Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

On January 26, 2022, Governor Tom Wolf signed three bills into law, and vetoed one. The bill vetoed was House Bill 2146, which was intended to redraw the congressional map, changing the districts and influencing future elections. Redistricting is a common practice and must be done, particularly after a census, but it is also often a source of partisan politics. 

In September of last year, Governor Wolf created a Redistricting Advisory Council in order to “ensure transparency and public participation.” The council included six experts in redistricting, political science and map making and was meant to act as a guideline for how the districts could be drawn fairly. Throughout October and November, the council held 8 in-person listening sessions and one virtual in order to gather public feedback, and then released a set of redistricting principles in late November. These principles were published in order to help inform and guide the General Assembly’s selection. 

Governor Wolf made it clear for months that he did not plan to approve any congressional redistricting map that did not follow the standards put out by the Redistricting Advisory Council, which Wolf claims it does not in any way. 

In his veto statement Wolf says, “This legislation fails the test of fundamental fairness.  The result of a partisan political process, HB 2146 does not deliver on the Pennsylvania Constitution’s guarantee of free and equal elections.” He continues, “Instead, HB 2146 adopts a map selected by politicians to take advantage of the process and choose their own voters. This directly contravenes a ‘core principle of our republican form of government’ identified by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: “that the voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.”

Governor Wolf stands against this redistricting map strongly, and likely will not be signing one until it is drafted in regulation with the Redistricting Advisory Councils guidelines in a way that creates a fair bi-partisan election map, allowing for the people to pick their representatives rather than their location to do so. 

Wolf also cites in his veto statement that in Luzerne, Dauphin, Philadelphia and Chester counties that redistricting map divides several communities of interest for no clear legal reason but instead appears to have been done solely to benefit Republican candidates in that area. He stated that their map falls short “on the basic principle of Partisan fairness as well. 

Wolf listed many reasons he was against the proposed map, “Last, despite promises of an open and transparent process, Democratic members of the General Assembly were completely cut out of the process of selecting the map from start to finish.” He claims as recently as last month, Republicans were promising amendments to the bill that never came in an attempt to appear to have left the path open for bi-partisanship, when really democrats were locked out of the process. Wolf stated that the only step across the aisle in this situation was from the GOP members who decided to vote against the unfair map. 

A new redistricting map needs to be drawn soon so that candidates can begin preparing for state elections, as they are currently unsure what district they are running in since they have not been drawn for this year. Keep an eye out for when the redistricting has been finalized, so you can be aware what district you live in and who is up for state elections in your area.