Please Support Fair Districts-PA Peoples Map
Thank You for the opportunity to offer my recommendation that the LRC adopt the Fair Districts-PA (FDPA) House map as their own. My rationale, with a focus on Montgomery County (Montco) is noted below. The FDPA State House Map is, per our PA Constitution requirements and on other key metrics, an improvement over the current state house map. This is especially true for Montgomery County, where I live. Montco remains one of the most gerrymandered House map counties in PA. How does the proposed Fair Districts-PA House map remove our gerrymandered burden? Problem: Today, Montco has 18 state reps – when we only need @13. And 6 of those 18 state reps have their majority constituency in another county. Benefit: The proposed map provides Montco 14 house districts, only 1 split into another county. And our Montco school district representation is now more focused with Montco-focused districts. Problem: Multiple Montco municipalities were packed or cracked via the 2011 State House map. Example: Pottstown’s majority/minority population (25k) is cracked into 2 house districts, with the majority of Pottstown packed into a majority rural Chester County district. Why? Example: Upper Dublin Township (population 27k) is spilt across 3 House districts – Why? Example: Rockledge Borough (population 3k) currently is packed into a NE Philadelphia district. The issues of a Montco borough vs. a large Philadelphia district are worlds apart. How can Rockledge get proper state rep coverage within such a district? They cannot – and that’s from the Chief-of-Staff of the state rep for that district. Benefit: The FDPA House Map eliminates deliberate packing/cracking for Montco residents, particularly for minority populations. The townships that were split on the FDPA map are large (e.g. Abington or Lower Merion) and very compatible with adjoining Montco townships. Here is the Fair Districts-PA link to our proposed maps: https://www.fairdistrictspa.com/updates/the-peoples-maps-submitted-to-the-lrc We are counting on this LRC version to deliver de-politicized legislative maps as much as possible. Thanks you for your time and attention. Rich Rafferty