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News Regional & State News PA redistricting process may correct district oddities
Monday, 22 August 2011 04:34

PA redistricting process may correct district oddities

Written by  Mary Wilson

(Harrisburg) -- A preliminary state redistricting plan is due in mid-November, and one flashpoint is whether districts won’t merely be redrawn, but moved altogether. Think of the 50 state senate districts like puzzle pieces. That’s what Erik Arneson says. He’s one of the top Republican staffers focused on state redistricting, and spokesman for Senate Republican Dominic Pileggi, who sits on the redistricting panel. Arneson says sometimes drawing those puzzle pieces to include about the same number of people means -- for example -- a piece in the southwest may have to be eliminated and a new piece needs to be created in the southeast. "There will be at least one legislator who does not like that kind of thing if it happens," he says. "I think voters are much more concerned about making sure that districts are roughly equal size, so that everybody’s vote counts the same." Arneson says the population changes of the past 10 years, with decline in western Pennsylvania and growth in the east, might force the state redistricting panel to move a senate district. A government reform advocate says sometimes moving a district is a tool to punish wayward lawmakers who don’t toe party lines. No Senate districts were moved during the last redistricting process, but House districts were.

Last modified on Monday, 22 August 2011 04:58

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