The 7th District was named the most gerrymandered local district in the nation in a 2006 study

If the residents of any city in America should be familiar with the term gerrymander, it’s Philadelphians.   Gerrymandering is the dark art of drawing the boundaries of political districts without any regard to logic or geography, but with a keen eye to furthering the election chances of a) incumbents or b) the political party that’s in charge of drawing the lines.

According to one computer analysis of congressional districts, Pennsylvania is the second worst gerrymandered state in the union, next to Georgia.  Its congressional map was the topic of a lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which threw up its hands in frustration at the whole topic of politicized map drawing and let Pennsylvania’s monumentally ridiculous map stand.

And, according to the same analysis, Philly’s Seventh Council District - wandering at random through Kensington and the Northeast -  might just have the most egregiously gerrymandered local boundaries in the land.  Gerrymandering helps protect incumbents, makes it harder for moderates to get and stay elected, and enables elected officials to ignore whole swaths of their districts.  Gerrymanders frequently take areas that are strong for the party out of power and splinters them among multiple districts, diluting their political power even further.

The usual goo-goo (good gov’t) crowd, League of Women Voters, Common Cause et al, tried to make a fuss about gerrymandering. They backed a bill to get Pennsylvania to put before voters a constitutional amendment that would set up a sane, non-partistan, factual map-drawing process in time for the 2010 Census. That’s when the next round of political line-drawing will occur, after the Census numbers come out in 2011.

While mouthing pious words about reform, the leaders of the General Assembly slow-walked that one to oblivion last spring. Now it’s too late to get a constitutional amendment approved in time for the next state redistricting.  Congressional lines are a different matter; there’s still time to create a new set of rules for those, because that wouldn’t require constitutional change.

Hope springs eternal among goo-goos, which is why the Philadelphia chapter of the Americans for Democratic Action is holding a forum on gerrymandering and redistricting this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia at 2125 Chestnut St.

I’ll be on the panel, along with: state Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, the deputy speaker of the House who supports reform while not being real optimistic that it can happen; state Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Philadelphia, who bottled up the last reform in her committee; and City Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, who just happens to represent that outlandish Seventh District, which might be the reason she favors reforms in how Council draws the lines for itself.

Gerrymandering is one of those forms of inside political baseball that’s hard to understand and easy to ignore. Of course, that’s just what incumbents eager to feather their gerrymandered nests want you to think.

If you want to learn more about one of the most vital political reform issues of 2010-2011, stop by the forum on Thursday night.

– Chris Satullo

Executive director of news and civic dialogue for WHYY