Three Cove Representatives Will Serve Different Groups of Voters for Next 10 Years

Three of the elected representatives who represent Morrisons Cove will see changes to the district that they serve as a result of population changes.

Those with adjusted district boundaries are

• State Rep. Jim Gregory (Republican Party), 80th District

• State Sen. Judy Ward (Republican Party), 30th District

• U.S. Rep. John Joyce (Republican Party), 13th District

Every 10 years, based on the U.S. Census, the districts that elected representatives serve are reformed. This is necessary as people move within a state, or as a state gains or loses population.

According to Spotlight PA, the proposed changes for U.S. congressional districts in the state has been challenged in court by Republicans unhappy with the plan. However, in the meantime, elected officials contacted by the Herald said that they are moving ahead with plans to adjust to representing their new districts.

About Redistricting

Information presented in this section is taken from the "All About Redistricting" website (https://redistricting.lls.edu).

There are two types of voter districts drawn in redistricting:

1. Districts for the officials elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (congressional districts)

2. Legislative districts for those elected to the in-state Pennsylvania House and Senate.

U.S. senators are elected to represent the entire state and therefore do not need districts.

U.S. Congressional Districts

The "congressional" districts determine the voters for those elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Pennsylvania's congressional lines are drawn by the state legislature and then the lines are approved or vetoed by the governor.

Because of politics, the drawing of Pennsylvania's congressional districts for this cycle ended up in court.

On Feb. 23, 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted new congressional districts drawn by a special court-appointed official, called a "master."

On Feb. 28, 2022, the Pa. Republican Party filed an emergency application with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito seeking to keep Pennsylvania's new congressional districts from going into effect. However, on March 7, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the request, allowing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's maps to take effect while the case is pending court review.

This means that although there is a challenge from Republicans regarding the congressional districts, the districts described in this article and on the "All About Redistricting" website stand for now.

State Legislative Districts

The "state house" and "state senate" legislative districts determine the voters for those elected to the Pa. state House and the Pa. state Senate. Pennsylvania's state legislative lines are drawn by a five-member commission of politicians. This five-member commission is called the Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC).

Each of the four legislative leaders in Pa. choose one LRC commissioner, and those four commissioners then choose a fifth to serve as chairperson. The chairperson may not hold paid public office.

On Feb. 4, 2022, the LRC adopted new state legislative districts by a vote of 4-1.

New District Characteristics

Data from "All About Redistricting" and the New York Times

State Rep. Jim Gregory

80th District

(State legislative district)

Former district

Total Population: 61,766

Voting age pop .: 49,276

Votes for Biden (2020): 7,628

Votes for Trump (2020): 25,383

Biden vote share: 23.1%

Trump vote share: 76.9%

Final district

Total population: 62,295

Voting age pop .: 49,624

Votes for Biden (2020): 7,955

Votes for Trump (2020): 26,566

Biden vote share: 23.0%

Trump vote share: 77.0%

Rep. Gregory's comments

Rep. Gregory is up for re-election in 2022. He must first win the May primary and then win the general election in November.

Rep. Gregory noted that his district shifted because Blair County lost population since the 2010 U.S. Census.

His district is now all of Blair County except the Altoona area and includes a section of northern Huntingdon County.

"I would not expect any changes," Rep. Gregory said of the new district. "The lines for me are very reasonable. I have one of the best, if not the best, districts in the commonwealth. I can get from one end to the other in about 35 minutes."

Rep. Gregory said that for the upcoming legislative session, he is focusing on two bills.

One bill involves an amendment to the Pa. Constitution regarding the statute of limitations on cases of child sexual abuse. A statute of limitations restricts the length of time a victim has to file either a civil or criminal claim. Gregory said he would like to see the statute of limitations extended or eliminated so that victims of child sexual abuse can sue an alleged abuser even after they become adults. He would like to see the measure on the ballot for voter approval in 2023, he said.

Rep. Gregory said that he is also working on a bill that would expand veterans' pensions and benefits, further providing for blind veteran's pensions and for amputee and paralyzed veteran's pensions. The bill would increase the monthly stipend for those veterans who qualify.

State Senator Judy Ward

30th District

(State legislative district)

Former district

Total population: 241,635

Voting age pop .: 191,013

Votes for Biden (2020): 31,561

Votes for Trump (2020): 94,765

Biden vote share: 25.0%

Trump vote share: 75.0%

Final district

Total population: 249,843

Voting age pop .: 199,183

Votes for Biden (2020): 31,022

Votes for Trump (2020): 95,510

Biden vote share: 24.5%

Trump vote share: 75.5%

30th District Comments

Aaron Weltner, state Sen. Ward's legislative assistant, said that the senator's new district will involve losing Franklin County and Cumberland County and picking up all of Huntingdon County, of which she previously only represented a portion of. The new 30th District will include Mifflin and Juniata counties. Fulton and Blair counties remain in the 30th.

Weltner said that Sen. Ward expects that the concerns of her new group of constituents will be similar to the concerns of her previous group.

"Mifflin and Juniata counties are in tune with most of the rest of the district," Weltner said. "It will be a more centralized district. I would say that the concerns of people in Blair, for example, are similar to Mifflin and Juniata."

Weltner said that the new 30th District retains many of the characteristics and concerns of the former district, including agriculture and aging populations.

"There's still a strong ag base," he said. "Agriculture is a big economic driver for the region."

"[There are] still major concerns about access to [health] care," Weltner said. "People in the new district, as with the old, have rural communities that are losing hospitals. We will continue to work to get people the help that is needed. The senator has concerns about aging populations within the district. We place a large importance on caring for people. There's long-term care and assisted living and the concerns as people age."

U.S. Rep. John Joyce

13th District

(U.S. congressional district)

Former district

Total population: 693,201

Voting age pop .: 553,829

Votes for Biden (2020): 101,351

Votes for Trump (2020): 265,744

Biden vote share: 27.6%

Trump vote share: 72.4%

Final district

Total population: 764,864

Voting age pop .: 608,305

Votes for Biden (2020): 107,208

Votes for Trump (2020): 288,224

Biden vote share: 27.1%

Trump vote share: 72.9%

U.S. Rep. Joyce's comments

U.S. Rep. John Joyce's district will add three new counties: Perry, Juniata and Mifflin. The 13th District will no longer include Somerset County. Another change is that the 13th District now includes all of Cambria County. Previously it had included only Johnstown and its immediate surrounding area.

The 13th continues to include Blair, Bedford, Huntingdon, Fulton, Franklin and Adams counties and part of Cumberland County.

Rep. Joyce said that his new district is 75 percent of the old district.

Rep. Joyce noted that the 13th District has shifted east and added about 80,000 constituents.

The reasons for the change, he said, are shifts in the United States population. Pennsylvania did not lose population, according to the 2020 Census, but it did not gain as much as Florida and Texas. The redistribution of people means that U.S. congressional districts have to be adjusted, as the number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives is set at 435.

Pennsylvania is losing one U.S. representative seat, reflecting that it is not growing as fast as other states, he said. Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon and Montana all gained representatives. California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia all lost seats.

Rep. Joyce said that he expects the new 13th District to have the same priorities and concerns as the old 13th.

"We don't have big corporations in the district," he said. "Farmers and small businesses are the backbone of the district."

Rep. Joyce said that the district's priorities continue to be "the ability to worship freely, the Second Amendment, strongly pro-life. These are the important things."

He said that the most urgent issue to address at the federal level is inflation.

"We have to work to bring down the cost of gasoline and energy," Rep. Joyce said. "We should use the resources under our feet – coal and the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale."

The Marcellus Shale is sedimentary rock named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York. The rock formation extends throughout much of the Appalachian Basin, according to Wikipedia. The shale contains natural gas reserves, and "its proximity to the high-demand markets along the East Coast of the U.S. makes it an attractive target for energy development and export," according to Wikipedia.

After inflation, "securing our border" is a top priority, Rep. Joyce said.

"Allowing mass immigration to increase means bringing COVID and fentanyl into our country," Rep. Joyce said. "This creates the rising drug problem. We have to protect the sovereignty of our nation by stopping this."

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. It is a prescription drug that is also made and used illegally, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Rep. Joyce said that his seat on the U.S. House's Energy and Commerce Committee "allows me to have an impact on many different areas," including health care and telecommunications.

"With ingenuity, we will be able to put COVID into our rear-view mirror," Rep. Joyce said.

Author's Note: Information for this article came from the interviews of the persons identified, Spotlight PA and wikipedia.org. Maps and information were obtained from the "Redistricting & You" website created by The Center for Urban Research (CUR) at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) in partnership with the organizations Fair Districts PA and Draw the Lines. The "Redistricting & You" website is at https://pennsylvania.redistrictingandyou.org.

All maps courtesy of "REDISTRICTING & YOU: Pennsylvania," at https://pennsylvania.redistrictingandyou.org