Redrawing Delco's map

See an interactive map of the proposed districts.

The small towns of eastern Delaware County grew rapidly in the years after World War I, when residents of old Philadelphia neighborhoods rode the trolley or the El out to a new twin house and a patch of grass in a brand-new suburbia.

Even Philadelphia was Republican in those days. When the city turned Democratic in the 1950s, Delco remained a solid GOP bastion - until recent years, that is.

Now Delaware County is a battleground, and the battle flamed again last week with the unveiling in Harrisburg of a plan to redraw boundaries of House and Senate districts to reflect population shifts cited by the 2010 census.

Democrats see a GOP-engineered move to break up the representation in several communities - Swarthmore, Haverford, Darby, and Yeadon - just to help vulnerable GOP legislators win future elections.

The remapping shifts neighborhoods around, here and there, to put more Republicans in one district and more Democrats in another.

The result could be that incumbents in both parties are strengthened. But, right now, Republicans are on the defensive. In four years, Democrats have gained 32,000 county voters, while Republicans have lost 24,000.

Andrew Reilly, the Shakespeare-quoting county GOP chairman, says the other party "doth protest too much."

The reapportionment, which occurs every 10 years, is always political on both sides, he says, and some Democrats benefited, too.

"What this is, is the Democrats trying to rally their base and trying to declare foul for political gain," he said. "The fact is, their leaders did as much fighting for the Democratic Party as the Republicans did for the Republican Party."

Rep. Greg Vitali, a Democrat based in Haverford, agreed that Democratic leaders - though not in ultimate control - played the game.

"All of this is about incumbent protection," he said. "I'm not saying both leadership teams did not think on those lines. But I think it is terrible. I think we should keep communities and municipalities intact as much as we can."

Each party has two members on the five-seat Legislation Reapportionment Commission, which issued its preliminary map Monday. A final plan will come after a 30-day public comment period.

The fifth member, Superior Court Senior Judge Stephen J. McEwen Jr., was appointed by the state Supreme Court. He voted with the Republicans.

Democrats point out that McEwen was a product of the old Delco Republican machine - a former GOP district attorney. They suggest that, while gerrymandering occurred in other places, Delaware County got particular attention.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, who spoke for Senate Republicans, is from Delaware County, as is GOP Rep. William Adolph, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

David Landau, county Democratic chairman, said the Republicans' reapportionment plan was evidence of the "shamelessness of how they operate in Delaware County."

Adolph could not be reached for comment. But Pileggi said Democrats presented no alternative House redistricting plan.

"It's hard to make their argument unless you present a plan that you can argue is better," Pileggi said. ". . . Everyone knew, because of the population changes, that House and Senate seats had to change."

Under the new plan, Upper Darby, now split between two House members, would be divided among three.

Rep. Margo Davidson, a Democrat, said the township's Drexel Hill section was moved from her district to Republican Rep. Nicholas Micozzie's - "an outrageous misuse of political power that does not serve the 62,000 people in my district," she called it. "It really serves only one person - Nick Micozzie."

Micozzie did not reply to a request for comment.

To make up for lost areas, Davidson would get part of Yeadon and Darby. Davidson, who is black, said most of her new constituents would be black.

"They divided it along racial lines," she said. "They packed my district with minorities, and racial packing is considered unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act."

Democrats say they are looking into another issue: The state constitution requires municipalities to be kept together where possible. But Republican House leaders say the new statewide map does a better job of that.

In Swarthmore, Democratic Mayor Richard Lowe says he's worried that the Democratic borough's influence will be diluted.

Swarthmore is now in one House district, GOP Rep. Joe Hackett's. He would drop two of the three precincts, which would be picked up by Democrat Thaddeus Kirkland.

Kirkland said his only concern was introducing himself to a swath of new voters.

Haverford, now represented by just Vitali, would be split between him and Micozzie.

Other changes may help Vitali politically, but he said: "This should be about the best interests of communities. Haverford is a community almost the size of a legislative district. . . . In my view, it is just appalling that it is being broken up."

He sees the hidden hand of longtime Delco GOP leader John McNichol behind the realignment.

But McNichol, who has been ill, said he could take no blame or credit. "I'm not a player in any of that stuff," he said. "I am flattered that people think I have sway, but I don't."

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