[Vigilanteman]

Your history is correct, but i'm not so sure about your future prognostications. Most of the Pittsburgh suburbs, both inner and outer ring, are trending conservative now. Sure, there are isolated pockets such as the Mon Valley, Johnstown and Uniontown where the moron union mentality still holds sway, but they are dying out.

My district (the 18th) is so heavilly conservative that we could probably absorb the rest of the Mon Valley without any lasting damage. Ditto for Johnstown and the adjacent conservative trending districts.

OTOH, Pittsburgh itself is still shedding population and can easily add the remaining most leftwing suburbs such as Wilkinsburg. These changes would make less, not more, gerrymandered districts.

[PermaRag]

I'm in the 18th too, and although Tim Murphy had a breeze this time around I recall him being pretty well threatened in previous election cycles.

Perhaps the fact that he survived even in bad times proves that the lines can be smoothed out without endangering him or another R who runs in the 18th.