Montgomery County Democrats Unhappy with Redistricting

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has made its decision. But area Democrats aren't too happy about it. In fact, they plan to fight it.

According to Newsworks, the decision has carved Montgomery County up into six state senate districts, which Montgomery County Democrats say is a republican shot at "gerrymandering the map for political gain."

Attorney Adam Bonin has been selected to represent the county's Dems. Bonin said it was part of a partisan plan for the Philadelphia suburbs.

"If you look at the four counties that surround Philadelphia, if you look at those voters as a whole, they are 50-50 Republican and Democrat," Bonin said to Newsworks. "The way that this map is drawn, it's drawn to produce seven Republican and two Democratic districts."

Erik Arneson, spokesman for the Republican caucus of the state Senate, said Montgomery County had parts of seven Senate districts before, and said "no one can say for certain whether the new districts lean Republican or Democratic."

"There have been precisely zero elections under the new map, so any partisan outcome that may or may not occur is a future event at this point," Arneson said to Newsworks. "There's no way to know for certain what will happen."

According to the state, the redistricting was required by law.

"Article 1, Section 2, of the United States Constitution requires that a Census be taken every 10 years for the purpose of apportioning the United States House of Representatives," said the Pennsylvania Redistricting website. "Census results are used to determine the number of congressional seats apportioned to each state. After the 2000 federal Census, Pennsylvania had 19 members in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following the 2010 federal Census, Pennsylvania has 18 members of the U.S. House."

More information on the Census is available at census.gov.

To see the full, finalized approved plan, visit this link on the PA Redistricting site.