DV Journal

With fewer than 60 days before the Feb. 15 deadline to enact new congressional district maps, efforts to conduct the process in a less partisan and more collegial manner hang by a thread.

Throughout the year, Republican leaders in both the state House and the Senate have promised transparency and public involvement, hoping to pass a map beyond dispute and that Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf would sign so that state courts don’t intrude on the process.

In July, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), chairman of the House State Government Committee, announced what he called the “most transparent congressional redistricting in Pennsylvania history” through direct citizen involvement in the process. Sen. David Argall (R – Berks/ Schuylkill), chairman of the Senate State Government Committee, has similarly promised to “roll back the hyper-partisan gerrymandering sins of past decades” by “making this redistricting process much more open and transparent.”

However, Democrats have looked upon these comments with skepticism and are so far not impressed by the processes being used.

On Wednesday, an adjusted version of a map drawn by a Lehigh Valley piano teacher and redistricting advocate Amanda Holt was passed on a party-line vote by the House State Government Committee. Holt, a former Republican Lehigh County commissioner, was deeply involved in the state’s map-making a decade ago and led the charge for fairer, less gerrymandered maps.

“The only thing better than a citizen-drawn map is a citizen-drawn map that incorporates the feedback of citizens all across our commonwealth,” Grove said in a statement after the vote. “The minor adjustments made to the preliminary plan reflect changes that were important to Pennsylvanians.”

Yet, a leading Democrat on the committee threw cold water on the vote while foreshadowing arguments Democrats will likely make when a map comes to the full House floor for a final vote.

“We have an opportunity to use a citizen’s map as a vessel,” said Rep. Scott Conklin (D–Centre) in comments before the vote. “But today, what we’re about to do, is we’re going to throw the citizen’s map out and we’re going to amend it again with what the elected officials wanted.”

Grove noted during the committee meeting that the map was 95 percent similar to Holt’s and that changes were made to minimize splitting municipalities among a few other technical corrections.

In the Senate meanwhile, a draft version of a bipartisan map being drawn by Argall and Sen. Sharif Street (D–Philadelphia) has drawn heated feedback from Democrats.

The leaked draft would solidify Democratic U.S, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s district in the Philadelphia suburbs. However, it also appears to split Philadelphia into four districts rather than three, as it is now.

That move would take a northern portion of Democratic U.S, Rep. Brendan Boyle’s Philadelphia district and move it into Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s district, which is comprised mostly of the Bucks County and a small slice of Montgomery County north of the city. The move would reduce the White population in Boyle’s current district, making a primary challenge from a Black politician, such as Street, more likely.

Democratic political consultant J.J. Balaban told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Any Democratic elected official should be embarrassed to support a map as bad for Democrats as that map is.”

An anonymous national Democratic official who also spoke with The Inquirer went even further, “It’s clear the Republicans have never taken this process seriously and are just running out the clock — it’s time for the court to step in,” in a comment very similar to the claims made in a new lawsuit filed by “voters” with the help of the National Redistricting Action Fund, a group aligned with Democrats.

The unanimous Democratic opposition to the citizen’s map put forward by the house committee and the harsh Democratic criticism of the leaked Senate map show how fragile the desire for compromise is in Harrisburg.

Both chambers of the General Assembly and Wolf must come to a final agreement by Feb. 15 so that candidates hoping to be on the May 18th primary ballots can circulate nomination petitions on time.

As Holt testified, her map was “Based on census data and to not break precincts.

Although Wolf will need to approve the map the legislature puts forward or the map will end up being adjudicated by the courts, he has stated that he will not negotiate.

“No one should be surprised King Wolf doesn’t want to negotiate,” Grove said on Facebook.

State Rep. Andrew Lewis (R-Harrisburg) said, “We’ve got to move this process forward. We’re going to improve this map as we move forward.”

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State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman said he filed a lawsuit against the Wolf administration’s mask mandate for students, not as a politician, but as a parent protecting his children and a citizen defending the rule of law.

“I sued as a parent of two high school students and I also sued from the perspective institutional office of the state Senate,” Corman told the Delaware Valley Journal. “Our feeling was the Secretary of Health did not have this authority.”

On Dec. 10, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Corman (R-Centre) and his fellow plaintiffs — state Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford), two religious schools, three public schools, and a group of concerned parents. The court vacated the mask mandate and upheld an earlier ruling by the Commonwealth Court.

Prior to the mask order by acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam (who announced recently she is leaving her job), Gov. Tom Wolf “asked the school districts to go through a process to develop a health and safety plan. They went through that process.”

Corman, a GOP candidate for governor, said he and his wife followed their district’s guidance for their children, two of whom are in high school.

“Then, at the last minute, the governor decided to implement his own plan through the secretary of health,” said Corman.  The administration ordered masks to be worn in schools and daycare centers as of Sept. 7.

It was then that Corman decided to file the lawsuit.

“The case was never about whether we should wear masks or not. It was about the rule of law,” he said.  Governors need to follow the law “even in times of emergency.”

And last May “the voters made a historic vote to reduce the governor’s authority,” via ballot questions. But Wolf, instead of “understanding” the voters’ will, “tried to circumvent it. You can’t make things up out of thin air…You have to go through a process.”

Corman is pleased the Supreme Court ruled against the mask mandates because otherwise, it would mean the governor had the power to decide to close businesses and houses of worship again and tell people they cannot congregate and shut down protests, he said.

“We believe (Wolf) never had this authority without going through the legislative process,” said Corman. “That’s what this was all about.”

However, Elizabeth Rementer, a spokeswoman for Wolf, called the Supreme Court decision “extremely disappointing.”

“The administration urges school districts to prioritize the health and safety of their students and staff when making mitigation decisions,” she said. ​“Masking is a proven and simple way to keep kids in school without interruption and participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. Universal masking in schools, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend, reduces the risk that entire classrooms will need to quarantine due to a positive COVID-19 case,”

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision some local school districts, including Bensalem, Central Bucks, Pennridge, and Marple Newtown, have announced that they will make mask-wearing optional.

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Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court handed Gov. Tom Wolf yet another setback in his ongoing effort to use the COVID-19 pandemic to expand his power, striking down a mask mandate critics said was clearly beyond his authority.

On Friday, the state’s highest court both affirmed a lower court’s finding that Wolf’s health department lacked the authority to impose a mask mandate and also vacated an order allowing the administration to enforce the mandate during the appeal process.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for parents and communities whose opinions have been ignored by the Wolf administration for far too long,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte), one of the plaintiffs in the case. “The ruling today is about much more than masks in schools; it is about preventing government overreach in general. The law clearly does not give any governor or any state agency the power to create orders out of thin air in the absence of an emergency declaration and outside the regulatory review process.”

Corman, a GOP candidate for governor, argued that Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam didn’t have the authority to impose the mask mandate without going through the formal regulatory process.

“This ruling means we will not have to deal with even more extreme, unilateral measures from the Wolf administration that devastated our economy last year, including business closures and restrictions,” Corman said.

Elizabeth Rementer, press secretary to Wolf, said, “The administration’s top priority from the beginning of this pandemic has been and remains protecting public health and safety, including students and staff, to ensure in-person learning continues. We are awaiting an opinion on the decision, but the outcome is extremely disappointing. That said, the administration recognizes that many school districts want to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for students and staff, and we are hopeful they will make appropriate mitigation decisions moving forward.”

“The administration urges school districts to prioritize the health and safety of their students and staff when making mitigation decisions. ​Masking is a proven and simple way to keep kids  in school without interruption and participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. Universal masking in schools, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend, reduces the risk that entire classrooms will need to quarantine due to a positive COVID-19 case,” she added.

“The administration also continues to urge all eligible Pennsylvanians to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take your children ages 5 and older to get vaccinated. Appointments are available statewide for Pennsylvanians ages 5 and older for their primary series and 16+ for their booster shot. Vaccines are safe, effective, and readily available across Pennsylvania. Visit vaccines.gov to find an appointment,” she said.

This isn’t Wolf’s first defeat in the battle over the reach of the governor’s power.

In May, Pennsylvania voters approved two amendments to the Commonwealth’s constitution restricting the governor’s power to declare and then extend states of emergency. Amendment 1 authorized the General Assembly to terminate an emergency by a majority vote of both houses, as opposed to a two-thirds vote and the governor’s agreement. Amendment 2 limited emergencies to 21 days instead of the previous 90, and allowed mandates to only be extended by the Assembly, not the governor.

And Wolf found himself in political hot water over the arbitrary way he and his administration handed out exemptions to favored businesses during the 2020 lockdown. The GOP-led legislature opened an investigation in response. In September 2020, a federal judge ruled Wolf’s far-reaching lockdown orders were unconstitutional.

Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) and House Majority Leader Rep. Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) Friday echoed the GOP message that the real issue isn’t masks, it’s mandates that exceed the governor’s legal powers.

“This debate has never been about the effectiveness of masks in schools, or any other setting. It is about whether or not each branch of our state government and the officials who work in those branches will follow the law and respect our Constitution’s design that directs the legislative branch to make the laws that govern our people.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for all Pennsylvanians, regardless of how you feel about this particular issue. It shows that our system of checks and balances works in the interest of all people, so that no singular voice can silence the voice of free people who allow themselves to be governed,” they said.

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The decision of whether Pennsylvania school children will be required to wear masks will be returned to local officials as of Jan. 17.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday that mask and mitigation efforts will be returned to officials at the local level and that schools may use their own discretion to determine COVID-19 mitigation strategies based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

“The school mask order has been critical in ensuring Pennsylvania’s children could safely learn and grow in an in-person classroom setting at the beginning of the school year,” Wolf said. “During the announcement, my administration made clear that we would continue to reevaluate the status of the school mask mandate. Now, we are in a different place than we were in September, and it is time to prepare for a transition back to a more normal setting.

“Unfortunately, the COVID-19 virus is now a part of our daily lives but with the knowledge we’ve gained over the past 20 months and critical tools like the vaccine at our disposal, we must take the next step forward in our recovery. With more than 70 percent of adults vaccinated in Pennsylvania and the recently expanded vaccine eligibility, I strongly encourage parents to take safety measures to protect your children and your family – like getting vaccinated.”

Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) welcomed the move.

“As we have stated from the beginning, the best approach to protecting the health and safety of Pennsylvanians from COVID-19 is a personal and local decision,” Ward said.  “Today’s decision by Gov. Wolf is a step in the right direction for Pennsylvania as we continue to manage out of crisis and focus our efforts on moving our state’s economy in the right direction.”

Did the outcome of the Nov. 2 election weigh on Wolf’s decision?

“Without question,” said Back to School PA PAC Executive Director Clarice Schillinger, when asked if she thought the election results played a role in Wolf’s decision-making.

Meanwhile, Paul Martino, one of the founders of the Back to School PA political action committee, which saw 60 percent of its candidates win statewide, said, “Clarice has been saying this all along…We are not surprised.”

While the PAC’s core issue was keeping kids in school, many parent and grandparent voters were also upset over mask mandates.

“The coincidence is undeniable that Gov. Wolf decided to now let masking guidance up to individual schools just days after the school board elections,” said Schillinger. “What that means, is everyone is now preparing and looking at the governor’s race in 2022. It is a real shame our children and their education has been caught between what is best for their learning and political power plays.”

Some area health departments also reacted.

“While we can’t know right now what the COVID landscape will look like in two months, the Bucks County Health Department is hopeful,” said spokesman James T. O’Malley. “What we do know is that the surest way for things to improve is for all eligible people to get vaccinated — including school-aged children.”

Kelly Cofrancisco, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County said, “The Office of Public Health will be meeting to discuss the governor’s announcement but we do not have any comment right now.”

But prior to Wolf’s order Montgomery County was only recommending masks based on transmission levels, she noted.

Meanwhile, Chester County Health Director Jeanne Franklin said, ““School districts and schools in Chester County have established their health & safety plans that include layered COVID-19 prevention strategies based upon state guidance, and all school leaders have worked throughout the pandemic to determine the plan that is best for their staff and students. With Governor Wolf’s announcement that decisions about masks will return to local school officials in mid-January, schools will review their health and safety plans related to mask use, and update if needed.  

“The Chester County Health Department will continue its role in monitoring all COVID-19 activity within schools, as well as providing support in the ways in which schools report, monitor and mitigate COVID-19 – just as it does with all infectious disease outbreaks,” she said.

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