Question: Should the arrogance of a political party that holds both houses of a legislature and the executive office be allowed to derail the election process?
Our answer: No. And that goes for either party.
When the party in power in Harrisburg approved a redistricting map that basically and primarily benefited the election chances of its own members, it abused its political status.
The State Supreme Court ruled that the map improperly split municipalities, while not actually commenting on the bizarre configurations of districts. However, so little time is left to correct the matter, that the possibility exists that the Pennsylvania primary election would have to be moved back by a couple months if a proper map could not be adopted in time.
The Legislative Reapportionment Commission charged with reviewing map proposals, and then the General Assembly, had months in which to come up with a reasonable plan. In an act that we believe was premeditated, the process was delayed to the eleventh hour in an effort to preclude changes.
Unfortunately for those politicians in Harrisburg who decided to play the system, the court threw them a curveball, giving them only a couple options. Among them: quickly back off the screwball map they approved and correct it posthaste to preserve the original primary date, take more time for a new map for a later primary, or revert to the existing map and keep the primary on April 24.
Darned old court.
The state Senate majority leader, while not elaborating on last week's meeting of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, said he believed the primary would not be moved back.
In the meantime, we are all left to wait, including incumbents who would like to seek a new term and those who would like to unseat them.