Key Republican: Pa. Senate GOP Leaders "Open" To Redistricting Reform
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- With the dust not yet settled from a bitter battle over the shape of Pennsylvania's Congressional districts, a state Senate committee Tuesday heard hours of testimony about possible changes to the state's redistricting process. The panel's chairman says it's not just idle chatter.
The testimony before the Senate State Government Committee involved different proposals to create a citizens commission on redistricting.
The committee is chaired by Lebanon County Republican Mike Folmer – one of the plaintiffs in an unsuccessful federal lawsuit to block the Congressional map imposed by the state Supreme Court.
Folmer says he and Senate Republican leaders are sincere in their willingness to consider changing the redistricting process.
"I never got the feel from my two leaders that they were looking about losing power here, in my discussions with them," he told KYW Newsradio. "That never came up."
Folmer says the leaders were concerned about judicial overreach – and he believes the top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate are open to reforming the redistricting process.
Whether the same is true in the House, however, is another matter.