PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: …Republicans do well in districts and Democrats do well statewide – that’s the current history being written,” Nicholas said. Democrats are more densely packed in cities like Philadelphia and its suburbs, while Republican voters are spread out more, he said.
Those tendencies have been magnified by gerrymandering. “Democrats running for Congress and the state legislature are going to be in a difficult situation until 2022,” said John J. Kennedy, a political scientist at West Chester University, referring to the first election after congressional and legislative districts are redrawn to conform with results of the 2020 census…
Wolf’s bridge-building skills are about to be sorely tested. He has got an ambitious agenda that includes a dramatic increase in state spending on education and a new 5 percent tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas, but he will have to deal with a legislature that just turned more Republican and more conservative… (more)
