Re-Districting Maps Out

The Re-districting map is out for the State House and Senate.

We'll start in the Senate, where there were minor changes from the map that was challenged. Lehigh County will have all of Pat Browne's 16th District, and part of Lisa Boscola's 18th, sharing that district with Northampton, who gets the bulk of it. Boscola will take on Easton and Palmer, making her seat more Democratic than before. Browne keeps Allentown. The rest of Northampton County will go into the 40th District, a newly drawn seat, that used to be held by Senator Orie, who will soon go to prison. That District will have most of Monroe County, with the 22nd District that used to be held by Bob Mellow (also prison bound), taking in some of the northern parts. Carbon County will be entirely in the 14th District held by John Yudichak. Dave Argall's 29th District will have all of Schuylkill and some of Berks County. The 11th district of Senator Schwenk will have Reading and most of Berks. Senator Rafferty's 44th and Senator Mensch's 24th will take the rest of Berks. Mensch is completely out of the Lehigh Valley now.

In the House, there are changes as well. The 137th will start up at the Monroe-Northampton border, making it's way down through Bangor and south into Forks, the Northern half of Palmer, and over through Nazareth, reach Upper Nazareth. The 138th is drawn up in one of the most gerrymandered ways possible. It also starts at the north border, running from Pen Argyl west over into Moore, then cutting southwest into Bath, East Allen, and Hanover Townships, before cutting east-bound through Lower Nazareth, and finally south into Bethlehem Township. The 136th of Bob Freeman has the City of Easton, then runs west through the Wilson area, taking Palmer's southern half, then takes in Williams and part of Lower Saucon Township, before taking in Freemansburg and Hellertown. The 135th will take on the majority of Bethlehem City, and part of Bethlehem Township. The 131st will go from Lower Saucon over to Upper and Lower Milford, taking in Emmaus and part of Fountain Hill. The 134th will take in Macungie, Alburtis, and Lower Macungie and runs east into Salisbury, while running west into Berks County. The 22nd and 132nd will both be Allentown based. The 187th runs from Upper Macungie up through most of the northwest portion of Lehigh County, and then runs out into Berks County to take in Kutztown. The neighboring 183rd will take in South Whitehall, part of Whitehall, then crossing the river into Northampton, taking in most of that school district, before cutting back over the river to Slatington and Washington Township. Running South of that, from Whitehall, through Catty, Hanover (Lehigh), part of Bethlehem, and into Fountain Hill is the 133rd of Joe Brennan. In Monroe, the 189th and 176th are still there, but the 115th has been moved in as a new seat. Carbon is almost entirely the 122nd, however a tiny area will join with Schuylkill and Berks for the 124th. The 123rd and 125th are both in Schuylkill County as well. The 5th, 126th, 127th, 128th, 129th, and 130th will all be in Berks, as will part of the 134th.

The big loser statewide is Allegheny, which lost both a House and Senate seat. For the Valley, getting more compact Senate seats and a new House seat has to be considered a win. Growth here in the Valley is still amongst the better in the state, so this trend could continue long term.