Shrinking northwest Pennsylvania counties may become bigger congressional districts

(The Center Square) – As Pennsylvania lawmakers reconsider congressional district boundaries, continued population decline in the state’s northwest region presents it own challenges for map makers focused on compactness and contiguity.

Especially since that’s what many residents of the region told the House State Government Committee they want for the 16th congressional district they call home.

“The dimensions of the district represent a challenge in properly getting around and listening to all of the communities and all of the voices,” said former U.S. Rep. Chris English, a lifelong Erie resident who represented the region until 2009, in his testimony before the committee at Grove City College on Tuesday. “As it has grown in population, it has become more difficult to traverse the district and engage members of Congress.”

The 16th Congressional District includes the counties of Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence and part of Butler.

The latter, due to population limitations, is split among three districts. This presents challenges for local election workers and confusion for residents, testifiers said Tuesday.

But since each congressional district must include roughly 711,000 residents, it’s possible the 16th could expand to meet the requirement.

“We’d love to have all of Butler county,” said Grove City Councilman Scott Jaillet. “But splitting counties is not good either.”

It will be the third time Pennsylvania’s congressional district lines have changed since 2011 after a Republican-drawn map drew national scrutiny for its nonsensical and bizarre borders that many critics uphold as the pinnacle of gerrymandering.

The state Supreme Court officially tossed the map in 2018 and imposed its own borders. But now new census data – which stripped Pennsylvania of its 18th congressional seat – means lawmakers must once again reconsider district boundaries.

The census data also confirmed what many in the 16th Congressional District said they already knew. Over the past decade, residents of the counties around Erie fled south toward the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia – or the left state entirely – for better career prospects, deepening a trend that’s been unfolding for decades.

“Two of my children left the state because of jobs,” Jaillet said. “Only one of them stayed, and they had to start their own business. So we need to fix that.”

Lawmakers must draw the new map, pass it through the General Assembly and get approval from Gov. Tom Wolf before the new map will take shape.

They hope to accomplish it all before the 2022 primary elections next spring.

That’s why, said Committee Chairman Seth Grove, R-York, he announced a slate of hearings to field input from the public about what the new districts should look like. The House also launched a website to collect comments.

The committee’s regional redistricting hearings will resume Sept. 20 at the Cohen Family Social Hall in Kingston, where residents from Bradford, Susquehanna, Wayne, Sullivan, Wyoming, Lackawanna, Montour, Columbia, Luzerne, Carbon, Monroe and Pike counties, will be invited to testify.

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