So, after the Republican monstrosity, how about a nice nonpartisan map that leaves everyone unsatisfied?
My goals here were to create a map without regard to partisan preference or deference to incumbents, to try to maintain compactness and communities of interest wherever possible, and to minimize county/city/township splits. Also, I tried to give each county with a substantial population (pretty much the suburban Philadelphia counties) a Congressional district centered there. Chester County kind of got left out in the cold, since they had to be split between Berks and Lancaster. I kept the existing numbering system in place to compare old and new districts.
(Open in a new window to make it bigger.)
PA-01 - 92.2 Obama, 7.4 McCain, 90.5 D avg, 56.8% black VAP
PA-02 - 73.1 Obama, 26.1 McCain, 74.0 D avg
Broad Street is a pretty natural divider for Philadelphia. I think both Fattah and Brady live in west Philly, so they're probably both drawn into PA-01. Brady would be the one to move east, since it's a plurality-white district.
PA-03 - 50.8 Obama, 47.8 McCain, 50.9 R avg
Cuts Butler County out and stretches east. Mike Kelly is drawn out of the district, but he'll be happy in the new PA-12. The Democratic performance is increased ever so slightly, so this remains a swing district.
PA-04 - 57.9 McCain, 41.0 Obama, 62.2 R avg (formerly PA-19)
This is one place where the map looks weird, but that's because I wanted to maintain the Harrisburg area in one district, so it has to hook around from York up to the north.
PA-05 - 57.6 McCain, 41.2 Obama, 58.5 R avg
This one drops Glenn Thompson and Bud Shuster into the same district. Whoever wins that primary would be safe here.
PA-06 - 53.9 Obama, 45.0 McCain, 50.1 R avg
Bucks and eastern Chester County. A swing district, but Jim Gerlach would likely hold this pretty easily.
PA-07 - 61.3 Obama, 37.8 McCain, 59.2 D avg
Shifts into southern Philadelphia, which would likely spell doom for Patrick Meehan.
PA-08 - 53.9 Obama, 45.1 McCain, 51.9 D avg
One of the few existing districts that aren't grotesquely gerrymandered, it drops the Philadelphia portion and adds a bit of Montgomery County, but that doesn't change the partisan balance any.
PA-09 - 56.9 McCain, 41.7 Obama, 53.0 R avg
Mark Critz is unceremoniously dumped here, and would have trouble winning this seat, now that it's centered in Westmoreland County.
PA-10 - 57.3 McCain, 41.4 Obama, 60.7 R avg
Moves out of Luzerne and (most of) Lackawanna and stretches farther west. Tom Marino would be happy with this district.
PA-11 - 57.6 Obama, 41.4 McCain, 56.6 D avg
A compact Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Monroe County district, it actually doesn't change a whole lot from the existing district. Lou Barletta would have trouble holding this seat.
PA-12 - 56.5 McCain, 42.4 Obama, 53.7 R avg
Western PA Democrats get kind of screwed by this map. PA-12, combining parts of PA-03, 04, and 12, and centered in Butler County, gives the Republicans a pretty solid district. Jason Altmire would face off against Mike Kelly here, and Kelly would likely have the upper hand.
PA-13 - 60.8 Obama, 38.4 McCain, 56.9 D avg
Montgomery County district, nothing exciting here. Allyson Schwartz gets it.
PA-14 - 64.0 Obama, 35.0 McCain, 66.1 D avg
A Pittsburgh-and-its-inner-suburbs district is safely Democratic, but not the vote sink that the Republicans draw. Mike Doyle is drawn just outside this district; he apparently lives in Forest Hills, which is on the eastern edge of the district in PA-18.
PA-15 - 55.9 Obama, 42.8 McCain, 54.4 D avg
This one remains mostly the same, just chopping off the bits that go into Berks and MontCo, and adding most of Carbon County. Of course, Charlie Dent still lives here, and would probably still hold the district.
PA-16 - 52.6 McCain, 46.5 Obama, 59.6 R avg
This one also mostly remained the same, losing the tendril into Reading and instead pulling in more of western Chester County. Joe Pitts remains safe here.
PA-17 - 51.8 McCain, 47.0 Obama, 56.6 R avg
Tim Holden's district now contains Schuylkill, Lebanon, Dauphin, and the Harrisburg suburbs in Cumberland County. Holden would be able to hold this seat, but if open, it would likely flip to the Republicans.
PA-18 - 49.8 Obama, 49.2 McCain, 54.6 D avg
According to the Clerk of the House, Tim Murphy lives in Pittsburgh, so he doesn't actually live in this district currently. Weird. Anyway, this could be a swing district, or if the Democratic slide in Greene and Fayette Counties continues, it could transform into a pretty solidly Republican district.
So, who gets screwed under this map? Altmire, Critz, Barletta, Meehan, either Shuster or Thompson... Like I said in the intro, this wouldn't make either party happy. It would be a better map for the Democrats than the Republican map, though, since it would give them five safe seats (PA-01, 02, 07, 13, and 14), one almost-safe seat (PA-11), and several seats they would have a shot at under certain circumstances (PA-06, 08, 15, and maybe 18). Plus PA-17 as long as Holden is there.