State Senate Lehigh County
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To Whom It May Concern, First, I would like to commend Representative McClinton for her work in creating a fair and well-drawn state house map. With the exception of some oddly shaped districts clearly drawn to prevent additional Republican incumbents on incumbent primary elections, the map represents the partisan breakdown of statewide elections well. Pennsylvania is always a perennial swing state, as such the last two elections have been extremely close, and statewide voter share never overwhelming favors one party over another. I’m aggrieved by Republican attacks on the maps, and their efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the process. Democracy means making sure that all voices are heard and not revolting when it means a fair map means fewer seats for one’s party. Today, I would like to specifically focus on the State Senate map which in its present form has glaring violations of basic redistricting principles, is riddled with incumbent protection and demonstrates the necessity of improving our redistricting process. This commission understands the primary task of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission (the “LRC”), in decennial redistricting is governed by Article II, Section 16 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides: “The Commonwealth shall be divided into fifty senatorial and two hundred three representative districts, which shall be composed of compact and contiguous territory as nearly equal in population as practicable. Each senatorial district shall elect one Senator, and each representative district one Representative. Unless absolutely necessary no county, city, incorporated town, borough, township or ward shall be divided in forming either a senatorial or representative district.” I highlight the first part of the last sentence “Unless absolutely necessary”. I request an explanation as to why it was “absolutely necessary” that you need to split Allentown into two parts. Why has the commission highlighted the 14th district as a minority influence district? While the effort to create minority influence districts should be applauded and represents a worthwhile goal, I have to question the reason behind creating the 14th in the manner in which it currently exists. Senator Ward’s intention in creating a minority influence seat appears to step from a more cynical effort to distract from the desire to protect Senator Pat Browne. Perhaps, she believed that creating a minority influence district would lessen the impact of splitting Allentown, or that it would seemingly justify her actions. This seems like a deliberate act of political calculation, a clearly conceived trade-off she expects citizens and elected leaders to make. If the goal is to increase minority influence, then there is no logic behind splitting the City of Allentown which is a majority-minority city, and the sections drawn into the 16th have large populations of African-Americans and Latinos. Why would you include western Bethlehem in a map with Allentown, rather than in a map with Bethlehem? While western Bethlehem is technically in Lehigh County, it votes for the mayor and city council in Bethlehem. Its fate is more directly tied to the future of Bethlehem and Northampton County. In anticipation of some members of this committee getting creative, and perhaps attempting to misinterpret the point of my testimony, I am not saying Allentown and Bethlehem should have one State Senator together. Under absolutely no circumstances should Allentown and Bethlehem be in the same state senate district. Allentown should have its own district and senator and Bethlehem should have its own district and senator. If both cities were placed in the same district, it would be akin to the practice of packing, or another gerrymandering tactic by which one party's voters are packed into a single district diluting their votes elsewhere. This would create one massive heavily democratic seat seeding the rest of the purple Lehigh Valley to easier Republican wins. This would go against basic redistricting principles and represent another ploy to mask true intentions by claiming another. Why are municipalities of like communities not kept together? The map currently draws Allentown into a district that is out of its own county and into municipalities that have nothing in common with Allentown. In Lehigh County, Allentown has a number of suburban municipalities that could have been drawn into a map and would have a higher minority influence than drawing out to the top of Northampton County. I must ask why Allentown is drawn into a district that includes rural townships such as Lehigh and Moore. In the 16th, why should voters in rural bucks be making decisions for suburban and urban Lehigh County residents? There is little sensible reason for the current decisions made other than political benefit. Lehigh County has more than 374,00 residents. A single district could have been built entirely within Lehigh County. In the current LRC proposal, only 51% of Lehigh County is in the 14th district. There is plenty of population to build a complete and fair district within the county boundaries. There should be a district entirely within Lehigh County. While I believe the entire senate map should be redrawn, the way the process works is this is our (the people’s) last chance to comment. Once the map is approved, any further comments will need to go through the courts. Even if you draw a fairer map or another map that meets the numerical standards you are using, there is no opportunity to understand or comment if the map requires major or minor fixes that are required. Instead, we would have to take the map to the courts. There is a community map that was built that only takes into consideration the 14th,16th, and 18th districts. All of the adjustments are self-contained and do not adversely impact any other districts. It does the following: It increases the minority influence in the 14th district. It puts most of Allentown back together again. Currently, there are 14 districts drawn out of Allentown, the new map has only 6 districts drawn out of Allentown. This increases the population of Allentown residents in the 14th, by nearly 16,000 people. The 16th district is reduced to having about 10,000 Allentownians in the district. It puts western Bethlehem back with Bethlehem. This reduces the unnecessary splitting of a minority community. The current map splits the minority group of Bethlehem and puts them into the Allentown district. It reduces the number of municipalities coming from outside of Lehigh County. The 14th district becomes a district that is 85% from residents of Lehigh County. While I am not familiar with the deals that were created behind the scenes, based on what I have seen, I believe that this map would be acceptable to both the Democrats and Republicans. Although the alternative map is not fully what the people deserve, it is much fairer, and more logical, than the one proposed and currently approved by the committee! I hope that this committee can recognize the need to change their original map and do right by the Lehigh Valley. We are the state's third-largest region and fastest-growing. Our voices need to be heard, not diluted by an unfair map.