Montco Democrats decry Pa. redistricting plan

Last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court approved a legislative redistricting plan, after rejecting an earlier version last year. But suburban Democrats, particularly from Montgomery County, aren’t happy with the new map.

Attorney Adam Bonin represented Montgomery County Democrats who challenged the plan, charging Republican leaders gerrymandered the map for political gain.

Though the state Constitution requires that the plan keep townships, wards and counties intact as much as possible, Bonin said Montgomery County is carved into six state Senate districts, each sharing portions of other counties.

Bonin said it was part of a partisan plan for the Philadelphia suburbs.

“If you look at the four counties that surround Philadelphia, if you look at those voters as a whole, they are 50-50 Republican and Democrat,” Bonin said. “The way that this map is drawn, it’s drawn to produce seven Republican and two Democratic districts.”

Eric Arneson, spokesman for the Republican caucus of the state Senate, says Montgomery County had parts of seven Senate districts before, and said no one can say for certain whether the new districts lean Republican or Democratic.

“There have been precisely zero elections under the new map, so any partisan outcome that may or may not occur is a future event at this point,” Arneson said. “There’s no way to know for certain what will happen.”