From Fair Districts PA (http://www.fairdistrictspa.com):
Last week you helped us submit over 3300 emails to Governor Wolf, asking him to call a special session. When those went unacknowledged, we invited you to gather in Mt. Wolf to make sure our concerns have been heard.
About forty Fair Districts PA supporters walked together through the streets of Mt. Wolf, then were joined by others across the street from Governor Wolf’s home, asking “Can you hear us?”
The answer was yes, we’re being heard. By the end of the day responses to our thousands of emails were arriving and FDPA legislative director Pat Beaty and I had been invited to meet with senior staff in Governor Wolf’s office. Once that meeting was scheduled we packed our shade tents and traveled home.
That promised meeting took place this morning. We were able to share our own concern about the approaching deadline and were encouraged to hear that Governor Wolf and staff are actively urging legislative leaders to return, compromise and pass a clean, strong version of SB 22.
We have been doing the same: yesterday Fair Districts PA delegations visited the offices of Representatives Turzai and Dermody and Senators Corman, Scarnati and Costa to ask for help in meeting the swiftly approaching deadline.
Progress has been made on this.
Senator Corman has made clear he was willing to call the Senate back and also willing to remove the Aument amendment if needed. This morning his office forwarded a letter from Senators Scarnati and Corman to Representatives Turzai, Reed and Dermody, asking them to meet, to negotiate a compromise and act quickly to remove any barriers to passage of Senate Bill
22.
At this point, we will be doing all we can to ask cooperation from Speaker Mike Turzai. He has so far been asked at least 75 times to meet with our supporters or leaders. Fifteen of his constituents visited his office yesterday, with four others from the region. On Monday, if they’ve not had acknowledgement and he’s made no response to the letter from Senate leadership, we’ll be launching a focused email and phone campaign asking him to move on this, and asking our Republican legislators to insist he represent them and us in moving this reform forward.
One last encouraging word: like us, Governor Wolf and staff are looking at other ways to enact this reform if we miss the mid-July deadline. They have ideas we had not considered; we have ideas that might inform and encourage theirs. I’ll be attending an invitation-only meeting at NYU next week, hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, where reform leaders from around the country will be sharing what’s been learned and ideas for forward motion. After this morning’s meeting we are quite confident there are ways to see an independent commission in place, even if we miss the July deadline.
Our best forward motion, as always, lies with you. As we’ve been told by legislators, policy staff, organizational leaders and again this morning: public attention is the fuel that has brought us this far and must be the continuing fuel to drive this reform forward.
Thank you for all you do to promote this foundational reform.
Take Action
Contact Legislative Leaders using our email template at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/make-clear-to-legislative-leaders-pa-needs-special-session-to-pass-redistricting-reform. Ask them to contact Governor Wolf and let him know they support a special session and will do all they can to put a clean, strong redistricting reform bill to a vote.
Continue doing outreach in your community. Summer is the season of outdoor festivals, fairs, and numerous other community gatherings. Despite the daily twists and turns with legislation, our objective remains unchanged: educate the public about and build support for an independent citizens redistricting commission that has strict rules for fairness and transparency.
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