representatives had their districts modified or merged as part of the redistricting. The merger of Districts 4 and 12 forced a primary runoff between the two sitting Congressional representatives.[10]

The 2012 redistricting process resulted in a map that disproportionately favored Republican candidates. In the 2012 Congressional elections, Democratic candidates won 50.5% of the total votes cast.[11] However, only five of the state's 18 Federal Representatives (27.78%) were Democrats.[12]

On June 14, 2017, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit, alleging that the district boundaries constituted an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.[13] The case was eventually appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On January 22, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the Congressional Districts were unlawfully gerrymandered in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution.[2] The court ordered the General Assembly and the governor to adopt a remedied map, to be used for the 2018 Congressional elections.[2] Pennsylvania Republicans requested a stay from the United States Supreme Court, to delay the drawing of new district boundaries; however, that request was denied on February 5, 2018.[14] The governor and General Assembly failed to reach an agreement regarding the district boundaries, thus the Pennsylvania Supreme Court drew its own remedial map.[15]

On February 19, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released a new congressional map, to take effect for the May 15, 2018, primaries.[16] The Court voted to implement the new map by a 4–3 vote.[17] The map was designed with the assistance of Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily.[18] The districts in the Court's map were significantly more compact, and its map split fewer municipalities and counties than the prior Republican-drawn map.[19] While the GOP-drawn map had favored Republican candidates, the court-drawn map is expected not to favor one party over the other.[20]

Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania requested that the Supreme Court block the implementation of the court-drawn map; however, on March 19, 2018, the United States Supreme Court denied their request.[21] A Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed a parallel suit on the same day.[7]

Historical district boundaries

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The national atlas". nationalatlas.gov. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 The Associated Press. "Pa. Supreme Court rules state's congressional districts are unconstitutional". Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  3. ↑ Lai, Jonathan; Navratil, Liz (19 February 2018). "Pa. gerrymandering case: State Supreme Court releases new congressional map for 2018 elections". Philadelphia Inquirer. 2018 Philadelphia Media Network (Digital), LLC. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  4. 1 2 Christopher Ingraham. "Pennsylvania Republicans lost the redistricting battle. Now, they're declaring war on the courts". Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  5. ↑ Manchester, Julia. "Pennsylvania Supreme Court releases new congressional map". The Hill. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  6. ↑ David DeKok. "Pennsylvania Republicans make case for scrapping new Congress map". Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  7. 1 2 Joseph Ax (March 19, 2018). "Supreme Court upholds Pennsylvania congressional map in win for Democrats". Reuters.
  8. ↑ https://meehan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-meehan-announces-resignation
  9. ↑ http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/05/pa_gop_rep_charlie_dent_to_res.html
  10. ↑ "Pa's New Congressional Maps". www.politicspa.com.
  11. ↑ Wang, Sam (December 5, 2015). "Opinion - Let Math Save Our Democracy" – via www.nytimes.com.
  12. ↑ "2012 Pennsylvania House Election Results". Politico. Politico LLC. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  13. ↑ Marc Levy. "Pennsylvania's US House district borders challenged in court". The Morning Call. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  14. ↑ Mark Scolforo and Mark Sherman. "US Supreme Court Won't Block Pennsylvania Redistricting". Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  15. ↑ John Finnerty. "Supreme Court will get to pick new map for state's congressional districts". Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  16. ↑ Lozano, Alicia Victoria (19 February 2018). "Pennsylvania Court Issues New Congressional Map". NBC 10: NBC Philadelphia. 2018 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  17. ↑ Lai, Jonathan; Navratil, Liz (19 February 2018). "Pa. gerrymandering case: State Supreme Court releases new congressional map for 2018 elections". Philadelphia Inquirer. 2018 Philadelphia Media Network (Digital), LLC. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  18. ↑ Previti, Emily; Meyer, Katie (19 February 2018). "In Pennsylvania, New Court-Drawn Voting Map Could Shift Advantage To Democrats". National Public Radio. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  19. ↑ Ingraham, Christopher (20 February 2018). "Pennsylvania Supreme Court draws 'much more competitive' district map to overturn Republican gerrymander". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  20. ↑ Cohn, Nate; Bloch, Matthew; Quealy, Kevin. "The New Pennsylvania Congressional Map, District by District". New York Times.
  21. ↑ Lai, Jonathan; Navratil, Liz (March 19, 2018). "Supreme Court upholds new Pa. congressional district map, rejecting Republican challenge - Philly". Philly.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.