Jake Corman blasts Governor Wolf’s redistricting decision, calling it a ‘constitutional crisis’

Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said Pennsylvania’s divided state government could have made history on Thursday by having a bipartisan agreement to redraw Pennsylvania’s congressional maps for the first time in 37 years, but Governor Tom Wolf denied his request.

“We could have had a bipartisan approach. The Republican leaders of both the House and Senate and the governor standing here with you to layout this process, which I think would have given confidence to the people of Pennsylvania that this was being done in a fair way,” Corman said.

Corman said Wolf’s decision put the government into a “constitutional crisis.” He added that he couldn’t fathom former governor Ed Rendell or Sen. Bob Casey making a similar decision.

“I guess the governor’s loyalties to the Democratic National Committee and making Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House is more important than his loyalties to the Pennsylvania constitution,” Corman said.

Corman said Wolf did not offer a counter to his proposal. He said the issue is larger than Congressional redistricting; he said it is an issue surrounding the separation of powers.

“This is an issue of one branch of government taking over the other two branches and I think that is completely unacceptable,” Corman said.

If the decision is not reconsidered and moves forward as planned, Corman said Republican lawmakers will challenge any map the state Supreme Court produces in federal court.

“We will fight that battle wherever we can,” Corman said.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional maps must be redrawn this year.

This story was originally published February 15, 2018 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Jake Corman blasts Governor Wolf’s redistricting decision, calling it a ‘constitutional crisis’."