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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
| State Rep. Bryan Barbin
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Barbin speaks against congressional reapportionment proposal
HARRISBURG, Dec. 20 – State Rep. Bryan Barbin, D-Cambria, today spoke against the proposal (S.B. 1249) to establish new congressional districts in Pennsylvania. His remarks were as follows:
"I rise to oppose the Congressional Reapportionment Map because a process that limits public participation to 14 hours is not worthy of the greatest Republic the world has ever known.
"Under Article 1, §5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, 'Elections shall be free and equal, no power civil or military shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of suffrage.' Today, this Assembly has closed off any input from the public that would require the boundaries for elections to be determined on the basis of citizens’ interests in their own communities and regions.
"All of the legislative dirty tricks were used: hiding language identifying the districts from the people until the bill was voted on second consideration in the Senate; striking amendments in committee; and restricting amendments on the floor on constitutional grounds. These processes created gerrymandered districts that will long stand as a low watermark of partisan politics. These civil interferences with the right to vote are no less onerous than poll taxes outlawed in Pennsylvania in the 1960s, and should not be countenanced by members from either party on utilitarian grounds, i.e. that the ends justifies the means. To do so is to weaken Democracy.
"The majority will doubtless assert that the districts prepared and the methods employed are above reproach; however, I believe they are better understood in light of a quote from Lewis Carroll:
If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?
"Today, the Mad Hatter has won. This bill allows politicians to choose their voters, instead of the people choosing their representatives. For these reasons I oppose Senate Bill 1249."
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