Senate could get ball rolling on fairness in 'remap' process

Published: February 4, 2012

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State lawmakers who violated every principle of fair redistricting when drawing new legislative maps blamed the state Supreme Court when it rejected their handiwork.

Now, the election-year train wreck is an opportunity for the Legislature to do what it could have done before: reform the redistricting process.

The state Supreme Court has not yet issued an opinion detailing its rejection of the redistricting, but it heard the objections of disparate groups citing an array of issues. The maps clearly violated fundamental principles that seek to avoid districts that break up communities of interest, split small municipalities and are not compact.

In Pennsylvania, the legislative maps are drawn by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which is a grandly named device of the legislative leadership. Because of Republican dominance of both houses, the rejected maps in effect were the work of the Republican legislative leadership.

But that was just this year. The system ensures that the maps will be drawn for partisan advantage regardless of which party steers the process.

For a decade, state Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Democrat from Northampton County, has introduced bills to create a non-partisan system. They have never gone anywhere partly because lawmakers were confident that the Supreme Court would rubber-stamp the new maps, as it has in the past.

The Supreme Court's rejection, and the uncertainty it has created, also should create some urgency in the General Assembly for a process that complies with principles of fairness rather than partisan advantage.

Boscola has introduced a bill that would lead to a state constitutional amendment creating a fair process. The proposal is based on one of the fairest systems in the land, that used by Iowa.

Redrawing of legislative and congressional districts would be conducted by an independent bureau with guidelines geared to population demographics rather than political demographics. Lawmakers would not participate.

Final maps would be presented to the Legislature for a vote but could not be amended.

The procedure could not apply until after the 2020 census. But the good news is that there is plenty of time to comply with the long process for approving a constitutional amendment. The Senate should get the ball rolling while the sting of the court's appropriate rejection is fresh.

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