David Thornburgh: Redistricting maps must be released now

Pennsylvania needs to have new congressional redistricting maps in place by Jan. 24.

To make the deadline, legislative leaders need to release preliminary maps now. It is the only way to meet the deadline and give the public an opportunity to provide input on the maps. We’re running out of time for an open and transparent congressional redistricting process.

We do not want a repeat of the last redistricting cycle. In 2011, legislators introduced and passed congressional maps that the governor signed into law in eight days. The process kept the public and the media in the dark and created real harm to people’s confidence in our political process.

The maps that came out of the 2011 redistricting process cut Western Pennsylvania into unintelligible pieces. The old 12th congressional district stretched more than 100 miles from the Ohio state line past Johnstown. It included six counties cut to maximize partisan advantage with little regard for the representation of the constituents it included. It made it more difficult for areas like Western Pennsylvania to have coherent representation in Congress. This exercise was repeated across Pennsylvania, producing a congressional map that made little sense to the people of the commonwealth.

Eventually, the courts threw out the maps produced by this travesty of a process.

A lot has changed since 2011. We have new legislative leadership. We have an engaged public that has shown genuine interest in the complex process of redistricting.

With renewed transparency, our legislative leaders have an opportunity to give Pennsylvanians confidence in our political process. It’s all Pennsylvanians are asking for.

In the past few years, we have seen thousands of Pennsylvanians dive enthusiastically into the redistricting process. Over the past 3½ years, more than 7,200 Pennsylvanians drew their own congressional maps through Draw The Lines PA, a project of the good government group the Committee of Seventy. These citizen mappers are from 40 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties, representing almost 90% of the population. The map drawers range from 13-year-old high school students to senior citizens. Draw the Lines PA used these maps to produce a Citizens’ Map that we delivered to the Legislature in September.

The Citizens’ Map is fair. It harnessed the input of thousands of Pennsylvanians. Since we made this map available, even more Pennsylvanians have had the opportunity to provide input. We are urging the Legislature to use the people’s work as a starting point. We are asking them to begin an open and transparent review process by making maps available to the public now.

There is reason to be hopeful.

The Legislature has taken steps toward transparency. Through a series of public hearings and forums, many Pennsylvanians have had the opportunity to discuss their redistricting priorities. Now we need legislative leaders to push their caucuses and take the next steps in the process.

By releasing preliminary congressional redistricting maps, our legislative leaders can give the public ample time to provide input before votes begin. If the Legislature releases maps now, the public can provide their thoughts before the Legislature begins to take action.

The Legislature can have a transparent, two-way process in which lawmakers gather the best ideas from across the commonwealth and apply them to the new maps. Pennsylvanians can be empowered and the Legislature can be responsive. It is a win for everyone. But if they fail to release maps soon, we simply will not have enough time to engage in this effort, and we cannot afford another redistricting cycle that shuts out the people of Pennsylvania and ends up in the courts.