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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
| State Rep. Babette Josephs |
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Josephs slams lack of transparency in congressional redistricting process
HARRISBURG, Dec. 15 – State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Phila., today blasted the Republicans for their complete lack of transparency in the congressional redistricting process and the resulting Rorschach ink blot-like districts.
Current Census figures require Pennsylvania to reduce its congressional representation by one to 18. The House State Government Committee met today to vote on S.B. 1249, which would set the boundaries for Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts.
Josephs said that today's meeting was just another shameful example of Republican abuse of transparency, openness and fairness in the redistricting process.
"The process has been characterized not by openness but by secrecy," Josephs said at the meeting. "While touted as open – it was actually open and shut with the hearings adding not one iota to the final product."
Josephs said that the bill (H.B. 5) Republican Chairman Daryl Metcalfe held hearings on earlier this year was blank, with no maps, no written descriptions. Each district was described only as "composed of a portion of this Commonwealth."
"Of course no one criticized the map; there was no map to criticize," she said. "If citizens had seen the current map last summer when the hearings were held there would have been enormous outcry. As it was, most members and the public did not see the overall map until 4 p.m. Tuesday. Nor did we see the municipalities included in the new districts until Wednesday morning. And this morning was the first that we saw the Senate changes. This is a new and dire definition of transparency and openness."
Josephs also pointed out that Metcalfe refused to say whether he met privately with top Republicans in Washington, and whether they were the ones who drew the map.
"Despite the chairman’s claims that the maps are a result of an open, arduous, year-long listening process, the facts belie that statement – unless they were talking to and listening to themselves alone," she said.
"If you don't understand the meaning of the word 'gerrymandering,' you will when you look at this map," she charged.
Josephs called the districts torturous, mind boggling, an amputation of neighborhoods from existing communities and a drowning of minority groups.
"This is not one person, one vote – it's a diabolical plan to eliminate opposition voters. This was an intensely partisan process where no light of day was ever allowed to intrude," Josephs said.
Oddly enough, about halfway into the meeting, the power went out in the Capitol, throwing the ongoing committee meeting into the dark. "This is poetically appropriate," Josephs commented, before the committee temporarily recessed. "Very fitting, since the entire process has been in the dark."
The map was reported out on party lines.
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