US House Redistricting: Pennsylvania

[Napoleon]

PA 06, 07, 08 and 16 have been drawn. The population for PA-07 is spot on, as is PA-08, but for inexplicable reasons for the moment, PA-06 is short 2,500 people, and PA-16 short 4,500.  All four have lower GOP PVI's than my projected map (understandable for PA-16 which takes Reading rather than PA-17, but no excuses for PA-06 and PA-07). The Lancaster legislators' stonewall hurt a bit.  PA-07 only got 32,000 residents out of Lancaster. The cherry picking of precincts in Montco, Chester, and Delaware was also a bit flawed in my opinion. Maybe 40 or 50 basis points were left on the table, maybe a tad more, due to that. PA-08 is down by 20 Pubbie basis points from my projected map.

I must say that PA-07 is indeed a horrendous monstrosity - just awful. A fair amount of that is again due to the Lancaster County stonewall, forcing PA-07 into Berks, and PA-16 in turn cutting more deeply into Chester with that ludicrous prong to the north in Chester.

MD-03 has a perfect partner in PA-07 as a poster child for redistricting reform. It looks like they were more concerned with holding PA-07 than with PA-06, based on the 2% boost it gets in comparison in your chart. Maybe there are other electoral factors at the local level.

PA-6 held steady while 7 and 8 fell.

[Napoleon]

Anything about the state legislature?

[Napoleon]

Anything about the state legislature?

They passed the maps the other day. It's available at the redistricting website.

Do you have a link to the partisan balance?

[Napoleon]

Phil, what do you think of these SE PA districts?

[Napoleon]

Brady: 85.1% Obama/14.3% McCain
Fattah: 90.3% Obama/9.3% McCain
Gerlach: 49.4% Obama/49.5% McCain
Meehan: 52.5% Obama/46.5% McCain
Fitzpatrick: 54.3% Obama/44.6% McCain
Schwartz: 56.9% Obama/42.1% McCain