| Guest Column |
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| State Rep. Robert Freeman |
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The following guest column appeared in the Dec. 18, 2011 edition of the Easton Express-Times.
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Splintered voting district weakens voice
By State Representative Robert Freeman
On Monday the State House of Representatives is scheduled to take up Senate Bill 1249, which reapportions Pennsylvania’s congressional districts. The plan is gerrymandering at its absolute worst. This Republican leadership-driven proposal would split the Lehigh Valley between two congressional districts and incorporate the parts with communities that do not share a community of interest. The plan overreaches so much that it narrowly passed in the overwhelmingly Republican-controlled Senate.
For the past 40 years, our region has had its own congressional district, enabling our area to project its needs and interests through a congressman whose commitment was to the Lehigh Valley. Splitting the Lehigh Valley in two will dilute the ability of our region to have a champion for the Lehigh Valley. Lumping parts of the Lehigh Valley with communities outside of our region means that the congressmen representing these new districts will have to choose between competing regions within their districts as they seek to address the needs of their constituents, rather than looking out specifically for the Lehigh Valley.
A look at the map of these proposed districts reveals the absurdity of the Republican plan. The Slate Belt, Easton, Wilson, West Easton, Glendon, Forks, Palmer, Nazareth, Bethlehem Township, the eastern half of Upper Nazareth Township, Freemansburg, and one ward in Bethlehem would be placed in the Schuylkill-Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-based 17th District.
The remnant of Northampton and Lehigh counties would be lumped in with the northern part of Berks County and large chunks of Lebanon and Dauphin counties. The newly configured 15th District would stretch from Williams Township along the Delaware River in the east to Londonderry Township in southwestern Dauphin County along the banks of the Susquehanna River, a distance of more than 100 miles.
My home town of Easton, which makes up the E in the A-B-E area and is a mere 10 miles from Bethlehem would be reapportioned out of the Lehigh Valley.
There is no compelling reason why the districts had to be carved up this way, aside from the Republican leadership’s desire to protect Republican congressmen by giving them overwhelmingly Republican districts. The two-county area of Northampton and Lehigh are only 58,000 people shy of the 705,688 population figure required for a congressional district. Adding a handful of municipalities from bordering areas would allow a Lehigh Valley congressional district to meet that requirement.
The Lehigh Valley is the third-largest metropolitan region in the state and has continued to grow in population over the years. We deserve our own congressional district. We’ve come a long way in establishing a cohesive identity. In the span of the past 40 years, we’ve evolved from the A-B-E area to the universally recognized Lehigh Valley. The plan to split our region will only serve to undermine the progress made in establishing a cohesive region.
However, there is an alternative plan that will be considered on Monday. Rep. Mike Hanna has an amendment that would reapportion Pennsylvania’s congressional districts in such a way that puts aside partisan differences, minimizes district splits, and emphasizes the compactness and community of interest of districts. Under the Hanna amendment, the 15th Congressional District would remain a Lehigh Valley district.
The best way to stop the carving up of the Lehigh Valley is for people to contact their state representatives and urge them to vote for the Hanna amendment. If that amendment does not get adopted then people need to urge their state representatives to vote down SB 1249 in its existing form. Better to go back to the drawing board and get reapportionment right than to allow for this outrageous proposal to lock our state into a distorted congressional map that condemns the Lehigh Valley to being split up for the next 10 years.
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Pennsylvania state Rep. Robert Freeman represents the 136th State House District in Northampton County.