{"id":31521,"date":"2018-02-20T13:44:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T21:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=31521"},"modified":"2018-02-20T14:49:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T22:49:05","slug":"big-win-in-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/20\/big-win-in-pa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Win in PA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republicans are notorious for incompetence in all things, when it comes to governing.\u00a0 However, there is one thing at which they are extremely skillful.\u00a0 They have polished election theft to such a fine art that they are experts at wielding power that they did not earn.\u00a0 They disenfranchise minority voters.\u00a0 They understaff precincts in Democratic areas.\u00a0 They limit poll hours. They enact dirty tricks on election day.\u00a0 They enlist foreign assistance.\u00a0 And they Gerrymander with vicious precision.\u00a0 But we just had a big win in PA!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"0220PA2018Map\"<\/p>\n

On Monday, Pennsylvania\u2019s Supreme Court released new congressional districts<\/a> created by Stanford Prof. Nathaniel Persily to replace the state\u2019s old, Republican-drawn boundaries, which were struck down<\/a> as an illegal partisan gerrymander in violation of the state constitution\u2019s guarantee of \u201cfree and equal\u201d elections. These new lines will not only allow for much fairer elections, but they\u2019ll also improve Democrats\u2019 chances of taking back the House this November.<\/p>\n

In ordering a new map, the court laid down particular nonpartisan criteria it wanted the legislature to follow: Any new districts should be both compact and limit the number of cities and counties split between districts. Republican legislative leaders refused to pass a new map, though, so the court turned to Persily for guidance.<\/p>\n

Persily\u2019s map, which is shown at the top of this post (click here<\/a> for a larger version), complies with both of the court\u2019s criteria. But most interestingly, the court appears to have deliberately adopted a map that should give both parties a shot at winning an equitable number of seats, as befits Pennsylvania\u2019s swing-state status. In other words, this map isn\u2019t just nonpartisan, it\u2019s fair.<\/p>\n

According to calculations<\/a> from political scientist Brian Amos, these redrawn lines contain 10 districts won by Donald Trump in 2016 versus eight carried by Hillary Clinton. Given that Trump carried Pennsylvania by just a 48.2 to 47.5 margin, that\u2019s a much more equitable distribution than the invalidated map\u2019s 12-to-six split. This new map could consequently give Democrats a much better chance of winning six districts that Republicans currently hold, something we previously predicted<\/a>…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Daily Kos<\/a>><\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s video:<\/span><\/p>\n