Allegheny, Washington, Westmorland counties
I would like to thank Chairman Nordenberg and Legislative Reapportionment Commission for making map making process more transparent, providing timely information online, and working diligently to create fairer legislative maps for Pennsylvania. I would like to share that as a voter concerned with environmental causes and climate change, I have no representation to speak of in Harrisburg. Proposals for bills advancing any positive climate mitigation efforts, put out by legislators who represent my area, and share these values, do not make it out of the committees and are never brought out to the floor. Even issues as uncontroversial as improving energy efficiency, and saving our businesses and homeowners’ money, (and which could reduce global warming emissions) do not get any support from the legislators currently in majority. There is no effort for finding solutions to our common problems, and no effort for bipartisanship. As an environmental advocate, I feel shut out of the possibility of influencing the outcome. To the contrary, the party in control pursues legislation to block local municipalities and cities from enacting local ordinances for clean energy, more efficient solutions, renewables, etc. In light of science, and a rather wide-spread support for climate mitigation, I perceive our current legislative configuration as thoroughly broken. We, voters of Pennsylvania, deserve legislative maps which could restore some balance between political parties and necessitate working out compromise solutions that at least somewhat reflect interests and priorities of our diverse population. I would like to commend the work of the Commission on the House legislative map. The map results in districts that are more compact, more contiguous and split fewer counties and municipalities, as mandated by law. I observe improvements in the Western PA/Allegheny County where I live. For example, Westmorland County bordering Allegheny currently has districts that extend far past the county boundary, are barely contiguous, and do not have justification in keeping communities intact. The proposed map for districts 55-60 does much better in keeping the districts within county boundary, with only one district (60) spanning two counties, as opposed to 5 of these districts spanning the county boundary in the current map. Similarly, for the districts 46, 40, and 39. In the current map, all 3 of these districts are drawn across Allegheny and Washington county boundaries. Residents of these districts that live in Allegheny County do deserve better representation. Washington and Allegheny counties are distinctly different, and their residents’ needs are likewise distinctly different. The proposed map addresses this by gathering Allegheny County voters in one district (39), Washington County voters in the next district (46) and splits only one district between these 2 counties (40). I would like to thank the Commission for making these changes, as I do believe they result in less partisan legislative maps, and hence a better chance for the lawmakers to be able to effectively represent the interests of their constituents.