I also worked on PA
last summer. I used a 0.5% maximum deviation with the census 2000 numbers.
In NE PA I avoided any county splits and kept it somewhat more compact. The Scranton CD had Bradford, Carbon, Lackawanna, Monroe, Pike, Sullivan Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming with 644,443 or 0.3% low. The Wilkes-Barre CD had Columbia, Luzerne, Montour, Northumberland, and Schuylkill with 646,529 or 0.02% high.
If I would have kept Scranton and Wilkes-Barre together I would make a CD with Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne. This puts Pike and Monroe with Northampton and part of Lehigh, and the other counties with districts to the west.
