New PA Congressional Map: Huge Implications For Midterms

The ramifications of Pennsylvania’s newly redrawn congressional maps are enormous, with its implications extending far beyond the boundaries of the Keystone State.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a new, redrawn map of congressional districts on Monday after previously ruling that the current version is too partisan. The new map has contiguous districts that doesn’t split many counties like the map it is replacing.

The redrawn map potentially could play a significant role in tipping the balance of power in the U.S. House. Here’s what’s being said and written about it:

• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court: The new map “is composed of congressional districts which follow the traditional redistricting criteria of compactness, contiguity, equality of population and respect for the integrity of political subdivisions.”

• The New York Times: “Perhaps no event will do more to reshape the fight for control of the House than the new congressional map just released by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. At stake was the fate of a Republican gerrymander that intended to cement a 13-5 Republican advantage in an evenly divided state. Now the Republicans will have little to no advantage at all.”

• Gov. Tom Wolf: “I applaud the court for their decision and I respect their effort to remedy Pennsylvania’s unfair and unequal congressional elections.”

• State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and state House Speaker Mike Turzai joint statement: “Implementation of this map would create a constitutional crisis where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is usurping the authority of the Legislative and Executive branches. This map illustrates that the definition of fair is simply code for a desire to elect more Democrats.”

• The Washington Post: “The court addressed the old map's partisan imbalance by creating a new map that contains eight districts that were won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and 10 that were won by Republican Donald Trump. Presidential and congressional votes are highly correlated, and split-ticket voting is rare. This suggests it's possible that Pennsylvania Democrats could see a net gain of three or even four seats in the November election.”

• CNN:”The importance of the new map should not be oversold. While the new map gives Democrats a better chance of taking back the House in 2018, it doesn't change the odds greatly. Democrats are now probably favored in two seats that were at best toss-ups for them before: the new PA-5 and PA-6..Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to win the House in November. Two seats is less than 10 percent of that.”

Map via the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.