Allentown Split
In the current preliminary senate plan, the city of Allentown in Lehigh County is split in two, even though the population of the city, 125.845 people, is well below the ideal population for a senate district, by over 100,000 people. The commission defends this choice by claiming it helps creates a minority coalition between Latino and African American citizens (SD 14). However, if the city was kept in one district, the percentage of minority citizens would actually increase! You make ask yourself, then why was this choice made? The answer lies in the actions of Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, and her legal counsel, whom drew Senate District 14. Republican State Senator Pat Browne resides in Allentown, in the section that was cracked away from senate district 14. Because of population changes, his current senate district 16, needs to shed about 25,000 citizens. This can be done, while also keeping the city of Allentown whole and creating a minority coalition district as is done in the preliminary plan. This action would better serve both communities of interest and minority citizens. I do not know the intentions of Senator Ward and her counsel, and I do not mean to imply disrespect as she has both broken barriers in the general assembly and has maintained effective leadership of her caucus and the senate. However, the only reasonable explanation I can think of for Senator Ward's decision is that she wanted her Republican colleague Senator Browne to be in a much more favorable district to Republicans (SD 16), as keeping Allentown whole would put his residence in a district that leans much more towards the Democratic party (SD-14). Just because Senator Browne lives in Allentown, which should be kept whole as it was on the 2012 maps, does not mean his residence should be carved out to give him a safer seat. While both the Minority and Majority leader both have a natural inclination to support their respective caucuses' incumbents, this does not mean that they should carve their members out of districts that lean contrary to their party. The commission seemed to agree with this logic as senate district 15 in Dauphin County was made much more compact and representative of the county, and thus much more Democratic leaning, while still including the residence of Republican Senator John DiSanto in the Democratic leaning version of Senate district 15. It is only fair that this same logic be used for Senate District 14 and Allentown to represent communities of interest and minority citizens better while not allowing the chance for a legislator's residence to be carved out of a district to increase their chances of reelection.