Cumberland and Dauphin Map to Fair Districts PA
On December 16, the Legislative Reapportionment Commission met to adopt the Preliminary Plan for legislative redistricting of the Pennsylvania State House and Senate. Should the Preliminary Plan be finalized it could negatively impact both Cumberland and Dauphin County representation in the General Assembly. Current State House District 87 Dist. 87 consisting of the TOWNSHIPS of East Pennsboro, Hampden and Silver Spring (PART) and the BOROUGH of Camp Hill. ALL LOCATED WITHIN CUMBERLAND COUNTY Adjacent to the 87th District are: Dist. 88 consisting of the TOWNSHIPS of Lower Allen and Upper Allen and the BOROUGHS of Lemoyne, Mechanicsburg, New Cumberland, Shiremanstown and Wormleysburg. ALL LOCATED WITHIN CUMBERLAND COUNTY Current State House District 103 Dist. 103 consisting of the CITY of Harrisburg and the TOWNSHIP of Swatara (PART) and the BOROUGHS of Highspire, Paxtang and Steelton. ALL LOCATED WITHIN DAUPHIN COUNTY. Proposed New District The Commission proposes to create a new Dist. 103 JOINS PARTS OF CUMBERLAND and DAUPHIN Counties. Parts of CUMBERLAND County consisting of the TOWNSHIP of East Pennsboro and the BOROUGHS of Camp Hill, Lemoyne and Wormleysburg and Part of DAUPHIN County consisting of the CITY of Harrisburg (PART, Wards 03 - 09 [PART, Division 01], 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15). The City of Harrisburg is proposed to be split into the 103rd and 104th 104 DAUPHIN County. Part of DAUPHIN County consisting of the CITY of Harrisburg (PART, Wards 01, 02, 09 [PART, Divisions 02, 03, 04 and 05] and 13) and the TOWNSHIP of Swatara and the BOROUGHS of Highspire, Hummelstown and Steelton. The Pennsylvania constitution requires that districts be contiguous and compact, and that they respect county, city, incorporated town, borough, township, and ward boundaries “unless absolutely necessary;” Current 87th District includes TOWNSHIPS of East Pennsboro, Hampden and Silver Spring (PART, Precincts 01, 02, 03, 04 and 07) and the BOROUGH of Camp Hill, all located within Cumberland County; New District 103 would put Camp Hill, East Pennsboro, Lemoyne and Wormleysburg into a District with half of the City of Harrisburg – splitting Harrisburg into two State House districts. This doesn’t’ respect county, city, incorporated town, borough, township, nor ward boundaries. Cumberland County is the fasting growing County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by way of population and job growth. Placing communities of Cumberland County in with Harrisburg Dauphin County establishes a State House District that will be unable to advocate for the needs of its citizenry BECAUSE the education funding, economic development, community grants and transportation matters are vastly different in Cumberland and Dauphin Counties. I urge PA Reapportionment Commission to reject the preliminary House District 103 boundary and urge the commission to revert to a District similar to that presented by Fair Districts PA that provide for effective representation of the economic, transportation, infrastructure, educational, and redevelopment demands and interests to the citizens of Dauphin and Cumberland County.