Breaking: PA Supreme Court Rules Against Gerrymandered Map, Orders New Districts for 2018 Midterms!

This map is history, as of today's ruling.

Super breaking story, hot off the (Twitter) presses.  The PA State Supreme Court has ruled the current Congressional map was drawn to be so partisan that it violates the state constitution.

More importantly, the ruling also blocks the use of the current map for the 2018 midterms, and requires a new map be drawn!  With Tom Wolf’s veto pen in hand, any new partisan map coming from the Republican-controlled legislature will be DOA.  Which, as far as I understand, means the same PA Supreme Court will draw/approve a new map.  And with a 5-2 Dem advantage, just by having a non-partisan map means Dems could pick up as many as 3-5 seats.

PA is a 50:50 state, that usually leans Blue on federal elections (at least until 2016).  But due to crazy gerrymandering at both the Congressional district and state district level, the GOP has a stranglehold on elected seats.  Some of these districts, like current PA-07, are just as absurdly drawn as the districts in North Carolina, which of course were also drawn by GOP officials hell-bent on ensuring Republican victories.

Here is a prospective fair-drawn map, courtesy of our own DK Elections expert, Stephen Wolf.

This prospective map gives Dems +1 guaranteed (a newly drawn PA-07), plus 3 toss-up races.

I’ll have more updates as they come in.  Of course, definitely rely on the amazing DK Elections staff and Adam Bonin, who has infinitely more legal insight on this decision than I could ever have.