Lehigh Valley Senate Map is a Buddymander
I wrote an Opinion piece, which I will share part of here: The Legislative Redistricting Commission (LRC) said they created an “opportunity district” in the Lehigh Valley for a potential minority Senator, District 14, with 28% Hispanic voting age population. While it was good to see parts of Whitehall attached to Allentown (after all, they share economic and cultural interests), the partisan players instead created a district that doesn’t do better in terms of percentage minority than our current district. And it does much more harm by splitting Allentown and splitting Bethlehem, so that our two largest cities are not the center of Senate districts. All this splitting will make it harder, not easier for a Latino to be elected. Why does the proposed LRC Senate map look like this? Look where Senator Patrick Browne resides. His house is on the western end of Allentown. Notice that a little area was carved out of the Allentown section and paired with the more conservative western and northern end of Lehigh County to create Senate District 16. A powerful Senator, Sen. Browne now will have a “safe” seat. But keeping a Senator in a safe seat comes at the expense of whom? Splitting a major municipality in order to benefit a specific incumbent is wrong on many levels. And frankly, it may not be necessary. Sen. Browne has done much good for Allentown, and it isn’t a sure bet that a Democratic candidate could beat him on his record. Let the voters decide. That’s how a representative democracy is supposed to work. Fair District PA’s proposed Peoples’ Senate Map for the Lehigh Valley did split Bethlehem along County lines, but kept Allentown whole, and created a greater opportunity district, with 29.7% voting age Latino population, compared to the current LRC map and the current Senate map, which have 27.9%