but what the fuck is this?!?!?



http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbc...WS90/112140327

By ERIC BOEHM
PA Independent
December 14, 2011

HARRISBURG — Monroe County will no longer be in the 11th U.S. Congressional District represented by Rep. Lou Barletta, according to the newly designed district map, which was introduced to the public for the first time Tuesday afternoon.

Instead, the county will be split nearly in half between the 10th District represented by Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican, and the 17th District represented by Rep. Tim Holden, a Democrat.
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And if you live in the part of Monroe County that's being moved to Marino's district, your next representative could be from Mifflin County, west of Harrisburg. That's because the 10th District will be stretched to pick up large portions of central Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Holden's district, which starts in Schuylkill County, will extend into Carbon and Lackawanna counties, then head back down through part of Monroe County and into the Lehigh Valley.

Holden's new district is what experts like to call a "vote sink." Republicans packed as many Democrats into the district as possible, because moving many Democrats into one district means fewer "blue" voters in Republican districts.

Holden comes away with a safe district that now will include the Democratic-heavy cities of Easton, Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, along with the working-class towns in southern and western Monroe County.

Including Wilkes-Barre in Holden's district means the city, the county seat of Luzerne County, has been disconnected from the rest of its region. The remainder of Luzerne County will remain in the 11th district with Barletta.

Barletta's district, in an effort to improve his chances at re-election, has been stretched south along the I-81 corridor. It now will run from Wyoming County, north of Scranton, to Cumberland County, west of Harrisburg.

The congressional map is passed through the General Assembly in the same manner as any piece of legislation. Since Republicans control both chambers and the governorship, they controlled the process this time.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, chairman of House State Government Committee, defended the process and said the final product was "constitutional, legal and fair."

"The series of hearings that we had produced a lot of public input," Metcalfe said. "The process has been a very public process, a very open process."

Democrats were upset with the newly drawn districts, but Republicans defended them as being constitutional and fair.

State Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-Bucks, said changes were necessary, because the state was losing a congressional seat as a result of the latest national census. Census numbers were used to draw the map, as required by law.

"The idea of everyone's districts staying the same was pretty much out the window right away," McIlhinney said.

As a result of population growth that was lower than the national average for the past decade, Pennsylvania lost a congressional seat, bringing the state's delegation from 19 to 18.

With 18 districts, each will hold about 705,000 people.

As was anticipated by most political experts, two Democratic incumbents, U.S. Reps. Mark Critz, D-District 12, and Jason Altmire, D-District 4, will be combined into a single new district.

Assuming all incumbents hold their seats, the congressional delegation will consist of 12 Republicans and six Democrats.

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