Grove: Wolf Denies Pennsylvanians a Voice By Vetoing Citizen-Drawn Congressional Map

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HARRISBURG – In response to Gov. Tom Wolf vetoing the citizens’ congressional redistricting map, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) issued the following statement:

“Under the cover of darkness, much like the development of Gov. Tom Wolf’s map, the governor issued a vague and partisan gerrymandered-filled veto of the first citizens’ congressional map ever adopted by the General Assembly. Once again, Wolf has shown his failed leadership through his unwillingness to work across the aisle with Republicans in the Legislature on a constitutionally mandated requirement.

 “Instead, Wolf has picked political brinkmanship and unnecessarily requiring the courts to address congressional redistricting instead of joining the General Assembly in adopting the first ever citizen-drawn map which did not use partisan data in the development of the map.

 “We went from a redistricting process that was open to every Pennsylvanian, took into account feedback from countless residents and a Legislature-approved map drawn by a citizen to the Wolf way of having a few select members of the judiciary decide which map will be used.

 “I am even more puzzled by Wolf’s reasons for his veto. In one argument he vetoes the bill because he doesn’t want politicians drawing the maps, but he himself, a politician, drew a map and he further supported politicians drawing maps by his opposition to Democrat members being “cut out” of the process. He further opposed the bill because it wasn’t drawn with more Democrat districts, and he opposed the splits in four counties of which he also split in his map. Finally, he made a vague statement about a violation of a court case without any reasons as to why or how the map violated the court case.  Talk about hypocritical, nonsensical ramble.

 “What can we surmise from Wolf’s veto message?  He wanted a Democrat gerrymandered map drawn by Democrat politicians. The Republicans in the General Assembly showed tremendous leadership by using the most open and transparent congressional redistricting process in the history of the Commonwealth to select a citizen-drawn map for the first time in Pennsylvania history to end partisan gerrymandering. However, Wolf just wants a Democrat power grab to help the failing president. Wolf is just a typical politician who has failed Pennsylvania once again.”

 Editors’ note: Rep. Seth Grove addressed during a speech in the House on Wednesday the gerrymandered maps submitted by the governor and House Democrats. Click here to view the speech: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pagopvideo/554885006.mp4. To download the video, click on the three dots in the lower right corner and then select “download.”