Skip to content

Inquirer Editorial: Meehan gets nod in gerrymandered Seventh District

Pat Meehan is an agile Republican moderate able to work with House Democrats on several issues, including fighting the opioid crisis, joining Vice President Joe Biden's call for a "moon shot" on cancer, setting up special treatment courts for veterans, and providing in-home care for low-income Medicare recipients.

Pat Meehan is an agile Republican moderate able to work with House Democrats on several issues, including fighting the opioid crisis, joining Vice President Joe Biden's call for a "moon shot" on cancer, setting up special treatment courts for veterans, and providing in-home care for low-income Medicare recipients.

In his three terms representing the Seventh District, Meehan has taken himself to school on cyber security, fought to make college costs more transparent, and is trying to get the Internal Revenue Service to improve customer service. In 2014, he won a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Meehan has an able challenger in Mary Ellen Balchunis, a hard-driving retired LaSalle University political science professor who started her political career working for former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode. She lost to Meehan two years ago. This time the ground is tilted against her even more.

Republicans drew Meehan a House district so contorted that it is considered among the most gerrymandered in the nation. It covers Republican neighborhoods and curves around vote-rich Democratic areas, winding west from Delaware to Berks Counties, defying the good principles that congressional districts should be contiguous and compact.

In spite of the unfair district, Balchunis has worked hard for party and civic endorsements. But she doesn't have the monetary heft required to take on a competent and likeable incumbent. Perhaps Democrats should support her for a state House seat. The party's lackluster local delegation in Harrisburg could use a clear thinker like her in its ranks.

Because he is a thoughtful, constructive, and evolving representative, the Inquirer endorses PATRICK MEEHAN for a fourth term representing the Seventh District.