Division of Municipalities for Social Justice
I am a lifelong Pennsylvania resident currently living in Lower Paxton Twp, Dauphin County, Pa. I felt compelled to comment on the proposed House of Representatives redistricting map. Article 2, Section 16 of the Pa Constitution requires, “Unless absolutely necessary no county, city, incorporated town, borough, township or ward shall be divided in forming either a senatorial or representative district”.1 Currently Lower Paxton is part of the House of Representative District 105 along with South Hanover and West Hanover. It is comprised of 40% Democrats, 45% Republican and 15 % Other. No party has a 50% majority.2 The District is represented by Representative Andrew Lewis-R. Representative Lewis won the November 3, 2020 election over Brittney Rodas -D by a 51.8% to 48.2% margin.3 The proposed H of R District Map divides Lower Paxton into two legislative districts. District 105 will be made up of half of Lower Paxton and Susquehanna Twp. and District 125 with half of Lower Paxton Twp, Middle Paxton Twp, Upper Paxton Twp, Lykens Township, Mifflin Twp., East Hanover Twp, Jackson Twp, Halifax Twp, Washington Twp, Elizabethville Borough and Millersburg Borough. The political breakdown for the new Districts: District 105- 51% Democrat, 33% Republican, 15% Other ; New District 125- 29% Democrat, 58% Republican and 13% Other. 4 No “absolutely necessary” reason has been given to divide Lower Paxton Twp. It appears the Redistricting Panel is trying to level out a perceived political advantage of Republicans by splitting Lower Paxton. The creation of District 125 maintains a Republican area which the current District 105 voters voted for in 2020. The new District 105 becomes a Democratic area. The overall impact of this change increases Democratic areas in the State by 1. This practice is continued in other parts of the State as well. Allentown - split 3 times, Reading Split 3 times, Scranton -split 4 times. All of these splits work to the benefit of the Democrat Party. “Republicans currently hold 113 seats in the Pennsylvania House while Democrats hold 90. The new map decreases the number of districts where Republican candidates are projected to win based on past election results.”5 The actions of the Redistricting Panel appear to violate Article 2, Section 16 of the Pennsylvania Constitution by splitting Lower Paxton Twp and other municipalities in an attempt to achieve some type of Social Justice. Artificially creating districts based on race/ethnicity/political affiliation disadvantages the non-favored individuals in that district. Those supporting this map must remember that they will not always be the ones defining it. At some point in the future some other “socially disadvantaged” group may find themselves in favor and the formerly “favored group” out. It is my hope these changes in the name of “Social Justice” throughout Pennsylvania would be corrected, municipal boundaries, not racial/political boundaries be followed, and District 105 returned to its current configuration. 1 Kate Huangpu and Carl Johnson, SpotlightPA, December 12/22/21 2 Kate Huangpu and Carl Johnson, SpotlightPA, December 12/22/21 3 BallotPedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_House_of_Representatives_District_105 4 Kate Huangpu and Carl Johnson, SpotlightPA, December 12/22/21 5 Kate Huangpu and Carl Johnson, SpotlightPA, December 12/22/21