LRC House map for Bucks is Better than current
LRC has done a great job following a transparent process, and although painful to hear all the belly-aching about the preliminary maps, the process and map has improved. Gerrymandered districts of the past 30 years need to be corrected which will cause some significant changes, but we must get it done. The preliminary map of House districts for Bucks County look much better than current in terms of the constitutional requirement of compactness. District 29 was the most gerrymandered district according to the state rep and now senator who was party to drawing the Bucks map in 2011. It has been fixed which is why it is getting so much criticism. However, from a non-partisan perspective the change is much for the better. While I was in District 178, the new map has me in District 29 and I am okay with that despite the fact that I had an excellent relationship with my Rep Wendi Thomas (R-178). House District 143, to the north of District 29 was part of the 2011 gerrymander to create 2 R districts, and dividing Buckingham Twp. This has been fixed! Also, Only 3 municipalities have been divided, which is good. Competiiveness is NOT a constitutional requirement and more isn’t necessarily better; for example, if you live in a deeply skewed municipality. Across the 10 house districts in the county, the maximum variance in two-party vote share, as reported by Dave Redistricting App, is 58:39 in one deeply Democratic part of the county bordering Philadelphia.; all other districts have less partisan lean. Protecting incumbents is NOT a requirement; but notably, the current map keeps every incumbent in Bucks County in his/her district and everyone has a good chance of winning. Carol Kuniholm of FDPA has drawn a map which is slightly better in terms of population deviation, and aligning with the upper, middle, lower regions of the county. I would like to see that map adopted as first choice. The LRC map is my second choice. Here is a link to the C. Kuniholm map which highlights the changes specifically in Bucks Co. https://davesredistricting.org/join/34aa59e5-067c-4e98-b088-18d7e949c803