Submitted by DoctorSteve t3_yqcf9e in Pennsylvania
And if we do flip it, we need to immediately set about voting rights, gerrymandering removal, and I'd even go as far as to rethink the House itself. Too easy to get a Red Majority with how it's structured.
This state has so much it needs to fix that has been continually sabotaged by Republicans for no reason except spite and hate for the citizens of Pennsylvania. Let's flip the house and let's get to work.
I wonder if we could shrink the legislature if we had a single house, where the lowest population County gets one rep, and the highest population county gets a proportional number of reps by their difference in population size. It would certainly more accurately represent the demographics of the state, and eliminate jerrymandering.
You see, the problem with that is if we did that we’d theoretically have nearly 3000 representatives for closest-to-proportional seat distribution. Cameron County has 4500 residents, making it the smallest county, and we have 13 million people, for reference.
It’s honestly be better to either eliminate the Senate and simply add those seats into the house pool (so 253 seats total) or eliminate the Senate and adhere to the Cube Root Rule (235 seats).
jesus can we just wrap them into their neighbor county? Had no idea some were that small.
After Cameron, there’s Sullivan and Forest Counties that both under 10k population as well (6000 and 7000-ish respectively). If I’d had to guess, they probably roll some of their county operations in with their neighbors (or, at least, I know some counties do that).
As a fun fact, out of 67 counties, 27~ of them are smaller than the average state house seat currently.
So they are over represented AND jerrymandered.
I recently did a deep dive of populations on a city/town level basis in Pennsylvania. There are 2,570 towns/cities/boroughs/whatevers in PA, and the average population size is 5,046 people per city/town. 26% of our population lives in a town/borough that is smaller than this average, but they're spread out over approximately 1,600 towns. Literally almost 2/3 of the cities/towns/boroughs in PA are so small that they're smaller than the average. No wonder so many in this state have a hard time accepting that the cities really do pack a voting punch! Most of the towns you encounter are miniscule by comparison
Here's another fun one: if you take the bottom-1,000 ranking of towns by size (so, like, start with Centralia at literally just 4 residents, and add up towns as they increase in size to the one thousandth bigger town from there), you get a population of about 1.276 million, or roughly 10% of the state, spread out over 39% of the towns. That sounds like a lot of people, until you realize that the city of Philadelphia alone has more residents than that. It's so big, that you could spot Pittsburgh's 300,000 residents to these bottom-1,000 towns by size, and they'd STILL only just barely have as many people as Philadelphia does.
Population distribution is a wild thing.
We have been asking for them to reduce the legislature for over 20 years. It is the most expensive in the country.
I think its a holdover from Philly being the US capital long ago and the state wanted to mirror the federal government. Admittedly though without the state senate PA would be more conservative-representing. Pennsyltucky is real.
Edit: not saying theres more R than D voters in total, but gerrymandering and voter restrictions would be worse today if not for the state senate existing.
That's exactly it, according to Wikipedia, the General Assembly actually was unicameral until 1791. Just 4 years after the Constitution was adopted.
Realistically, with multi-member districts and rank-choice voting we could eliminate a lot of the geographic advantage that Republicans have and get a legislature that more closely represents the voters' will. A unicameral legislature is just one part of it.
We need to do that. We can't let these empty rural counties dominate our politics if PA is going to be a modern state.
I didn’t even think this was a possibility…I guess running lunatics like mastriano really did backfire
I still find the press conference that Marino & Barletta ran after the primary bitching about losing Trump’s endorsement comical.
r/LeopardsAteMyFace 😄
Legalize weed, privatize the lcb
Maryland voted to legalize it. We are surrounded.
Not quite, Ohio and WV still are no where near getting recreational any time soon. Thankfully NY is just a short drive away.
Edit: Oh and I guess Delaware too...
Ohio sucks I can’t imagine why anyone would wanna live there.
Have lived there (Columbus, Cleveland, Canton) can confirm it does suck.
We could have legalized weed and gay marriage first and been a tourism leader. It is a failure of the state. I want to fix that.
It doesn't look great, right now, but it does seem very possible that the Dems will pick up at least 10 or 11 seats, and put the split around 104-99, which is much better than what it has been for them.
We did it!!
Yeah, Democrats would have to pick up every single un-called state house seat that is even remotely leaning Dem at the moment JUST to have a chance of taking the majority. It almost certainly won't come to pass that they will, but it's wild that they're this close.
You were saying?
Everything I know is wrong. Black is white. Up is down. And short is long.
I cannot believe what is happening!
It certainly was Wild
Me: complains about NY/NJ folks who moved here in droves and made housing unaffordable Also me: look at voting map and thanks NY/NJ people for clearing house on the eastern border
Actually, while the Eastern counties did their job and held strong, it's the rural red counties that really helped the Democrats win. Check out the New York Times' shift map. Pennsyltuckians really came out for Fetterman and Shapiro in greater numbers than Biden could pull in 2020.
Yeah I have had a few close friends/family who are typically straight-ticket Republicans tell me they're voting Fetterman/Shapiro.
I can't access that map. When I look at CNN, the rural red counties are still red.
It's not about them being red, it's about the margins. CNN was reviewing the red PA counties around Pittsburgh late last night. For example, there was a red county where Biden got something like 40% of the vote. Fetterman got 46% in the same county, meaning he still 'lost' the county but had better margins. That's what they mean about the red counties propelling him to victory.
So if let's say Biden lost a sample county of 1,000 people with 40% of the vote, he got 400 votes. From that same pool of voters, Fetterman pulled 46% of the vote and thus got 460 votes. It was little stuff like that all over the state in red districts that really put Fetterman over the top.
Kind seems like a stretch to say they came out in droves. Oh look, 6% of the county was less awful that two years. The margins are still incredibly embarrassing in most of the red counties. I see tons of 60%+ for Mastriano and OZ.
Can you show me where I said they came out in droves? You said it seems like a stretch to say that, but I don’t see where I said that.
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Your supporting the above post that is making it sound like Moses himself came down yesterday to open the Susquehanna and allow the democrats to vote in large numbers in the rural counties
>is making it sound like Moses himself came down
I showed where a 6% increase occurred. Your statement is ridiculously dramatic...
But at the end of the day, 6% isn't great. Pittsburgh and the eastern counties are still holding the whole state up.
>6% isn't great
I also didn't say it was great. I was explaining how Fetterman outperformed Biden in these counties. You seriously created a whole conversation in your head and are arguing with me about it.
- I never said 'droves'
- I never said 'great'
Ok. Have a lovely day. Hope the stick up your butt doesn't hurt too much.
You as well. Best of luck on improving your reading comprehension skills.
Thank you! I just got a 97% of MBA capstone project for excellence in analyzing the case study. Can't wait to get 100% the next time I get a masters degree!
A good score on an MBA capstone project is very impressive from someone who couldn't comprehend my two paragraph Reddit post. Good for you man.
Thank you!
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Allegheny County was a 7 point swing in a county with 550k votes. Westmoreland was a 9 point swing in a county with about 175k.
All those rural counties are dark red but Oz didn’t put up many 40 point swings like Trump could. It all adds up.
I keep saying all those 7-10 point swings for Fetterman added up. Same thing he did in the primary.
Glad to do my part!
I remember my senior year of high school(2015-16), we could barely stay open because the legislature blocked school funding for a while. I would be so happy seeing low-income schools finally getting the funding they need.
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Republicans need one of these two guys to win or it will:
We're talking about wildly small vote margins, every vote truly counts in this one. And the mail-in ballots are what is still being counted...
Brian Munroe's lead over todd p has expanded by a few hundred.
Polinchock has lost. All eyes now are on District 151!
House will I think
I'm not seeing results for my district... What's up with that?? Have they not started counting some yet??
Amen! If you want to help fight the gerrymandering, sign up or at least watch the news of, https://www.fairdistrictspa.com/
I remember the R's trying to pass a law that the state legislature could ignore the Governor in a state of emergency, that BTW, they could declare. Does anyone know if that ever passed? PA could still be in trouble if that passed.
The state constitution was amended to limit disaster emergency declarations issued by the governor to 21 days. After that it must be extended by the general assembly. Prior to the pandemic there was no time limit for the governor's declarations.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Is this really possible?
Polinchock appears to have lost. Stephens is up by ~30 votes atm, but there are still a few hundred uncounted mail-in/absentees, so’s he’s not looking good.
Lol I probably literally caused him to lose myself with all the neighbors I pestered
Not for at least a decade and a lot more NJer and NYers coming to PA to live.
Too easy to get a red majority with a minority of votes/people. *****
Philly Inquirer had an informative article: https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-state-house-democrats-republicans-election-results-20221109.html
Gerrymandering seriously needs addressed. I'm so fucking sick of a clear majority of PA residents being subject to the douchebaggery of primitive screw-heads!
I really hope this is the beginning of a blue wave for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is a Northeastern state and its time it starts to behave like one
Looks like 99 wins in 203 races...
Make that 102 wins in 203 races!!! Dems have a 1 seat majority in PA!!!!!
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I hate freedom. I like the govern me harder daddy kink. Brain dead? Sure!… But ignorance is bliss!
"if we flip the state house we need to make sure republicans never win again regardless of how people vote"
Beautifully said. Not at all unreasonable.
That's not what I said.
If you're scared get a dog.
So the daily shootings in PHILA don't give you faith ??????
Now that we have Democratic control, we can do something about the shootings. That's why I have faith.
Wait , who's the mayor of PHILA ?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Do you think the Mayor of Philadelphia is the person preventing gun control?
He's just defunding the police along with that crack prosecutor 👍🏼
You know that's not what's happening. Why are you lying on the internet?
Mayor Jim kenney, that's YOUR guy 👍🏼
Did you read that article? This has nothing to do with cutting funding for the police. This is an article on cuts made to the city budget due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is a real article.
>"The city is set to approve a $30 million budget increase to the Police Department and a handful of other investments outside traditional law enforcement that are aimed at combatting gun violence.
>"All told, the investments bring the Police Department’s allocation to nearly $800 million — the most of any city agency, and $150 million more than in 2016, when Kenney took office."
So I ask you again - why are you lying on the internet?
Lmao - nice try - RE-read the original article !!!!!!!!!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I did read the article. Did you?
For example, you would hate what this money was actually for. "The preliminary budget includes several police reform measures including body cameras for officers, implicit bias training in addition to the use of mental health professionals for police-assisted diversion."
Is that funding for the police? Are those things you want from the police? I wouldn't be surprised if the police wanted them cut from the funding.
Secondly, from the article again: > “It is extremely disappointing that at this time we are not able to move forward with some of the crucial investments I proposed back in March, before the pandemic and resulting economic downtown were felt in Philadelphia. And it pains me that this budget reduces some City services and eliminates hundreds of jobs. Still, we have prioritized core services, protected our most vulnerable residents, and maintained our financial flexibility to enable a quick rebound. In short, thanks to Council’s leadership, I believe this budget will accomplish the goal I laid out on May 1: we will keep all Philadelphians safe, healthy, and educated while maintaining core municipal services that our residents rely on daily. Just as importantly, the most difficult decisions were made through a lens of racial equity. The budget intentionally limits the impact of service delays or cuts on people of color, who are disproportionately impacted by the virus and already suffering from decades of systemic inequality. I look forward to final approval by City Council on June 25.”
This is an article on coronavirus affecting the city budget. Not cutting funding for the police. That is why I showed you Mayor Kenney increasing Philadelphia budget to its highest ever. Because this is not about cutting funding for the police.
Your state Is gonna get what it's asking for, let's see how you like what you get...
"We?" Isn't there a political sub somewhere for this?
'We' being the majority of Pennsylvanians.
Cute. But until, and if, it happens.... The "we" you refer to as technically the minority then. Either way... Somebody should make a PA Politics sub and keep r/Pennsylvania beautiful.
A shame you dont understand how elections work.
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um, I'd really not prefer a completly blue legislature, thanks. We need balance.
How's "balance" worked for PA for 20 years?
fine for me, no complaints.
I mean, the roads suck.....
How's that attempt at an abortion ban going? Is that "fine"?
God... that's why I said BALANCE.
you'll never get an abortion ban with a blue governor or senate, and you'll never get a firearm ban or astronomical taxes (well hopefully) with a red house.
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Idiots voting democrat. Do you want 75% of your paycheck to be in taxes, $5 gas prices, and $100 grocery bills every visit? Like what the fuck goes on in your thick heads, fooled by democrat reverse psychology tricks yet again
Yeah yeah buddy keep on screaming into the wind.
Lol you don’t even acknowledge any of those realities. Probably another stimulus check leech.
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MYbe for you If you have a < 40k salary
Do you think people who make less than 40k are better off?
Only the rich are struggling? If you make under 40k it's a paradise?
Is this your actual thought process?!?
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That’s all you got? Mobile irrelevant typos?
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Ironic your salary must be under 40k, yikes no wonder why you support democrats. You want free hand outs!
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I really don’t care what you are. Just saying the things I’ve pointed out are indeed issues for many successful and hard working Americans with families. We don’t want our hard earned money going to social causes that just continue to promote violence, hate, and higher cost for everything. If these people actually were good people that be a different story. Instead we get gangs fighting downtown, shootings at parties, robberies, theft, abortions, you name it. These people should be in jail.
Are you out here saying that no one making under 40k is hard working?
Seriously what is your logic? You have this vendetta against the poor?
Also - do you think people who get abortions should be in jail?!?
It's because inflation is literally a global problem right now, not the result of any single policy except the smoke in mirrors that lets corporations price gouge to drive it and COL up. I wonder which party is actually trying to do something about this, and which is standing in the way....hmmm.....real thinker, huh?
Democrats solution to this is taxing the hell out of the upper middle class. That’s bullshit.
Thanks to Republicans there is no more upper middle class.
Everything you say now has become irrelevant. The republicans want to lower taxes not raise them. Democrats want to raise taxes and steal your wealth. This is the #1 reason why I will never vote democrat. Crazy how you say the complete opposite. You have it all mixed up. More reverse psychology going on with you.
Republicans do not lower taxes. I don't know where you got this idea from. I know they say they will lower your taxes, but all they do is give the rich gigantic tax breaks. This is a historical, proven fact. If you want to show me the large middle class gains during Republican leadership, please do so.
Republicans have only shrunk the middle class.
Inflation is a world issue right now, and the U.S. is handling it better than most of the world. Human rights are way more important to me. Having services for people who are struggling, and need a safety net are wonderful. Everyone should have health care that isn’t tied to their job. Everyone should be able to feel safe from bigotry, misogyny, racism etc.. . That my fellow Pennsylvanian is worth more the price of gas. (Which is controlled by the 1%)
What do you mean human rights? This country has more freedom than any country in the world. What about feeling safe against hate groups? Antifa? The amount of hate crime and violence these groups have started is insane. Destroying and stealing from stores and cities. Blaming the police. The left feeds off this shit
Everyone should feel safe. You are absolutely 💯 right.
There is no place for bigotry, racism, and misogyny.
They way that "antifa" handles their movement is wrong, but their belief is correct. They want to stand against fascist, racist, and extreme right wingers who want to take away rights for humans.
Other hate groups that would include "KKK" "proud boys" "neo-nazis" "identity church" should also not be tolerated as well
The far left is essentially communism, antifa is a part of that.
Their view is that fascism, racism, white supremacy is wrong, and oppose those who think it is right. Although I agree with their beliefs, I do not agree with how they express their beliefs.
Do you agree with their beliefs, or do you think that racism, bigotry, fascism etc are things to be supporting?
Racism exists however I don’t think it’s as bad as the media portrays it. It’s always a hard thing to prove. Saying some is racist is just an opinion. Saying some is violent is pretty obvious. I don’t support any of this nonsense. Both parties have bad eggs. Republicans to me are lesser of two evils. The democrats make shit up and want socialism. Obama, aoc, Biden are all horrible people. Trump has a big ego and I don’t like that but deep down I believe he’s a good person. He creates jobs, boosts the economy, wants America to succeed. The media just twists everything because he’s no a politician. Their jobs and careers are at stake with him in office. He’s a threat to them so they will make it their lives mission to destroy him by making shit up and lying to the people.
We can agree on some points. Extremist are not good, they're are bad people on both sides. I would disagree with you that Trump wants people to succeed. I would disagree on claims that Trump created a lot of jobs. When Trump took office, the US was going on 11 years of economic expansion. Under Obama's last 3 years (36 months) job growth averaged 227,000 a month. During Trumps first 36 he was averaging 191,000. So job growth went down (and then covid hit, so we can't really compare numbers after that) Under Obama average household income increased about $5000 in his last 2 years, under Trump average household income only grew about $1500 in his first 2 years.
Racism is worse than you imagine. I have several friends of different backgrounds (Black, middle eastern, hispanic)(most of who I have served in the army with) who tell me that they fear for their Iives of they are ever pulled over for any reason. I have seen racism first hand with vulgarities shouted at them. I have had a privileged upbringing, being a white male in suburban Philadelphia, who has two parents that were teachers. I used to think that racism didn't exist, because for the first 18-20 years of my life, I had never seen it.
Well I think the root cause are stereotypes. When you see a thug looking black guy lots of people think criminal, when you see a Muslim with a beard lots of people think terrorist, when you see a reclusive white kid in school kids think school shooter. It’s a shame these labels have become a reality and the good people of these races and religion become victim. Unfortunately families have lost loved ones to these kind of situations. It’s hard to erase that.
Shit I'd want my kids to be better at math than you at least
Don’t worry Your kids won’t be learning about math. They will be learning about supporting lgbtq and blm hate cults.
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Your worldview is strange! Can't tell if funny, sad, both...
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You’re right it is way more. The point being if you’re not dirt poor you better have a big pocket to pay for all these expenses
If you're struggling with affording groceries, you can learn about applying for EBT benefits in PA here
My vote helped flip my house district red for the first time in almost 30 years.
You're honestly boasting that you help set your district back 70 years?
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Sorry bud, this is reddit. No freedom of speech, only "dems good, republicans bad"
How do you guys still have no idea what free speech is?
It's so bad that I almost think they must be doing it intentionally.
Reddit has the same proportionate amount of Dems and Repubs as real life, it’s just here it’s not gerrymandered
It is crazy how they let people vote that don't know that freedom of speech doesn't extend to a private company. Wild
🤣 my point is that if you voice a right leaning belief, you get talked down to and looked down on. A left belief is applauded and cheered. Another post on this sub said "there are too many political signs up, we should stop creating so much litter" and the guy who said "yeah I'm sick of seeing FJB and Trump signs" got 40+upvotes amd people agreeing, and the guy who said "yeah I'm sick of seeing Bernie sanders signs" got downvoted into oblivion. Despite the fact that the entire post was about signs as a whole, not certain party signs. So both statements should be viewed equally
Saying that republicans have freedom of speech in 2022 is like saying the LGBT community had it in the 80s. Sure, you can voice your opinion, but nobody is going to like it.
My brother in Christ, you are witnessing free speech in action. You are just on the unpopular end of it in this particular scenario.
"Free speech (tm) is something I just totally and arbitrarily made up because it makes my feels feel good"
ok dude sure
Rs are soooo repressed /s You got your head so far up your ass you can't smell the shit anymore. Since when has people agreeing with your opinions had anything to do with freedom of speech? You just compared republicans to a minority group that was (and still is) being persecuted by republicans. How a human brain can not see the absolute ridiculousness of that statement is beyond me.
Did I say repressed? And the only thing I compared is how their speech is demonized
Im sorry real life has a liberal bias lol
If that were true then there wouldn't be a need for a conservative party
You're right, there is no need for a conservative party lol.
r/selfawarewolves
Yes. When you compared republicans to the very people they repress you said repressed. ffs
Maybe it's because you rarely see a Bernie sign and it's not as big of an eye sore as driving up the street with an obnoxious amount or giant trump sign. I don't think I've ever even see a massive Bernie sign. I understand what you are saying but they are two completely different levels of annoying.
Just to clarify, my ideology leans left, but wow are the democrats stupid sometimes. Yall think "my way or the highway" and don't budge an inch. And then get mad at the Republicans for doing the same.
"Well my way is better" welcome to Earth. Everyone thinks that their point of view is the perfect/least flawed one. But unless you're even willing to listen to the other side, you're just as guilty
Notice how your comment is still there? The downvotes dont mean you cant talk, they just mean no one here agrees with you.
And clearly, the state at-large disagreed with you too lmao
TIL that downvoting and even just disagreeing with someone is considered a free speech violation.
Your inner fascist is showing, buddy!
Sovereign2142 t1_ivnsw9x wrote
Honestly, why do we need a bicameral legislature? It’s not like senators represent any different interests than the house representatives (unlike the federal senate). It’s just more gridlock and government salaries.