Opinion ID: 6321625
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Incumbents

Text: 28 While we do not view the splitting of Pittsburgh as a disqualifying feature as did the Special Master, we recognize that it is relevant to a plan’s consideration of communities of interest. Moreover, given the history of the recent congressional districting plans, we deem it preferable to retain it within a single district. [J-20-2022] - 35 A plan’s treatment of incumbents is a relevant consideration because it can reveal partisan bias where a map protects one party’s incumbents but pairs the other party’s incumbents against each other, absent other justification. In this case, the Special Master observed that the Carter Plan pairs two incumbent Republican representatives, opining that it does so “without any explicit or apparent justification.” Report at 204. Our review of the record does not support this conclusion. To the contrary, Dr. Rodden stated that he intentionally considered incumbent addresses when drawing the Plan to avoid “inadvertently double-bunking sitting congressional representatives in the same district.” Rodden Report at 23. Moreover, he explained that the two incumbents paired in District 15 of the Carter Plan resulted from the absorption of the former-District 12 into District 15 and surrounding districts, which was necessitated by the significant population loss in Central Pennsylvania since the 2010 Census. We find this pairing to be justified by the loss of population in this area and not suggestive of partisan bias, and we further conclude that the Carter Plan pays due consideration to incumbents.