An open letter to Pennsylvania legislators


Fair Districts PA Chair Carol Kuniholm periodically sends emails to all Pennsylvania legislators, reminding them of the need for redistricting reform.

This is a template of an email sent this week. It’s longer than most, with background and resources related to the current mid-decade redistricting and Pennsylvania’s past and future role in efforts to gerrymander a congressional majority.

We’re sharing it here as a resource for constituents to write their own shorter emails or letters to the editor about the urgent need for action on House Bill 31/ Senate Bill 131.

Dear PA legislators:

Please, for your own sake, for your constituents, and for the common good of Pennsylvania, cosponsor and support House Bill 31 / Senate Bill 131. It’s a constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission for PA congressional and legislative districts, introduced earlier this year by Representatives Steve Samuelson and Mark Gillen and Senator Tim Kearney. No doubt you’re aware of the escalating mid-decade redistricting race. In August the Texas legislature approved a new congressional map designed to yield 5 additional GOP seats in 2026. California’s response, a map drawing five Republicans off the current map, is now awaiting a voter referendum on November 4. Multiple other states have joined the fray.

For now, PA’s divided government provides protection from this ugly drama. There’s no way either party could ram through a gerrymandered congressional map in time for the 2026 election. But we know from past experience there’s plenty of money ready to help target legislative races to grab control of future redistricting as we move toward 2031. The 2012 REDMAP Summary Report celebrated PA as the 3rd most successful effort in the country to target down-ballot races in order to capture additional congressional seats. Michigan, listed as the most surprising success in that effort, has since removed itself from the fray. A successful citizen initiative created an independent commission in time for the 2021 redistricting.

Ohio, listed as #2 in the RedMAP report, has been in constant litigation since 2021, with uncertainty in months leading up to each election and no map yet approved for 2026. The result: mounting confusion and bitterness among voters, advocates, and legislators themselves.


PA was the first chapter highlighted in David Daley’s 2016 troubling book Ratf**cked, which told the stories of individual legislators caught in the middle of the 2010 grab for control, targets of carefully researched messaging that ruined their reputations and legislative careers. What’s coming next will be far worse, as partisan division deepens. Democrats were caught off guard in 2010. Unless redistricting reform passes soon, both parties will be spending millions in PA to capture both PA House and Senate before 2031.


When districts are drawn to control outcomes before a vote is cast, voters lose confidence in the electoral process and in representative governance. Legislators find themselves in a shifting electoral landscape, possible victims of toxic messaging in the scramble for control. Leaders themselves can be thrown out of leadership if they don’t deliver the electoral outcomes colleagues demanded. We’ve seen examples of all of this here in Pennsylvania.

A recent large national survey found a surprisingly large majority of Americans (82%) would rather have lines drawn by an independent redistricting commission than by the party in power. Results of that survey suggest that more than ⅔ of respondents from every party, or no party, in red states and blue, support a nonpartisan redistricting commission. That number echoes PA survey data from several Franklin and Marshall opinion polls. The most detailed, in 2019, found that a strong majority of PA voters believe districts drawn by self-interested politicians allow party leaders to put party interests ahead of voters’ interests, and create polarization and gridlock.

House Bill 31 and Senate Bill 131 would provide a genuinely independent commission, require a transparent, public process, and clarify prioritized mapping standards in a way that would restore trust and strengthen representation.

Right now, the PA House map is the most responsive we’ve seen since the 1990s. The congressional map, once one of the most gerrymandered in the country, is now considered one of the most balanced. The PA Senate map, while better than in past decades, would be more responsive if criteria described in House Bill 31 had been required. (Check PlanScore Historic Plans for assessments by decade.)

The best way, by far, to remove PA from the national gerrymandering war would be passage of House Bill 31/ Senate Bill 131.

Here are some materials to help answer any questions.