April 24 primary more likely in Pa.

    Pennsylvania Senate leaders say the primary election will be held as scheduled on April 24 — using the current legislative districts.

    Their signal comes as the panel in charge of redistricting missed its first self-imposed deadline.

    If the state Supreme Court’s rejection of a redistricting plan for state House and Senate districts put commonwealth voters and candidates in election limbo, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, says it appears one foot is back on steady ground.

    He says lawmakers won’t try to push back the primary to accommodate the second round of map-making — nor will there be any fiddling with existing district boundary lines.

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    “Absent legislative or judicial action, they are the rules of the road for the upcoming primary,” Pileggi said Wednesday.

    The GOP caucus still believes the 2001 district lines violate the constitutional principle of one person-one vote.

    One foot remains in political purgatory.

    The Legislative Reapportionment Commission had intended to use this week’s meeting to vote on a new preliminary redistricting plan.

    “It has come close. We’re not there yet,” said Judge Stephen McEwen, the panel’s nonpartisan member.

    He said the new goal is to vote on maps Tuesday.

    A spokesman for the state House Republicans isn’t ruling out a delayed primary election, but such a move would require legislation and the support of the Senate.

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