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Gov: election under 01 lines 'stupid'

Published by Laura Olson on .

corbettcloseupBefore the uneventful U.S. Senate forum this evening, I caught up to Gov. Tom Corbett in the Hershey Lodge hallway.

He gave a terse vote of confidence in the party backing Chester County businessman Steve Welch for U.S. Senate: "I picked. I believe that the party will follow along."

(After I returned to the ballroom for the forum, a handful of committee members could be seen being summoned to go chat with the governor.)

But on the reapportionment chaos, his face turned from tense to angry.

"We're waiting to see an opinion from the court. We got an opinion from the dissenting side, now we're waiting for an opinion from the majority, but they seem to have gone out of town somewhere."

"It's not me that's waiting, 'cause it's really the commission, but it's the voters of Pennsylvania who are waiting. They don't know who's going to represent them. If you're going to do that, fine, get an opinion. What's taking so long?"

As for the Democratic theory that this year's elections should go forward under the 2001-drafted boundaries, he said that's out of the question.

"It's stupid," he said. "It's probably unconstitutional."

"People have moved tremendously in the last 10 years. Ask [House Speaker] Sam Smith - he'll tell you the numbers that have moved in certain areas. I think that's an unconstitutional thought process."

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