Federal panel allows primary election on May 21

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | April 23, 2002 | John M.R. Bull

[buzzyboop]

HARRISBURG -- The May 21 primary election will go on as scheduled, a three-judge federal panel ruled this morning.

The panel agreed to allow the congressional district boundaries established in January by the Legislature to be used in the May primary and not force the use of new boundaries crafted last week by order of the panel. Lawmakers had argued that would force the primary to be pushed back to June or July.

"The pressure is off," said Erik Arneson, chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader David "Chip" Brightbill, R-Lebanon County. "This is good news. We're going to have the May 21 primary."

The panel set a hearing for May 8 to hear legal arguments over the new congressional district boundaries, but the point is moot for this year's election.

The panel's ruling reverses its previous order that the new boundaries must be used. The panel changed its mind after hearing arguments from legislative leaders from both the Republican and Democratic caucuses that there is not enough time to open the congressional primary to new challengers, as using the new boundaries would require.

Legislative leaders pointed out that with four weeks until the primary, there would not be enough time to allow any new candidates to circulate nominating petitions and get onto the ballot. Republicans had planned later this week or early next week to set a new primary date for this summer for all primary elections.

The ruling by the panel also negates a petition by Republican leaders to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter asking him to step in and order the January boundaries to be used for this year and the new boundaries to be used next year.

The boundaries established in January were declared unconstitutional by the panel of judges on the grounds that the population between the 19 congressional districts varied too much. The largest district had 19 more people in it than the smallest, and that violated the legal principle of one-man, one-vote, the panel ruled. But it decided that greater harm would be caused by delaying the primary.

[buzzyboop]

Good news, but the argument against the new maps was so weak (population variance of only 19 people), that this decision was a no-brainer..

[FairWitness]

The largest district had 19 more people in it than the smallest, - - -

That has got to be a misprint.

[Coop]

Nope. I've read elsewhere that they often strive to get within a 1 or 2 resident variance.

[buzzyboop]

The largest district had 19 more people in it than the smallest, - - -

No, it is not. This is quite true. Go figure.

[FairWitness]

Amazing. Do they draw a line through the middle of houses and split up families just to get it that even?

[Coop]

Yes. There have even been a couple of cases, I believe in California, where they have cut a person in half just so they would not have to round up!

[let freedom sing]

The largest district had 19 more people in it than the smallest, and that violated the legal principle of one-man, one-vote...

So-- 19 people had less than one vote each? Now the rest have less than one vote, and only 19 people have one vote. That's more fair?

[KQQL]

these 2 Federal JUDGES are DAMN LOSERS.......once they found out they were probably going to be over ruled by the Supreme CT, they reversed themselves on the stay....

[connectthedots]

I think the Circuit Court of Appeals must have gotten a signal from Souter to stop their nonsense.

[Fish out of Water]

Thanks for the ping.

[KQQL]

I thought the 2 Jokers said the orginal plan sucks,,,,,,and now they say it is o.k to be use the th eorginal map for 2002......sounds like they chickened out in front of the supreme CT.

[KQQL]

I thought the 2 Jokers said the orginal plan sucks,,,,,,and now they say it is o.k to use the orginal map for 2002 elections ..sounds like they chickened out in front of the supreme CT.

[KQQL]

Re-districting Update:-

For GOP:--- Al-1,GA-2,OK-1,TN-1,N Y-1,MY-2, IN-1+1=0
*FL+3,*MI+2,MN+1,NV+1,PA+2,Oh+1

Total= GOP net gain of {+2}

* FL and MI are in Federal Courts .....
**Also, in the new AZ district # 1.....GOP has a 50/50 chance of wining........and in CO the GOP has a 45% chance of wininng that district the new district...........Furhermore, I think Johnson will defeat Maloney in CT 53%-46% and Pickering will defeat Show in MS 55%-44%......................and in IN, Kerns will lose to BUyer and in GA 7th .........I know who will win ........but I will not say it here...

[KQQL]

Re-districting Update:-

For GOP:--- Al-1,GA-2,OK-1,TN-1,N Y-1,MY-2, IN-1+1=0
*FL+3,*MI+2,MN+1,NV+1,PA+2,Oh+1

Total= GOP net gain of {+2}

* FL and MI are in Federal Courts .....
**Also, in the new AZ district # 1.....GOP has a 50/50 chance of wining........and in CO the GOP has a 45% chance of wininng the new district...........Furhermore, I think Johnson will defeat Maloney in CT 53%-46% and Pickering will defeat Show in MS 55%-44%......................and in IN, Kerns will lose to BUyer and in GA 7th .........I know who will win ........but I will not say it here...

[KQQL]

Correction:-
Total= GOP net gain of {+2 +2TX = +4

[Torie]

For some reason you ignored the great state of Texas. Our president would not be pleased.

[aristeides]

I think some DemocRATs took them aside and let them know that forcing a postponement of both the contested Dem gubernatorial primary and the uncontested Republican primary would give the Republican candidate a big advantage.

[aristeides]

Why only a pickup of 2 for the Republicans in PA? I thought the redistricting the court threw out would have meant a net gain of 4. And now the court has said that that is the redistricting that will be used in this year's election, meaning that, whatever changes in the redistricting the courts eventually may compel for 2004, any new Republican congressmen will be incumbents with the advantages of incumbents by that date.

[KQQL]

lol.............it's fixed..(+2 TX )
.TX was suppose to give the GOP atleast +4...................................................I think the 3 Judges screwed the GOP ....in tx

[KQQL]

+2 is the net gain for the GOP in Pa...