Gov. Tom Wolf recently vetoed House Bill 2146, which put forth a congressional redistricting map that he said failed the “fundamental test of fairness” and doesn’t deliver on the Pennsylvania Constitution’s guarantee of free and equal elections.
In September, Wolf created a Redistricting Advisory Council to gather public feedback and release a set of Redistricting Principles to help inform and guide the General Assembly’s selection and the governor’s review of a map.
In Wolf’s veto message, he said the map splits multiple communities of interest, which doesn’t “appear to be motivated by compelling legal principles, but rather by a desire to make districts more favorable to Republican candidates.” Additionally, the map “falls short on this basic measure of partisan fairness, giving a structural advantage to Republican candidates that far exceeds the party’s voter support.” Wolf added that Democratic members of the General Assembly were “completely cut out of the process of selecting the map from start to finish.”
In response, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) said Wolf’s veto was “vague and partisan gerrymandered-filled.”
“Wolf has picked political brinkmanship and unnecessarily requiring the [state] courts to address congressional redistricting instead of joining the General Assembly in adopting the first ever citizen-drawn map, which did not use partisan data in the development of the map,” said Grove.
He added, “What can we surmise from Wolf’s veto message? He wanted a Democrat gerrymandered map drawn by Democrat politicians. The Republicans in the General Assembly showed tremendous leadership by using the most open and transparent congressional redistricting process in the history of the commonwealth to select a citizen-drawn map for the first time in Pennsylvania history to end partisan gerrymandering. However, Wolf just wants a Democrat power grab to help the failing president. Wolf is just a typical politician who has failed Pennsylvania once again.”
