Strongly Support House District 103

I strongly support the Pennsylvania House map proposed by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC). The Pennsylvania Constitution requires state House and Senate districts be compact and contiguous, contain minimal splits of communities of interest, and share equal population. In my opinion, the proposed House map meets these obligations and takes a significant step in addressing the partisan gerrymandering that has plagued recent elections, diminishing both the voters voice and choice. I also strongly support the proposed House District 103. The newly drawn district takes a significant step in uniting the Capital Region community and provides its residents with a greater opportunity to elect a State Representative who reflects the community’s economic and cultural interests. Many of the issues related to infrastructure, public safety, and environmental regulations are closely intertwined and require coordination and cooperation to achieve a successful outcome. For too long, the Susquehanna River has served as an arbitrary political divide between the East and West Shore communities, and both have suffered as a result. The Capital Region would benefit from having a representative who recognizes these needs and could advocate for them in the General Assembly. I’ve noticed detractors of the proposed House District 103 argue that it splits the community, but often rely on arbitrary boundaries such as school districts for their justification. I believe these claims are unconvincing and capricious, at best. A school district is not the defining characteristic of a community and never should be, especially in those communities where the number of families with school-aged children is a smaller proportion of the overall population. There are multiple economic, social, and cultural influences that better reflect a community’s interest than a single school district. To characterize otherwise is disingenuous and misleading. Likewise, detractors argue that the proposed House District 103 merging Cumberland County and Dauphin County splits communities from others in their counties. Again, these distinctions are groundless and unsupported. The proposed House District 193 includes communities from both Adams and Cumberland County and the justification for combining these jurisdictions is they represent communities of interest. Using this logic then the same applies to the communities in the revised House District 103. As stated earlier, the West Shore communities in this proposed district have more interests and connections with their East Shore neighbors than they do with other Cumberland County communities, especially those in the western part of the county. Again, I applaud the LRC is generating this proposed map and offer my full support in its adoption, especially the proposed House District 103.