In a major surprise, the Pennsylvania House Republicans released a new congressional redistricting map that was submitted by a longtime Lehigh County advocate for fairer districts.

Typically, the party in power prepares its own map, a sure prescription for gerrymandering - the practice of rejiggering districts to favor the ruling party. This is what happened in 2011 when the Republicans pushed through a map that resulted in the election of 13 Republicans and five Democrats to Congress.

Pennsylvania loses a congressional seat starting with the seating of the new Congress in January 2023. Although we had a slight gain in population, it was not enough to retain the 18 members. The loss of population in western Pennsylvania probably means that this is where the seat will be lost and will require incumbents to face off if they want to keep their seat.

The 2011 map was challenged in 2018, and the state Supreme Court came up with a new map that resulted in the election of nine Republicans and nine Democrats, a split that more accurately reflects the political breakdown of Pennsylvania.

Actually, as of earlier this month, there were 4,024,406 registered Democrats, 3,422,387 Republicans, 900,283 unaffiliated voters and 381,698 listed as “other.”

Among the five counties in the Times News area, Carbon had 20,895 registered Republicans and 15,848 Democrats; Schuylkill, 47,914 Republicans and 28,734 Democrats; Monroe, 51,858 Democrats and 39,967 Republicans; Northampton, 97,988 Democrats and 79,304 Republicans; and Lehigh, 114,225 Democrats and 82,474 Republicans.

To the north of us, Luzerne had 95,183 registered Democrats and 81,274 Republicans, while Lackawanna County had 82,432 Democrats and 45,822 Republicans.

The Republicans chose the map drawn by Amanda Holt, an Allentown area piano teacher and former Lehigh County Republican commissioner from among 19 citizen maps submitted.

It is not expected that the Holt map will remain untouched, because Senate Republicans are expected to release their own map, possibly this week. The House also plans to vote this week on the Holt-produced map.

David Argall, R-Schuylkill, chair of the Senate State Government Committee, and Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said a vote on the Senate map will be taken in January.

The Holt map makes several changes to the existing 7th, 8th and 9th districts that comprise our five counties.

Carbon and Schuylkill counties remain in their entirety in Republican Dan Meuser’s 9th district, along with all of parts of a total of 13 counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Democrat Susan Wild’s 7th district, which now includes all of Lehigh and Northampton counties and part of southern Monroe County, would lose the Monroe boroughs and townships that would go into Democrat Matt Cartwright’s 8th District, while Wild would pick up several municipalities in Berks County. Under the Holt proposal, all of Monroe County would be part of Cartwright’s district, along with all or parts of six other counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Analysts believe that Wild’s and Cartwright’s districts might be primed for Republican plucking. They also believe Meuser’s 9th District is safe for him given the overwhelming Republican voter registration edge in most of his counties.

The reapportionment is constitutionally mandated to occur every 10 years. The final map must be passed by both houses of the General Assembly and signed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. A Wolf veto would require a two-thirds supermajority to overturn his decision.

Democrats have complained that they have been left out of the process. Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre, the ranking Democrat on the House State Government Committee, said he had no input on the map selection. “I had high hopes, and I can’t express my disappointment that it wasn’t done in a bipartisan way,” Conklin added.

But a spokesman for House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, said the use of a citizen-produced map is a “starting point, a logical extension of the transparent process House Republicans promised.”

Many - I included - have long been critical of the reapportionment map-drawing process that typically favored the party in power. Involving the public and inviting us to draw maps for consideration was an important first step in making the process fairer. Let’s hope this advance is not frittered away by political infighting and bickering as the process continues to work its way through the legislative minefield.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.