May 4, 2021
The Committee of Seventy and Draw the Lines PA congratulate Mark Nordenberg for his appointment by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court to chair the Legislative Reapportionment Commission. As the former chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh and current chair of the university’s Institute of Politics, we’ve had the privilege to work with Chancellor Nordenberg on various occasions, especially over the last three years as Draw the Lines has barnstormed the Commonwealth engaging people on this issue.
We’ve found him to be intensely fair, detailed, and outcomes-driven. We are confident that Mark will play this by the book — working to give Pennsylvanians state House and Senate maps that don’t repeat the gerrymanders we experienced in the last cycle. His reputation for fairness and sober-minded, fact-based leadership is exactly what the commission requires. We expect him to deliver again in this season of service.
While we had hoped that the four members of the LRC would have come to a consensus on their own in selecting the fifth member from among the record-setting pool of qualified citizen applicants who applied, we are encouraged that the court appears to have chosen someone who fits the qualifications that both Draw the Lines and leaders in the Senate State Government committee set out for this role in March.
The Committee of Seventy, the Draw the Lines Citizen Map Corps, and the thousands of Pennsylvanians who are engaged on this issue look forward to working with Chairman Nordenberg and the other members of the LRC to create legislative maps that prioritize citizen and community input through a transparent, public process.
For more information, go to drawthelinespa.org or contact Justin Villere, Draw the Lines PA Managing Director, at jvillere@drawthelinespa.org.