FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State Rep. Tony Payton D-Philadelphia www.pahouse.com/payton

Payton: Corbett signs credibility away with redistricting plan

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 23 – State Rep. Tony Payton, D-Phila., today said Gov. Tom Corbett’s signing of the congressional redistricting bill that passed the state legislature earlier this week will be a 10-year “Nightmare After Christmas” for democracy in Pennsylvania.

“The Republican-designed plan is the height of hypocrisy from the crowd that one year ago was claiming they were for transparency and for open government that must respond to the needs of the people,” said Payton. “But all signs are that the only people they are responding to are the national conservative power-brokers, and their agenda to make it as difficult as possible for many people, especially minorities in urban centers, to exercise the right to vote.

“Their plan [S.B. 1249] was developed behind closed doors with no public hearings, no public input and no time for it to be adequately disseminated and discussed in the media and among the public. As for transparency, even Superman couldn’t have seen through it.”

Payton argued against the stealth Republican plan in House floor debate prior to the largely party-line vote to accept it, calling it politics at its worst and highlighting the 7^th Congressional District as the most gerrymandered in the nation. In addition he states: “The 1^st Congressional District deliberately dumps minority voters, clearly violating the spirit and the letter of the law.”

“I, for one, am not going to stand up here and divide minority communities of color and communities of interest,” argued Payton. “Those folks who voted for this plan are guilty of ‘cracking and packing’ and creating many gerrymandered districts.”

Payton warned the governor and supporters of the gerrymandered districts and the proposed photo ID requirement for voters for that they are “overreaching, and may in fact be combining the elements for a perfect storm – angering and motivating voters to mobilize in greater numbers to protest the GOP’s coordinated attack on voting rights and sweep out those who seek to turn back the clock.”

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