I’ve been holding off on my Campaigning with Aaron series while we all waited for news of the new Pennsylvania district map. That map dropped today and it changed everything. I’m more than a little excited. Since SCOTUS already ruled that the PA Supreme Court has jurisdiction, this is unlikely to be successfully challenged.
The biggest takeaway from this is it means Keith Rothfus (R-GoneFishing) is not going to be reelected. His his reactionary tea-party style voting record is not going to play well in the new communities in the district. It’s gone from R+11 to R+3. Penn Hills, Carnegie, Sharpsburg, Etna and other communities new to the district are almost all between lean blue and solid blue. R+3 with the currently projected November shift, move this seat from likely red to lean or likely blue.
Of the 4 candidates currently running to oppose Rothfus (R-ByeBye) in PA-17 (nee 12), IMO one is right of center, one is a centrist and two are progressives. I think we can get excited about putting another progressive voice into Congress. Sure, it’ll take effort, but it just got a hell of a lot more likely. Aaron Anthony*, one of the progressive candidates, posted this statement a few minutes ago.
The new district also means we have a much better shot a putting a real progressive into Congress. All of the added inner-ring Pittsburgh communities are a hell of a lot more progressive friendly than the previous makeup of PA-12, which included a lot of South Central PA (aka Alabama North).
Another thing that this map does is it moves both Conor Lamb (D-VoteForHim) and Rick Saccone(R-AbuGhraib) out of the district they are contesting on March 13th. In the transition from the 18th to the 14th the part of the 18th currently in Allegheny county is split between the new 17th and 18th. Mike Doyle (D-GoodGuy) should be safe in the 18th. The new 14th will shift about 2 to R+13 so this will be harder to hold in the fall after Conor wins next month. But, with the tRump alienation train running full speed, we have a good shot to hold it.
This map is good news for anyone invested in fair districting and the end of one of the worst gerrymanders in the country.
*He happens to be the candidate I’m supporting.
Update: GoogleMaps outline of new PA-17 (thanks to epic)