Re-Districting, PA Style

Never consider any governmental office too small to be of concern to voters. According to Spotlight PA, Pennsylvania state lawmakers spent at least $3 million in taxpayer money on outside law firms and experts, as part of an effort to re-draw political maps.

One potential effect: the recent redistricting effort might change the balance of power in both Harrisburg and Washington, by eliminating one Republican-held congressional seat, and thereby giving Democrats the potential to win back the House.

As much to the point, and according to invoices obtained by Spotlight PA, Democrats in the state House and Senate paid six private law firms $1.4 million over the last year, whereas state House and Senate Republicans paid two private law firms over $1.6 million.

Initially, Spotlight PA asked each of the above four caucuses for invoices from January 2021 to June 2022. The invoices received show eight different law firms used throughout the process. Some details, such as descriptions of legal strategy and personal finance information, were redacted due to attorney-client privilege and limits in Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law. Nonetheless, it's safe to say that redistricting lawyers (for all four caucuses):

• paid professional experts $527,980 for their testimony

• reimbursed for testimony given at public hearings and in curts

• created expert reports to submit to courts

• in some cases drew maps

  Draw the Lines PA, a project of a good-government group known as the Committee of Seventy, wants to engage people in the redistricting process, and considers:

• using expert witnesses a useful tactic

• feels such use, by virtue of being a contest among experts, results in redistricting that is more fair, and more closely reflects current demographics

GOTV agrees.