The public doesn’t pay much attention to the way the state’s congressional and legislative districts are reapportioned.

Even those who do follow these matters are sometimes surprised to learn that there are two separate processes. The Legislative Reapportionment Commission draws new lines for the state House of Representatives and Senate following the decennial census, while congressional districts are drawn by the General Assembly.

First, some helpful definitions and explanations: “General Assembly” is the official name of the Pennsylvania Legislature, which consists of 50 senators and 203 members of the House of Representatives.

This is not to be confused with the U.S. Congress, which consists of 100 senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives.

“Redistricting” is the process by which the boundaries of elective districts are redrawn every 10 years to reflect equal representation based on population.

The U.S. Census Bureau came out with a preliminary report earlier this year and gave us our first glimpse at the 2020 population numbers, then released supporting data last week which will help in the reapportionment process.

These two separate and distinct commissions are tasked with coming up with districts that meet state and federal guidelines. For example, the state constitution mandates that state legislative districts be contiguous and compact and that districts should respect county and municipal boundaries as much as possible. There is no such requirement for congressional districts, which is why we have had in the past strange configurations which favor one or the other political party, a practice known as “gerrymandering.”

In the Times News five-county area, just Monroe is split into two congressional districts, with much of the southern half of the county in Democrat Susan Wild’s 7th District that also includes Northampton and Lehigh counties, while the northern part of the county is grouped with other northeastern Pennsylvania counties into the 8th District, represented by Democrat Matt Cartwright. All of Carbon and Schuylkill counties are part of the 9th District represented by Republican Dan Meuser.

The 2021 Legislative Reapportionment Commission is made up of the top two Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly and an independent chair - Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland; Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County; House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre; House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia, and Chair Mark Nordenberg.

Chancellor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh, Nordenberg is chair of the university’s Institute of Politics, a nonpartisan forum for the consideration of important policy issues by elected officials and other civic leaders.

This commission is holding a series of statewide hearings to get suggestions and recommendations from interested groups and individuals before coming up with a final report to the full General Assembly and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

Once these districts, taking into account population changes between 2010 and 2020, are approved, prospective candidates for the Senate and House will be able to announce their intentions for 2022 when all 203 House members and 25 of the 50 Senate members are up for election.

As for congressional reapportionment, the state lawmakers will have the difficult task to rearrange the 18 districts into 17. There are now nine Republican and nine Democrats. Although Pennsylvania’s population grew by 2.4% during the 10-year period, it was not enough to prevent the loss of a seat in the House of Representatives. (The U.S. Senate is not affected by population change, because each state is allocated two senators regardless of its population.)

Two area counties grew, with Lehigh leading the way with a 7.2% increase (sixth highest in the state), while Northampton had growth of 5.1% (13th highest). Schuylkill was the biggest loser, dropping 3.5%; Carbon was down 0.9% and Monroe, 0.8%.

A local legislator, Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill, chair of the Senate’s State Government Committee, will have a major role in the process. Meanwhile, over in the state House, Republicans will hold 10 hearings to get testimony from the public.

Argall said he is hopeful that the reapportionment committee can do better than had been done in previous efforts, acknowledging, however, that “we’re never going to agree” on a perfect plan. “Our goal is to have a bipartisan approach,” he said. Argall no doubt expressed the feeling of most legislators when he said, “We should be glad that this is done only once every 10 years.”

Seth Grove, R-York, chair of the House State Government Committee, has promised that the process will be transparent unlike what happened 10 years ago when the map drawn by Republicans and approved by then Republican Gov. Tom Corbett was overturned in 2018 by the state Supreme Court.

The Legislative Reapportionment Commission has 90 days to file a preliminary plan after which the public has 30 days to comment and challenge the maps. There is no mandated deadline to complete the congressional map, but lawmakers must take into account the fast-approaching 2022 primaries on May 17.

I am expecting the process to be more collaborative this time around, because unlike in 2012 when Republicans controlled both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion, this time Wolf has to approve the proposal, or the General Assembly will have to come up with a two-thirds override of a gubernatorial veto, and this is difficult to do.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

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