Redistricting takes center stage

A little known issue is consuming the time of battle-seasoned partisan strategists and diverting resources away from the national campaigns. Congressional redistricting, a political process that occurs once every decade, has made local legislative races attract the attention of party "big-wigs" known more for their devotion to the presidential contest. When the results from the latest Census are released, state legislatures across the country will redraw the U.S. Congressional Districts, which could give one party the upper hand in Congress for years to come. Parties will be jockeying for positions in this process, trying to minimize losses or maximize gains to ensure that they come out ahead, or not far behind, when the lines take effect in 2002. "There are estimates that there will be as many as 30 seats that will be lost [by lesser populated states]," Kevin Mack, a spokesman for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said. The DLCC is responsible for funding state legislative races for the national Democratic party. The number of representatives from each state is determined by the population of the state in comparison with the rest of the country. So states that show smaller growth rates in respect to the other states could lose some of their House representation. Philadelphia, a solidly Democratic city, is expected to lose one of its three seats. "A lot of crazy things go on during redistricting," Mack said. Jennifer Franklin of the Pennsylvania House Republican Campaign Committee is optimistic about the election, which is just one week away. "We feel very confident that we are going to maintain and build on our majority," she said. The Democrats are hoping to win a majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives next week, although they feel winning control of the State Senate is a "slightly higher hurdle," according to Dan See of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. The Republicans have been fighting fiercely to ensure that the Democrats do not achieve their goal in this state. Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, himself fighting for re-election, campaigned for two Republicans in their statehouse races. In an "Urgent Election Fax Alert," John Perzel (R), majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, solicited contributions in excess of $5,000 to support Republican races. "We need to raise $500,000 for last-minute television advertisements in several key areas, including the expensive Philadelphia market," Perzel said. He asked supporters to send contributions by overnight mail. Despite Franklin's optimism that the Republicans would maintain control of the Pennsylvania legislature, she reiterated a charge made by Perzel that the Democrats are running "outrageous negative smear campaigns against Republicans." "From what we know, the Democrats have been moving staff around," Franklin said, emphasizing that "they're spending more money than I think would normally be spent." While Mary Eisenhower of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee confirms that four districts are "very much battleground races" -- the 61st district in Montgomery County and the 144th district in Bucks County, both Philadelphia suburbs, are getting a lot of attention -- See emphatically denied the charges of negative campaigning. "Paranoia is ugly," See said. "They're afraid of losing and they are pulling out these trojan horses to try and stem their loss," he said of his Republican counterparts. The Democrats have lined up big-name support for their smaller candidates in the local races. Today marks the start of a bus tour across the state by party chairman Ed Rendell, the former mayor of Philadelphia and an expected gubernatorial candidate in 2002. Tom Hofeller of the Republican National Committee does not see anything unusual in the attention paid to local races. "Both parties are [highly committed] with total resources," Hofeller said. "There's a lot of focus on [the issue of redistricting] because both parties realize that the lines are going to be drawn by the state legislatures and a lot of them are very close," he added. And while some races appear easier to win than others, with total domination a near statistical improbability, each party is publically confident of success. "I really think the Republicans are scared of losing the House," See said. "We are going to win."