For Immediate Release

Contact: Don Adams, 215.620.3055

Tea Party Group Urges PA House to Reject Republican Congressional Redistricting Plan; Says Map Takes Gerrymandering to New Heights

Philadelphia, PA (December 19, 2011) -- The Independence Hall Tea Party Association, the largest Tea Party Group in the tri-state region, is announcing, today, its opposition to the Republican drawn PA Congressional redistricting map based on the very "imaginative"

gerrymandering employed to devise new districts.  (The Association does not support the Democratic plan, either).

The Senate passed the Republican redistricting plan in a very close vote last week. 

"While we understand that elections have consequences and that the Republicans, based on the 2010 elections, have the upper hand in redistricting, we never expected them to go such lengths to protect their incumbents--many of whom our own PAC endorsed in the last mid-term election and will more than likely support in 2012," said Association President Teri Adams.

"As a matter of fact, when we testified before a joint legislative committee hearing on redistricting held in Philadelphia several months ago, the only request we made was that the new Congressional map not contain absurd districts like the current 16th Congressional District represented

by Congressman Critz," said Ms. Adams.  "Apparently, none of the legislators were listening.  

"After carefully reviewing the map, we especially question the thought process behind the creation of the newly drawn 6th, 7th, 11th, and 15th Congressional Districts.  About the only normally drawn district east of the Susquehanna River is the 8th Congressional District.

"The 7th Congressional District, is no doubt,  the most offensive of the group," said Ms. Adams.  "We cannot understand why the 7th, and so

many of the other districts, were not drawn in a more compact fashion.

"We urge the PA House to reject the plan and send it back to committee for further consideration."  

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