House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

In the near future I will introduce legislation that makes comprehensive changes to the manner in which Pennsylvania does redistricting. The legislation is a combination of two other states’ reform measures. Part of my legislation reflects California’s plan by creating a Citizen’s Reapportionment Commission that is filled from a pool of qualified applicants. That pool is adjusted by the input of certain political office holders, but serves as the source of a random selection that largely removes politics from the final outcome. The second part of the bill addresses the formation of the actual districts and uses Iowa’s plan as an outline. The boundaries of districts are to be compact and square as much as possible and to connect to surrounding districts at more than just the corners. No county, city, town, borough, township, or ward shall be divided unless absolutely necessary. The decisions on boundaries cannot be affected by the consideration of political parties, incumbent legislators, or previous election results. By combining the California plan and the Iowa plan, a new piece of legislation is created. In the past, these plans were introduced as individual bills, not combined. This bill also makes a few editorial changes to the previous language. What remains is a comprehensive approach to reapportionment, changing who does it and how it is done.
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Introduced as HB1344