Musical Chairs

Post date: Dec 15, 2011 11:36:27 PM

Like the game of musical chairs, the redistricting process has almost stopped playing the music to signify the vote. The state re-districts were voted on a week or so back and the congressional maps were passed today.

The state lines have been drawn and Area 11 has fared somewhat okay. Norristown is not fully in the 70th district, which means we have a Democratic representative (Matt Bradford) for a Democratic district. East Norriton joins that district, which is not much a change for them. West Norriton is split into two; half in the 150th (Mike Vereb) and the other half in the the 149th District (Tim Brggs), taking part of that municipality out of the 157th District (Warren Kampf). You can find a list of the breakdown at the Politics PA site.

The maps look a little better than the Congressional maps do. By law the districts have to be laid out contiguously, which is very much not the case. If you look at the new 7th District, there is a very small link between two larger sections that is hardly contiguous. The 6th is slightly better shaped than it was in the past, but still makes it very favorable for Congressman Gerlach, who currently has that seat. They removed Reading from the map hoping to get the last challenger Manan Trivedi out. Area 11 did not fare all that well in this new map. Norristown has been moved out of the 6th and is now in the 13th. That is somewhat good news as that means that Congresswoman Schwartz (D) is our representative and is very progressive. East Norriton is split between the 7th or the 13th. West Norriton is now split between the 6th and 7th. It is very confusing.

The only advantage now is that there will be many candidates who will be vying for our attention and that can mean we can go after them for contributions. Aside from that, it makes things very confusing in terms of poll coverage and knowing who can circulate nominating petitions. Much more to come on this.