The Most Important Election in 2015? State Supreme Court

In 2012, Democrats won the majority of Pennsylvania Congressional votes, by won five seats in Congress here. In 2014, I'm told they won 44% of the votes, and still have, yes, five seats in Congress. This would be fine if Pennsylvania had ten seats in Congress, but it doesn't, it has 18. In other words, Pennsylvania is badly gerrymandered, and Democratic votes count as about half a vote here.

Pennsylvania's Congressional Re-Districting Commission is made up of the Democratic and Republican leaders of both houses, and a representative of the courts. That Representative is most commonly a member of the majority party in the Supreme Court. Right now, the court is 4-3 Republican, but three of the court's members are leaving, putting three spots on the ballot in 2015. Two of them are Republican slots, one is Democratic. In other words, either party winning two of the three puts them in charge.

Democrats can go for all three though, and should. With Allegheny's County Executive race, and Philadelphia's Mayoral race on the ballot in 2015, there is reason to believe that turnout can be okay in 2015. Democrats at a statewide level need to run this as though it is a serious race, and attempt to win the majority now, so that we don't have another Congressional Map like this.