ALLENTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania’s new congressional district map is generally viewed as fair and non-partisan — but the process used to pick the final version of the map remains politically charged.
The most notable feature of the new congressional district map is how similar it is to the previous one, said Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College and head of the college’s Institute of Public Opinion. But it does offer some opportunity for Republicans to pick up seats.
“Most of the measures that are used by political scientists, nonpartisan organizations, to evaluate maps, indicate this map is fairly solid in terms of its balance and representing the distribution of Democrats and Republicans in the state,” Borick said.
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He notes that the slight changes to district boundaries may yield some advantages for Republicans in a political climate such as ours, where the party in the White House typically underperforms in midterms elections.
“The combination of those two factors really does open the door for Republicans to have some chances to win seats that are now held by Democrats, especially in northeastern Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley,” Borick said.
Specifically, Susan Wild’s 7th district seat and Matt Cartwright’s 8th district seat in the northeast could be up for grabs, as well as the 17th district out west, which Conor Lamb is giving up so he can run for the Senate.
Borick says the map will be open to critique because it was selected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed the map passed by the GOP majority in the state legislature.
“The process by which we arrived at the map — that's certainly open for criticism — but the product itself, if you look at it, by most metrics, seems fairly reasonable.”
The high court has a Democratic majority. Borick says decisions on politically charged matters like this will inherently come under fire if we continue to elect state Supreme Court justices based on party affiliation.
“These types of moments, I think, raise legitimate questions if it's the best way to proceed, from a government perspective,” he said.
However, he says, a divided state government — in which one party holds the legislature and another holds the governor’s office — needs to be able to reach agreements to keep decisions like this out of the courts.