FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kirstin Snow — snow@pennbpc.org
REPORT: What to Expect When You’re Expecting New Legislative Districts: Why the New District Maps Will Look So Different
Harrisburg, PA — Today the PA Budget and Policy Center released a report on new legislative district maps and why they’ll look different from previous iterations. Marc Stier, director, will walk through the Center’s new analysis of redistricting.
The introduction of the paper is below:
This policy brief aims to give Pennsylvania’s citizens, community leaders, media, and advocates some idea of what to expect from the forthcoming LRC plan.
To state our conclusion as succinctly as possible: we expect the LRC to give us fair, nonpartisan legislative districts for the first time in at least two decades. Chairman Mark Nordenberg is leading the effort to undo the effects of twenty years of Republican gerrymandering and create districts that recognize demographic changes over the last decade. As a result, fairly drawn districts lines will look very different than current ones.
Reflecting on the report, Stier said, “We expect the Legislative Reapportionment Commission to give the state districts that look very different from the current ones for two reasons. First, the new districts will take into account the substantial shift in Pennsylvania’s population. And second, we believe Chairman Mark Nordenberg is leading a process designed to give us districts lines that are fair and non-partisan rather than heavily gerrymandered for the first time in at least two decades.”